Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2022 Day 2: Oulton

Oulton to Cudworth 31.5 km

You'll find the Tran-Pennine Trail more easygoing than you think.

- Noticeboard at Stanley Ferry Marina

Day 2 of my route from Leeds towards Canterbury coincided entirely with the Trans-Pennine Trail, a well-signposted, well-cared-for and much-frequented walking route. So I didn't have to worry about finding my way but could relax and just follow the arrows!

The trail started out through the fields, then along a cycle track, a canal towpath, and the sidewalk of a quiet country road.

Stanley Ferry Marina

I crossed the Doncaster Road, already regretting not having booked the Redbeck Motel just a kilometre farther up the street ... But it was only lunch time, so I proceeded on into the nature reserve at Walton, which claims to be the world's oldest protected natural area.

A bit of history: Walton

Walton, originally Weala-tun (c. 650 – 830), a name which means 'Welshman's Village', is recorded in the Domesday Book (c. 1086) as Waleton. This suggests a settlement of native British people was established well before the Saxons arrived during the 7th century. During the Norman dynasty, the village was recorded as Waton, but since the Middle Ages (c. 1154) to the present day, the village has held its current name of Walton.

Walton lies on the Barnsley Canal (now disused) and is home to Walton Hall, once the residence of Charles Waterton, affectionately known as 'Squire' Waterton to the locals. A pioneering naturalist and explorer who found himself living right where the world's first industrial revolution began, amidst the coal mines of northern England. He was one of the first to recognise the negative impact of this revolution on human progress, and the need to manage this progress in a way which benefits both humankind and the natural environment. Waterton transformed the grounds of his estate into the world's first nature reserve in 1820, and recorded seeing 123 species of birds in Walton Park over a 30-year period. Walton was an inspiration to Charles Darwin, who was on one occasion his guest at Walton Hall. And so the village of Walton may claim to be the site of the first attempt in history to reconcile nature with industry, an important step in the history of environmentalism and an inspiration for us today.

Charles Waterton, by Charles Wilson Peale, 1824, National Gallery, London

Walton Park is now Waterton Park Golf Course, and Walton Hall has become Waterton Park Hotel. Fortunately, there are public rights of way crossing the park: "All footpaths must be kept open and in good order, and this can only be achieved by someone constantly walking them. Rights of Way must also be preserved as should Bridleways and the condition of all footpaths, stiles and gates must be observed and maintained" (https://www.overtown.org.uk/about-walton/footpaths.html).

Walton has a long history of coal mining, with documentary evidence of estate and field names dating local mining activities back to the 17th century; in late Victorian times, mining was concentrated on a seam found on the Walton Hall Estate. Shafts were sunk for Sharlston West Colliery at Walton in 1890, and the mine developed rapidly, benefiting from the good railway and canal networks. Pit dwellings were built for the miners, called Ings Cottages or, as they were known locally, Spike Island, or simply the Spike. The name survived nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, but was later changed to Walton Colliery. By the 1930's there were about 1,200 men working there.

An explosion in the colliery killed five men on 22 April 1959. The pit was saved several times by industrial action before finally closing on 3 December 1979, leading to the loss of 550 jobs in the town. This was planned to be one of the first en-bloc transfers of miners from an exhausted colliery to the new Selby Coalfield, but only around half of the workforce (excluding those that chose redundancy) moved to the Selby Coalfield. The remaining miners transferred to similar work at Ackton Hall, Allerton Bywater and Nostell Collieries, and later to Selby when those were pits also closed.

From Walton the Pit Stack Facebook page

The site has now been transformed into Walton Colliery Nature Park. Large lakes were constructed when the reserve was landscaped in the mid-1990s and the excavated earth was then used to cover the colliery's vast spoil heaps.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton,_Wakefield

https://www.overtown.org.uk/walton-colliery-nature-park/the-pit.html

https://watertonswalton.wordpress.com/

Hard to believe there used to be a coal mine here

The disused Barnsley Canal

But Waterton Park Hotel & Spa is not only terribly expensive but fully booked for the night, so I continued along the path by what used to be the Barnsley Canal to Royston, and from there took a shortcut to Cudworth.