‘Looking down the valley I can see Langfield Common. The common is an area where certain local farmers were allowed to raise their sheep flocks. The sheep wandered wherever they liked – the farmers that were allowed to run their sheep on the common were called ‘gaitholders.’ I am not sure where the term came from but only certain folk were gaitholders’
It would seem that the weather gods have decided that we have had enough rain. The rivers are dropping back to something like normal but now, instead of rain and wind, we have sub-zero temperatures and dire threats of snow. Not a good scenario for fishing really.
Looking at the weather forecast; it seems that we are in a shorter steadier phase of bright sunshine and cold breezes, with frosty mornings and paths graced with icy patterns, making it slippery underfoot for the unwary. These conditions may not last, so best take advantage whilst we can.
So, ideal conditions for a moor-top walk, with any muddy tracks iced over, so no problems with sinking up to our ankles in sludge (we have been there and done it before). Ruth and I have many walks in the area, choosing them to suit the weather. Today we have decided to take in the views from a local landmark called Stoodley Pike.
Stoodley Pike is a 1,300 ft hill in the southern Pennines. On its peak stands a 121 ft high monument which is visible for miles around. The monument has a chequered history; the building of the tower was started in 1814, being built originally to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon and the surrender of Paris, and completed in 1815 after Waterloo.
The tower stood tall, bracing itself against all-comers until lightening strikes took their toll along with years of rain, hail, sleet and snow. It ceremoniously collapsed in 1854 after a spectacular storm. The tower was much loved by local people and straight away a replacement was designed and built but this time further from the edge of the escarpment where the first tower had been placed. The tower is right on the Pennine Way, a 268 miles long distance footpath. The tower is a well known landmark for the intrepid ramblers who walk ‘The Way’. Luckily for us it is no more than a good stone’s throw from our front door.
After preparing a flask of hot chocolate, donning our walking boots and warm weather clothing, we shoulder our bags and camera and set off. Our plan is to start at Rudd Lane in Cragg Vale. Rudd Lane is a single track road leading to a couple of isolated farmhouses and to Withens Clough Reservoir, where we then turn right up Withens Lane.
The lane tracks on steadily uphill, we pass the junction with Heseltine Lane off to the right. Our destination today is Stoodley Pike. Here, however, I will digress as there is a tale to be told, not of this walk though, more of a historical event.
Heseltine Lane leads eventually to a place called Bell House Farm (pictured below).
It is an isolated place indeed. The name may not mean anything to you but it has an interesting history. The farm was owned by a man known as ‘King’ David Hartley; he was the ringleader of a band of about thirty men known as the ‘Cragg Vale Coiners’ back in 1769. These men were responsible for clipping the edges from gold sovereigns and melting the gold down. The original sovereigns were then somewhat smaller and were managed back into circulation. The clippings were then turned themselves into counterfeit coins and returned to public circulation as well.
Bell house farm was an ideal place for such an enterprise, being in a very remote moorland location. All went well until information was leaked out regarding the enterprise and a government agent named William Deighton was sent north to apprehend the counterfeiters. Hartley, his brother and others were then involved in the brutal murder of William Deighton in order to stop the investigation. It had the reverse effect and soldiers were despatched to capture the gang, followed by imprisonment. David Hartley was hanged at York for his part in the affair and others were also executed. The story has been retold many times both in book form and as a TV programme. ‘King’ David was buried above Hebden Bridge at Heptonstall Church which we may get a glimpse of later.
Back to our walk…following Withens Lane we then walk along Stony Royd Lane and the road deteriorates into little more than a rutted track called Cragg Road, a noble name for something no more than an axle-breaking access to walled fields. To our right we have expansive views across the green fields of the Calder Valley toward the moor tops.
The track starts a gentle descent but it is by now very rutted and the freezing conditions have left ice in the quagmire that would have been mud not too long ago. Between the shadows of the stone walls the rays of the weak winter sun have no warming effect, winter will stay here for many a day yet.
We come to a junction with another rutted track called ‘Dick Lane.’ To our right it heads downhill, and eventually meanders to the right past Bell House Farm. We turn left though and start walking the track. Soon enough we see our destination ahead – Stoodley Pike. We first glimpse the monument through a gap in the stone wall. The Pike is bathed in the winter sunshine and sits atop the moor with nothing to cast a shadow upon it.
We tramp onward, the track passes through a stile and across a boggy depression that luckily has had footboards laid, keeping us out of the icy ooze. We make our way now across stout gritstone slabs laid to protect the path to the bottom of the moor that the monument sits upon.
Now we are glad to be in the rays of the sun but there is a bitingly cold wind in our face so we only pause to take a couple of snaps.
Looking around across the valley we can see Heptonstall, a hill-top village mentioned in the Domesday Book. The village can be seen just to the left of the ruined wall below.
The village has the remains of the Church of St Thomas à Beckett which was completed in 1260. Much like Stoodley Pike, it was a victim of a great storm in 1847 which partially destroyed it. A running repair was made but in 1854 it was left to its own devices and a new church was built nearby, leaving the original church to the wiles of nature. It has since been stabilised and is now quite a tourist attraction.
The Pennines are not a place to be if you do not like bad weather it seems. If you remember earlier I related that the church has the grave of ‘King’ David Hartley. Hartley has some notable neighbours resting nearby; the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes’s wife, the American poet Sylvia Plath, being interred there.
Resuming our walk, the monument looks small from a distance but as we approach it suddenly reveals its heavy masonry and brooding face. Who would make such an effort to build this structure carrying huge stone blocks across the moors?
We hurriedly step inside the tower, pleased to be out of the wind. We ascend the winding stone stairs to the viewing balcony. Up here it really is cold so we walk around the balcony until we find a spot that affords some shelter from the icy wind and take the opportunity to have a hot chocolate drink. Looking at the stonework, it is obvious that it has been a place that attracted many visitors over the years despite it being a good hike from anywhere to get here. Many visitors have left their mark upon the Monument; graffiti are not a new thing. There are many similar carvings in the hard gritstone of the tower. I always wonder what it is that causes somebody to take a hammer and chisel on a walk…
Looking down the valley I can see Langfield Common. The common is an area where certain local farmers were allowed to raise their sheep flocks. The sheep wandered wherever they liked – the farmers that were allowed to run their sheep on the common were called ‘gaitholders.’ I am not sure where the term came from but only certain folk were gaitholders; if you were caught with sheep on the common and were not a gaitholder, boy were you in trouble. Gaitholder rights were passed down the generations from father to son and to this day a couple of local families still jealously guard their rights although they don’t actually farm the area at all anymore.
Further along the common and looking down toward a hamlet called Mankinholes, I spy a dam which a local angling club has recently taken under its wing. I doubt you will make it out, I have no interest in broadcasting its exact location so you will just have to trust me on this.
It is an unusual place, being at such an elevation. Its inhabitants include a goodly head of tench and the surprise is that nobody, including the owner of the dam, knows how they got there. They have been left over many years to quietly live and breed with no interference from anglers or the public. The angling club have taken the view that the dam should not be stocked with carp, and that the tench and silver fish should be allowed to live there with no competition from stocked fish. I shall myself be sampling the delights of this water soon. It has very little in common with the placid estate lakes one thinks of when tench fishing comes to mind.
Having refreshed ourselves with hot chocolate, we descend the dark tower steps and walk on. Our next stop is an abandoned farm called ‘Red Dyke’. We bid farewell to Stoodley Pike and stride off across the escarpment with Langfield Common below us and to our right. The moor top is studded with exposed blocks of gritstone, many with ‘cups’ caused by weathering and some also have more graffiti carved into their surfaces.
We make our way down through an overgrown quarry, following the path to the left and spy a gateway; this is Withens Gate. The gate is on what was a packhorse trail and a route from the hamlets of Mankinholes (where I mentioned the dam earlier) and Lumbutts to Cragg Vale where our journey started We go through the gate and suddenly to the left there is a short upright stone embedded upright in the earth at the side of the track.
This is the Te Deum Stone. Te Deum Laudamus is carved upon the stone and translates from Latin as ‘We Praise thee, O Lord.’ According to historians, this ancient stone dates from about the fifteenth century. The story behind it is that the residents of Lumbutts and Mankinholes, which is another small hamlet nearby, did not have a holy place to bury their dead. Therefore the coffins had to be transported across the moor-top, along the packhorse route to Cragg Vale where there was a church. Withens Gate was a resting place where the coffin was laid upon the Te Deum Stone and prayers offered up for the deceased.
Pausing for breath we soon continue on our way. The track now descends toward a moor-top reservoir named Withens Clough but our next stop is a ruined farm away to our right named Red Dyke – so called because the stream which runs nearby is stained red from the iron hydroxide in the soil hereabouts. The access road to Red Dyke Farm has long ago succumbed to neglect and the area has now been slowly reclaimed by nature. The farm building itself, which once must have been very imposing, is now very dilapidated; the roof has collapsed and the walls are showing their age.
A few years ago some ramblers were walking a similar route to ours and paused to take in Red Dyke Farm (it is somewhat away from the footpath and not visited much at all). They were exploring the abandoned building when they came across the body of an unknown male who had passed away inside the shell of the building. He was never identified.
Retracing our footsteps, we get back to the track and head downward toward Withens Clough reservoir. Walking along the reservoir footpath, we reflect upon the size of the water and its history. An Ordnance Survey map dating from 1853 shows that there were fifteen farms in a mile-wide area on the moors at Withens Clough, which is a valley looking down on Cragg Vale and a tributary of the larger Calder valley. The farms were named Red Dikes, Rough, Water Gate, Causey Side, Clough Side, New Bridge Gate, Great House, Long Biggin, Fir Laithe, Trap, Lower Farm, Lane Bottom, Lane Top, Pasture Top and Pasture.
By the time the next O.S. map was published in 1894, Withens Clough Reservoir had been constructed. This drowned out Causey Side, Clough Side and New Bridge Gate. The farms high above the reservoir also vanished; these were Pasture Top, Rough and Trap.
On the O.S. map from the year 1908 only Pasture and Red Dikes farms remained. It is thought those farms not drowned by the reservoir became unusable because cattle were not allowed to remain on the catchment. Red Dikes (now called Red Dykes) stands at around 1000 feet above sea level and is, as you can see, a ruin. Pasture still stands and is occupied with a position near to the reservoir wall.
Once we pass the reservoir we arrive back at Rudd Lane and make our way home. The walk is about five miles long and on a day like today was very exhilarating. Walking it in the height of summer is an altogether more arduous task.
Writing & Images – David Craine, January 2024
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