Calverley Wood RFM Blue Line Walking with Nev

 

Calverley Wood 
RFM Blue Line 
Walking with Nev
09/07/26
This is a little walk through the woods to see if it would be suitable for Venka to do on her own or with the boys. 





It's basically from the top of Apperley to Calverley and back. 


This isn't a planned walk rather a recorded one. We set off without a definite way to go, down the hill to the canal and then towards Leeds until we reached the A658 when we left the canal to head towards the river to then pick up the road that goes over the canal. A complicated kind of detour but its the only way.


The canal looks very pretty in today's bright sunshine. Its hot, very hot early 30's in the shade much hotter in the sun. That is why we are heading into the woods. I love the dappled shade. 



We contemplated a map on a board of the area and after working out what was where I decided my OS app map was better. So we set off up what can only be described as a killer hill, just look at the graph. It was very steep and several 'catch our breath stops' were required. At the top of the hill this wonderful cutting was slashed into the hillside. This really got my imagination going so I googled it when I got home. 
In the woods you will find the Calverley Cutting, a dramatic cleared area that was intended to be transformed into a new road as part of a major redevelopment to replace the old pack horse route and create houses for the rich in the 1850’s. Due to disapproval about the steep road up to the cutting cutting, the redevelopment project was abandoned. If you look closely in the sandstone you can see the marks from where explosives used to create the cutting were drilled into the rock.
Definitely not what I thought it was. I had a funicular railway as my best guess. I also found this:

Calverley Woods are home to the remains of buildings from World War Two, which were used to train troops for the D-day landings and to briefly house prisoners of war. After the war they were used to house soldiers and civilians who were unable to return home. In 1947 the building was repurposed and turned into a fireworks factory, which abruptly closed following an explosion in 1957 which killed 3 people.
Who would have thought this quiet peaceful wood had such a turbulent past and so recently.
The railway bridge crossed the dead straight lane to Calverley.


We had a quick walk around the park and the surrounding streets just because we wanted to.


Calverley church St Winifreds dates back to the C11th. The Church House next door is a really fine example of a large pair of Georgian semi-detached houses. Another myth busted, I had thought it was an old school building, but it turned out to be just a pair of semi detached houses… albeit a rather grand pair.



We went back into the wood via Thornhill Drive past this interesting small house in the woods.




We met a lady who kindly chatted to us for a while whilst her dog Herb insisted on being fussed. She was very knowledgable about the area and totally confident the woods were safe which was very reassuring.

The occasional views across the Aire Valley were welcome and very pleasant. Then we were back to the start of this short loop around the woods and took the canal towpath back to the start.


It’s not a long walk, but the killer hill makes it a great training route for Venka to see how fit she is.
I really liked the walk and exploring these woods looks like an interesting thing to do. We will be back.

OS Map
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/32828341/calverly-wood-rfm-blue-line?lat=53.8359&lon=-1.69778&zoom=15.0171&style=TopoAuto&type=2d

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