Meltham Town and Mills RFM Blue Line Walking with Peter
Meltham Town and Mills
RFM Blue Line
Walking with Peter
05/06/26
Another rain affected walk but again we managed to miss most of the rain. This was meant to be a step up from last week for Peter's rehab but not a difficult walk. Turned out 7 miles and 777 feet ascent, all the 7's, but just a little too big an increase however we took our time and it wasn't too difficult.
On this walk we managed to rescue a sheep and saw 2 bears.
The walk started at the top of Calmlands Road, Meltham, the same as the walk with Max last week. I tend to use the same parking spot for several walks as if it is ok once it is normally always ok.
Unusually for our walks we headed into the town centre and the very distinctive St Bartholomew Church. The Victorian buildings still soot black in places typify the area. My theory is that the sooty buildings and walls will all eventually be rain washed clean and Yorkshire will be even more beautiful than it already is. I can see this happening all over the old West Riding. Some buildings however seem to stay sooty black longer, maybe they are harder stone, I don't know.
We head down Station Street, past the Conservative Club.
We leave the town centre and head down towards the stream that runs through Meltham, Brow Grains Dyke. The factory building looks like an old Methodist Chapel and the Methodist Chapel looks like an old chapel hall. We speculated that a down-sizing excercise had taken place at some point.
The way next to the stream behind the buildings was dark and wet underfoot.
I am not sure if these falls are natural or man made but they were noisy and good to see.
It was even darker when we reached the bridge where we had to climb up the steps onto the road. It was a very interesting area of Melthams industrial past but all we could make out was the remains of an old stone bridge. The steps were dodgy and very slippy.
We followed the roads through Golcar Brow a mixture of old and new houses. We descended via the rugby pitches and park. The rugby pitches each only had 1 set of posts which was a little worrying for the teams that used them, if there were any. I couldn't remember playing here all those years ago and I am now, on reflection, pretty sure I didn't.
Then it was through a ginnel, although around here we should call it a snicket, and back into the town. The Church is St. Bartholomew's from lower down the hill.
Following the old railway line now part of the Meltham Greenway, past the supermarket we came across this odd circular feature and a bespoke bench. I am guessing the bench was installed as part of the Greenway project but I have no idea what the large circular feature is. If it is railway related I do not understand its possible use.
There were a few ramblers to say hello to and a few dogs to stroke on this flat route until we turned off to the right via an overgrown muddy track down to the road and stream in the valley bottom.
We crossed the stream which I think is called Hall Dike, and headed up past the sewage works and the derelict mill towards the woods and the hardest climb of the day. Our way is not always pretty.
The wood was muddy and steep in places. The area is called Meltham Mills for obvious reasons but this wood is called Greasy Slack Wood which I think is just hilarious.
Out of the wood we headed up over a sheep field to Knowle Top. It was strange because there were 2 fields joined by an open gate and all the sheep bar 1 were in the same field. We realised quite quickly that this sheep was trying to get through the hedge but we didn't realise until we got closer that she was stuck. She had managed to get her head through a wire square but coudn't get it out. Peter held her body as she was thrashing around a lot and I pulled her head back, with a lot of force, until it popped back out of the square. She ran around a bit and then headed towards the gate into the other field but she did turn as if to say thank you, before she ran to join the flock. This sheep rescuing is becoming a habit.
We rested on a garden wall at the farm and had a coffee where we could see the sheep fields below us across the road.
Pretty soon we were back in the woods this time, Slate Pits Woods and heading down to the reservoir called Meltham Mills Reservoir.
Walking through the woods below the res we came across 2 bears one called Teedy and the other Paddington. It was the kind of place real bears would love.
Even with the OS Map the multiple paths of the area made it hard to follow the route but together we managed to stay on track. The light in the trees on the right was very pretty.
We left Slack Pits Woods and heading onto the golf course at Thick Hollins Park. The names gave us plenty of fun.
The well defined path was over grown but easily passable. The horse on our left was really curious as to who we were.
We paused for a second coffee on a roadside bench before we headed back to our cars.
Just over 7 miles and an ascent of 777 feet is a proper walk. The sheep rescue and bear sightings were interesting but the star of the show today for me were the place names. Well done Peter for keeping up as I have many miles in my legs and yours have been less active lately.
OS Maps
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/32329024/meltham-town-and-mills-rfm-blue-line?lat=53.58474&lon=-1.84762&zoom=14.9081&overlays=os-obstacles-layer&style=TopoAuto&type=2d
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