Walk Report: A Walk of 2 Halves for a game of 2 halves: Sat Feb 16^th2018.

3 of us enjoyed a glorious bright, sunny February Saturday, taking in an excellent game of football.

Our route, from Wetherby bandstand - tucked away in the corner of the Riverside car park beneath Wetherby Bridge - took us though Wetherby up the original A1, to the old railway line- now The Harland Way - which once carried the Church Fenton to Harrogate line.  2.5 miles on old railway bed, with treeline cutting and embankment took us to Spofforth, with a glorious last mile above rolling fields, dropping gently away to the River Crimple to our right.

At Spofforth, although the railway bed continues to Harrogate, it is no longer a viable route, so we walked through Spofforth village past the Castle pub, but turned  through the east of the village before reaching the Castle itself, passing the long closed King William pub, now the residential Hanover House, to take Mill Lane down to the former Mill House, which the footpath skirts. Clear evidence of the filled in old mill race that used to being water to the mill from the beautifully named Toad Hole Beck as trough in the adjacent field, and an arched pack horse style bridge that now crosses nothing are indicators of its past.

Immediately after Spofforth Mill a footbridge crosses the River Crimple and we took the footpath upstream on the tree lined banks of this tiny river through a number of fields. A week’s mild dry weather prior to the walk had removed the mud, to make this pleasant underfoot. The flood plain in one field wide here, and to our right, in the field beyond the land rises up to York Hill, with large and strangely shaped millstone grit rock columns (in the style of Brimham rocks or the Bridestones) spaced  along the side of the bank in a line - as if stone soldiers guarding the hillside from attack:

So small is the River Crimple that it is jointly named as Crimple Beck on OS maps but in the style of ‘The Mouse that Roared’ this tiny river is more famous than many rivers hundreds of times its length, as has given its name to the manmade fibre Crimplene, invented on its banks in the ICI laboratories that once existed in Hornbeam Park Harrogate.

Reaching Follifoot lane we crossed the river once more by the road bridge, and used the road to walk up hill gently to Follifoot Church, passing the village sheepfold preserved on a wide verge. Our footpath to Rudding lane took us through the graveyard (always a more nervous occasion on the return in the dark!) and across a springy turfed field to reach and cross the Harrogate by pass, which is guarded either side by the most elaborate and tall stiles. From there we walked through Rudding Park Golf Course, busy with golfers enjoying the spring like weather, with a wall always on our left, and a route that cleverly took us through the course without ever crossing a fairway, to emerge in Rudding lane.  

Having previously climbed away from the Crimple, Rudding Lane now took us down to cross it once more, and after a quick time check, and discussion amongst us we made a short detour to the Travellers Rest for a light refreshment!   A short cut across The Yorkshire Showground from there didn’t quite go to plan, and, after following a concrete track around a field we reached a padlocked gate and fence to the road we wanted, near Sainsbury’s supermarket. Having climbed the fence, we looked back to see the route we had just used marked “Private, no right of way”. (If anyone official form the Great Yorkshire Showground is reading this I apologise, but we did not see a similar sign from the direction in which we came).

Passing Sainsburys, we reached the A661 Wetherby Road at Sainsburys Petrol Station, from where the football ground is about half a mile towards central Harrogate.

Good times at Harrogate Town see them at the highest level of football in their history, and we entered a stadium which was pleasantly crowded without being rammed (official attendance 1488).  A fast, even and entertaining game followed, in which Ebbsflleet United led at half time (deservedly), but in a much more even second half Harrogate equalised, only for Ebbsflleet to score a late winner. Harrogate Town 1 Ebbsfleet United 2.   Highlights can be viewed here:

https://www.harrogatetownafc.com/news-media/httv-town-1-ebbsfleet-2-highlights/

Our route home avoided our accidental trespass of the showground, and the banks of the Crimple, taking an alternative Road Route in each case, to arrive back in Wetherby at about 7.15pm.