fiddy

 just finished the last leg of the Calderdale Way - "but you live in Kirklees", you might say... "why are you bothering with the Calderdale Way?"..... let me tell you a story.....

I have Calderdale roots.

as long back as i know, my Grandma.... go on children, get it out of the way.... my grandma, Fanny Bush, ok that's enough...... and her husband Ned Peaker.... had the post office up at Clifton (near Brighouse) in Calderdale.

We used to go and stay with Fanny.... i never really knew my grandad.

Fanny wasn't a fan of young boys, she preferred the girls of the clan, and i was regularly nipped or made to somehow squeal when out of eyesight of anyone else.

Anyhow..... i've got some Calderdale roots.....  i used to go to Grandma's for Sunday lunch or for sleepovers when mum was out galivanting or summat..... whatever single parents gotta do i guess.

Part of the walk traversed the foot of Clifton Common, so i felt connected.

So we chose Calderdale Way - it's a 50 mile circular..... we started, and we stopped, at Norland Moor, right next to what was once the excellent pub, The Moorcock..... now being partitioned off into houses.... as many fine hostelries before.

We walked up from West Vale, up past Clay House and along the edge of North Dean Woods, to Norland Moor, a mere cock-stride of three-and-a-half miles for the final leg.  Up past Clay House and along the edge of North Dean Woods,

here's a photo of my walking buddy, using the mighty staff of hill climbing..... in his 50th year on the 50 mile circular..... resolving fifty times never to do this again.

and here's another one of the infamous and ubiquitous carpet beating waymarker...... courtesy of the cliff top path through North Dean Woods: