Bronte Waterfall, Bridge and the Ruins at Top Withens

I have been sorting through some of my old pictures recently and came upon a set I took in March 2014 whilst walking the moors to the south of Haworth in Search of the Bronte Waterfall and the farmhouse ruins at Top Withens. I have added a number of them together to create a short video of images which can now be viewed here and on YouTube.

The Bronte Waterfall Is a small waterfall located to the south of Haworth. The falls are part of Bronte Country and area of outstanding natural Beauty with links to the famous Bronte family. The bridge that crossers South Dean Beck was washed away by flash flooding in 1989 and rebuilt the following year. There is a plaque there to commemorate this. Following the Bronte Trail in a westerly direction from the falls will lead you to the ruins of Top Withens Farmhouse.

Top Withens is the remains of a moorland farmhouse. Once you arrive you find it hard to imagine that how people made a living in what is a lonely area of moor with only a couple of nearby farms for company, these were abandoned in the 1870's and demolished during the years afterwards. Top Withens farm was also abandoned in the 1870's but a Mr Ernest Roddie brought the farm back into use in 1920 before it was finally abandoned and left to become a ruin in 1926. The house is said to have been the inspiration for the Earnshaw house in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights 

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The pictures below are of the ruins at Top Withens. The full set can be seen in my earlier post on Top Withens.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green. The full set of 12 pictures at Top Withens can be seen on Clickasnap or my earlier post.

Exploring the Rishworth Branch Line.

The Rishworth Branch Line was a double track railway that ran from Sowerby Bridge through the villages of Triangle and Ripponden before terminating at Rishworth near Slitheroe Bridge. The plan had been to continue on to the main line at Smithy Bridge, Greater Manchester by tunnelling under the moor but sadly despite the surveys being done this plan was abandoned due to cost overruns and land slip issues with the line already built. 

The line opened in 2 stages with the first section from Sowerby Bridge to Ripponden completed in 1878, and then the final stretch to Rishworth opening in 1881. Stations were added at Triangle in 1885 and Watson Crossing Halt in 1907. The line was already in decline by the end of the first world war and in 1929 was closed to passengers, with goods services continuing to Rishworth until 1953 and Triangle and Ripponden until the 1st September 1958. The track was removed between then and 1961 and the line was left to abandonment and nature. Despite this many of the bridges remain as well as Scar Head Tunnel (inaccessible), and even the station platform at Rishworth although overgrown still remain. It must have been a great regret to the railway company that the lines completion to Lancashire near happened, had it done so I have wonder if it would still be open with 1 station serving the villages of Triangle, Ripponden and Rishworth.

The video is taken from my YouTube channel and features images from when the line was in operation as well as pictures taken in 2013 and 2017 along the disused trackbed.

The images from 2013 and 2017 are my own personal pictures, the pictures taken from the days of the lines operation I searched for as public domain and believe them to be so, if I am incorrect I will be happy to add a credit to the video for the pictures owner.

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Sowerby Bridge, Nearly Flooded Again.

On March 16th 2019 after many days of constant rain, the water levels of the Rochdale Canal and the Rivers Calder & Ryburn began to rise causing great concern amongst the residents of the town of Sowerby Bridge. The town was badly hit by flooding on Boxing Day 2015 and it still lingers in the memory of many people who were affected by this. These are video clips I took and have uploaded to YouTube of the night of the high water and the morning after when the town breathed a great sigh of relief.

The first video shows the town as the levels were rising.

And the next 2 show Mearclough Bridge and Sowerby Bridge Cricket Ground on the nights when the levels were rising and the morning after when the rivers were much lower.

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Winter at Willow Hall Dam, Sowerby Bridge

I haven't posted for a while despite having loads of pictures and videos available, just been busy job hunting. I think that that problem is now addressed so I thought I would post today about a set of pictures I took a year ago at Willow Hall Dam, Sowerby Bridge. Last years winter seemed to be the  winter that kept on giving and looking back now after a normal UK mild winter I have no nostalgia for how bad the weather was. I know it was only a few inches at worst but in the UK any weather that is deemed out of the ordinary seems to bring the country to a standstill, we as a nation are just obsessed by it.

Willow Hall Dam is actually 2 dams, with the lower used as a fishing lake and the upper mainly feeding it and looking overgrown. I'm not sure what the dam's original purpose was, there were a number of mills nearby which have long since disappeared so I assume it was to help drive power to one of those. The dam is surrounded by woodland on 3 sides and is popular with locals walking there dogs. Dam Head Road runs across the head of the dam and there is terraced housing either side of the dam head. These pictures were taken using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera on the 18th March 2018, they can be seen below or on Clickasnap un-watermarked.

Clicking any image should open a link in another window to the Clickasnap version.

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Railway Stations of Calderdale Past and Present.

Railway stations of Calderdale is a short YouTube video - slideshow I put together featuring pictures from the public domain of nearly every railway station that has ever served an area of Calderdale. Of all the stations there were only 4 I was unable to find pictures of which were Brighouse Clifton Road, Halifax Shaw Syke, Rochdale Road Halt (Stainland Branch) and West Vale Station. I managed to get 1 picture of every other station and there is also a picture of every station open today. The opening and closing dates are included with each picture as well as the estimated re-opening date for Elland which is currently 2022.

It sadly shows what a magnificent railway heritage we chucked away in this area, as of the closed stations only Elland and potentially Hipperholme are ever likely to reopen. Had we land banked the closed lines and stations we could have potentially been looking at re-opening the Queensbury Lines with Holmfield or Ovenden Stations giving an extra route to the north via Keighley, The Pickle Bridge line with Baliff Bridge or Clifton Road Stations giving extra capacity on the line between Huddersfield and Bradford. We could also be looking at adding extra stations at Luddendenfoot, Cornholme or Portsmouth (Lancs) and Norwood Green or Lightcliffe to reduce congestion on the roads.

Anyhow here is the video of our railway station heritage in Calderdale.

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Baitings and Ryburn Reservoirs

Baitings and Ryburn Reservoir is a set of pictures taken around the 2 dams in July 2018 with a Nikon d3300 camera.

Ryburn Reservoir

Built in 1933 and surrounded by ancient woodland and rural fields, Ryburn Reservoir was built to supply the people of Wakefield with fresh water. Found to the south of the A58 on the outskirts of the village of Ripponden there are many walks around the dam and you can climb up the valley to the higher Baitings Reservoir.

Baitings Reservoir

Built to supply Wakefield, Baitings Reservoir opened in 1956 and is further up the valley from Ryburn. Fed by a number of small streams it's main supply is the River Ryburn with the dam sitting at the head of the Ryburn Valley. During times of low water levels the original bridge crossing can be seen, and although it was covered on this visit I managed to picture it on a later visit which I will upload another day.

All the pictures can be seen below and on Clickasnap un-watermarked. Simply click any picture to see the Clickasnap version in another window.

The pictures above are Baitings Reservoir.

The previous 6 pictures were taken. at Ryburn Reservoir.

Baitings Reservoir in the distance from Ryburn Reservoir.

The previous 3 pictures are Ryburn Reservoir.

Ryburn Reservoir.

Baitings Reservoir.

Baitings Reservoir.

Baitings Reservoir.

Back o'the Heights Road Bridge.

The previous 4 pictures are taken around Baitings Reservoir.

The rest can be seen on Flickr and Clickasnap. There is a video slideshow from YouTube as well

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

A drive from Scammonden to Sowerby Bridge Pt 3, Pt 4 and Pt 5.

A drive from Scammonden to Sowerby Bridge is a film broken in to 5 parts of a car journey I took recently from Scammonden Reservoir to Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire. During the course of the journey I passed through areas of the towns and villages of Scammonden, Barkisland, Rishworth, Ripponden, Kebroyd, Triangle and Sowerby Bridge. All the clips are 4 / 5mins long and set to music.

Part 3 features 2.1 miles from the western edge of Rishworth to the centre of Ripponden, West Yorkshire and last's for 4min 27secs.

Part 4 is the 1.5 miles stretch from Ripponden to the western edge of Triangle and is 3min 2 sec long.

The final part 5 covers the 1.9 miles from Triangle to Wakefield Road, Sowerby Bridge and last for 4min 18secs taking in the centres of Triangle and Sowerby Bridge.

I have many videos like this and others that are completely different on my channel. Please take a moment to subscribe to my YouTube channel here. You can also follow me on Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr via the links in the sidebar as well as on Clickasnap, the world's biggest, free to use, paid per view, image sharing site.

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