16th – 19th February – Weekend in Yorkshire & Nottingham

 16th – 19th February – Weekend in Yorkshire & Nottingham

The idea behind this trip was a weekend getaway to Yorkshire, staying in the shared house in Wakefield (which I used back in September) with a focus on disused railways on the Saturday and a canal walk on the Sunday.  Originally, I was going to head home on the Sunday but due to engineering works on the ECML & around Wimbledon, combined with needing to use up the last few days of annual leave before the end of March I decided to stay an extra night in Wakefield to head home on the Monday instead (at the time not noticing the ECML block included Monday as well).

16th February – Rescued by a voyager.

The trip began with the usual 17:59 from Grateley towards London Waterloo with a busy 159014.  I arrived at Grateley in good time to see a GWR IET passing on an ECS service from Eastleigh to Westbury (then onwards to Paddington) which was a bit random seeing it pass before the 159 rolled in.  This service lost time around Farnborough due to an emergency speed restriction and after Woking due to congestion caused by an earlier all line block with arrival being around 14 minutes late, annoyingly just short of the magic 15 minutes where money can come back (all the padding between Clapham Junction & Waterloo not helping things).  

As the weather was dry and I had just under an hour, I decided to walk to Kings Cross heading towards Holborn before heading towards Judd Street to reach Kings Cross.  Close to the station I looked up RTT to see what platform the 20:33 Leeds train was due to depart from, only to see the dreaded “C” word.  Cancelled due to earlier signalling issues.  The main option given was to wait until the 21:33 service to Leeds which not only called at every station to Doncaster, but it was also looking quite busy when I went to reserve a seat.

A GWR IET passing Grateley

However, there was an alternative option, which when I visited the ticket office the person behind the counter said “It wasn’t worth it” when it got suggested which was to take the 21:00 Newcastle train to Doncaster, changing to a Leeds bound XC service to get into Wakefield 45-odd minutes earlier than waiting for the 21:33 service.  The guard on the Newcastle train (formed of 801230) said it was OK for me to travel (as well as many other passengers from the cancelled 20:33 service) as it headed north along the ECML calling additionally at Grantham (where a new barrier alongside the disused edge of platform 3, the bay, had appeared, I presume for safety).  At Doncaster it was a short 15-minute wait before a very quiet 220007 rolled in from the Sheffield direction and I got a seat for the short run to Wakefield Westgate.

Good thing I did this unusual move, getting rescued by the voyager as the 21:33 service lost around 15 minutes reaching Doncaster and hence followed a stopper from Fitzwilliam getting into Wakefield 20-odd minutes late.  Anyhow at Wakefield I headed towards the shared house I used back in September near Silcoates Street (northwest from Westgate).  This place does have a couple minor flaws (mainly with the blinds) but was a good price when I booked.  Sadly, it seems the management company has since hiked their prices for this place as even looking ahead to October, they now want £55 a night which isn’t worth it in my eyes).  Anyhow I located my room on the top floor and sorted out my bag ready for the morning.

220007 at Doncaster Station

17th February – Wetherby & Ripley railway line walks

The original idea for this trip was to just do the old railway line path from Harrogate towards the village of Ripley, followed by linear hopping at some of the stations I want to revisit on the North Yorkshire section of the Harrogate loop as my photos are not the best.  However, like with most of my ideas, things change when I noticed an old railway line path in the Wetherby area allowing for ideas to start forming for another walk as both ends required buses.  The weather forecast changed from being dry to having rain in the evening but thankfully the daytime was due to be dry, so I set out for the first trip to the settlement of Boston Spa on the outskirts of Wetherby.

I had 3 options, including a direct bus from Wakefield to Boston Spa, but due to having no toilet paper in my room (located some in the shared kitchen area in the morning with a little nosey) and not being sure what options existed near the bus station for food, I decided to head to Westgate station for 331007 to Leeds, a service I nearly missed due to the gate line at Wakefield being in operation and the ticket office being closed.  As I wanted a West Yorkshire Day Trainsaver, this couldn’t be purchased from the LNER TVMs (and is quite hard to buy on the train as it’s listed as “WY Daysaver”).  Thankfully the gateline member of staff saw sense and allowed me through to buy it on the train.  What is the point with having a gateline in operation when the person in charge doesn’t do revenue?

331007 at Leeds Station

Anyhow at Leeds, having purchased my ranger from the guard I popped to the Sainsburys Local on the concourse to grab something for breakfast before returning to the trains with 195101 on the next available train to Garforth.  A station which has changed since my last visit as the old footbridge has gone as a new bridge with lifts is getting constructed with a temporary footbridge installed at the eastern end.  I left the station area to head into the town centre area, swinging via a Greggs to make use of my O2 Rewards App to grab a free sausage roll (because it was free) before waiting at the bus stop for the 2 hourly Arriva run route 174 to Wetherby (the other option available was a Harrogate Bus Company route 7 from Leeds).  The bus rolled in with the driver having a short break with an ADL Enviro200 fleet 1002 on a lightly loaded journey away from Garforth then towards Barwick in Elmet, Aberford before following a road which ran alongside the A1(M).  A bit of a farce happened with a junction of this motorway near the A64 as the road towards Bramham was closed forcing an unexpected detour along the motorway for one junction before heading direct into Wetherby bus station, skipping Boston Spa.

One passenger kicked off big style about the bus missing Boston Spa, even saying it was shown as serving a prison near Thorp Arch (yes it does on a weekday but not at weekends, not the drivers fault you can't read a timetable).  Eventually the bus set off going via the Prison to drop the lady off and the driver dropped me off in Boston Spa before going on the diverted route back towards Garforth & Wakefield.  An enjoyable route looking out of the window in an area of West Yorkshire I haven't visited before.  I was happy to get dropped off at the roundabout before the A1(M) with a short walk towards the village centre due to the issue, the driver was amazing in keeping his cool with that lady though.

Construction work at Garforth Station

My walk began with a little detour towards a path alongside the river Wharfe doing a little U-turn at the northern end (in hindsight I should have walked from the starting point even if was a bit longer as it looked like a nice woodland path).  I followed this river path towards the Thorp Arch bridge and continued as it turned a bit more rural and went underneath the disused Newton Kyme railway viaduct.  The path came to an end with a farm-track which was the worse section with mud & large puddles, but I reached the road near Toulston for a short walk along the A659 (nice pavement) to pick up the start of the Wetherby Railway Path.  A mixed used path which makes use of the former Church Fenton - Harrogate railway line closed in the 1960s by the doctor.

The first section was decent quality tarmac as it passed a modern housing estate before crossing the Wharfe on the viaduct I walked underneath earlier with a small detour towards the Thorpe Arch Estate before returning to the route of the old railway line as it headed towards a deep cutting (with a crossing of Walton Road).  This area ran close to the training ground of the Leeds kickball team (sounded like training was happening with all the noise from that direction).  Other than that noise it was very pretty with woodland, no real evidence of the former station at Thorpe Arch.  Another busy road crossing at Walton Road before heading into a quiet section with woodlands near the racecourse.  The path went underneath the A1(M) on the outskirts of Wetherby where the first section came to an end.

Wetherby Railway Path between Thorp Arch & Walton

The next section was lost to modern developments requiring some road walking before picking up the old railway route, this section now being branded as the Harland Way.  I did the triangle of old railway lines where the former Cross Gates - Wetherby line joined up with the Church Fenton - Harrogate line, the former Wetherby railway station (Linton Road) now being used as a car park.  After this little detour the path left Wetherby and turned rural, the path quality had changed from tarmac to more hard-core with some mud in places.  Quite a scenic route again being peaceful as it crossed over into North Yorkshire.  A bit of road noise from the A661 road in the distance when the path came out of a deep cutting.  Annoyingly when I got closer to the end of the walk in Spofforth I must have misread the bus timetable for the Wetherby - Harrogate bus as it was only hourly on Saturdays (half hourly during the week) with a gap around 1pm...

You can probably guess the time I reached the village of Spofforth and the end of the Wetherby railway path, with a 50-minute gap for the next bus towards Harrogate.  Instead for a little time-wasting move (and to get out of a short rain shower) I jumped on a Leeds bound route 7 bus run by the Harrogate Bus Company (bus 1856) back towards Wetherby then onto Walton (a village between Boston Spa & Wetherby).  I changed buses here for another route 7 service (bus 1838) to take me all the way into Harrogate bus station where my second walk of the day started.

Harrogate Bus Company Bus FJ58 LSU in Walton on a route 7 to Leeds

This walk was along the Nidderdale Greenway path, a path which makes use of the former Leeds – Northallerton railway then onto the Nidd Valley Railway towards the village of Ripley.  After a visit to an Asda to make use of the toilets, I joined the start of the path with the section which runs alongside the existing railway route before crossing the railway with a footbridge and heads towards the Bilton area of Harrogate.  Quite a nice path as it curved in some woodlands.  At the former junction where the line from Starbeck joined the greenway I turned to head towards Starbeck to reach the end of the Greenway, doing a U-turn to head back towards the junction and carrying on out of Harrogate and towards the Nidd Gorge Viaduct.

After the viaduct, the path turned quite rural with the former junction where the Nidd Valley line branched away from the mainline is clear as the path continued along the Greenway heading downhill via some beautiful woodland (would love to do this again in autumn time).  The path dropped down to run alongside the river Nidd as it reached the A61 to the south of Ripley.  I had good fortune as it just started to rain as I crossed the road to head towards the bus stop near the roundabout, arriving with a few minutes to spare before the next route 36 bus (Ripon - Harrogate - Leeds) rolled up with double decker 3640.  I headed upstairs and was surprised with the 2+1 seating which was quite nice as I put my phone on charge and settled down as the bus headed towards Harrogate then onwards to Leeds bus station.  The rain had finally arrived along with darkness so after Harrogate I gave up looking out of the window and relaxed.

Nidderdale Greenway in Harrogate (Starbeck Arm)

This bus took me to Leeds bus station, so after a walk via the busy city centre (all the drinkers) I arrived at the railway station.  I had a West Yorkshire Day ranger and wanted to get some more use out of it, so it was onto a busy 170476 for the short hop to Burley Park for some better photos returning to Leeds a few minutes later with 150271 & 150270 on a Harrogate starter.  Back at Leeds it was a short wait before boarding 333002 to get welcomed on to the Skipton train for my first 333 of the year and I had forgotten how fast they get on the run to Shipley.  I changed at Bingley due to the next Leeds train showing as cancelled (typical Northern) and so took 333010 to Shipley changing to 333006 from Bradford to Kirkstall Forge for a short wait before 331006 arrived from Ilkley.  Due to the line being closed via Baildon the Ilkley trains were calling additionally at Kirkstall Forge to allow passengers to change trains to head towards Shipley & beyond without the need to go via Leeds.

Back at Leeds once more, I headed towards the Wigan train formed of a busy 158795 & 158868 for the single stop to Morley, solely to revisit this station since it got relocated with new platforms being built (similar in a way to Rochester & Bromsgrove).  As of the old Morley station part of platform 1 remains with the old waiting shelter, bike rack & parcel collection point, the new station looked reasonable, even had proper seats in the waiting shelter which is a nice bonus in an era where waiting shelters tend to get those horrible (in my eyes) perch style seats.  I had a short wait before 158869 & 158901 rolled in from Wigan to take me back to Leeds where it was a short walk over to platform 16 to board the final XC service of the night for the hop to Wakefield Westgate (originally picked up as being formed of 8 coaches).  220011 rolled in with 220034 on the back, yes it was 8 coaches but 220034 was locked out of use so it was the usual XC crush in 220011 for the run to Wakefield.  To give the driver credit, they did stop at the usual 4 coach point at Wakefield to save people a long walk and to save chaos with passengers trying to board the locked-out unit.

158868 at Morley Station

Time on the trains finished for the day as I fancied a pizza, which Wakefield seemed to have a range of takeaway options which I had narrowed down to a couple of potential places based on the menu online.  I ended up buying one from a place called Freddies on the A642, walking back to the shared house on a path which ran alongside Wakefield prison.  It was quite yummy, certainly filled a hole I had in my stomach, a place I would use again if ever I was in Wakefield overnight again.  After the pizza I relaxed for the remainder of the evening listening to some rain.

18th February – Canal Walking in West Yorkshire

This area of West Yorkshire has several canals on my wish-list to explore (Leeds – Castleford, Castleford – Knottingley, Castleford – Wakefield & Shipley – Skipton) in the end I decided on finishing the Calder & Hebble Navigation from Brighouse towards Sowerby Bridge and continuing towards Hebden Bridge with the Rochdale canal, but before that I had something I wanted to investigate which I had spotted on RTT with Castleford.

Before I headed to Wakefield Westgate station, I did a loop from the shared house towards the Alverthorpe meadows along a path which did suggest an old railway route, after the meadows I headed towards the station swinging via a small Sainsburys local for breakfast and ticking off another couple of paths on my list in this general area, arriving at Wakefield Westgate to find the ticket office closed (no staff?) with 3 members of LNER staff sitting in the customer help point who just said to buy my ranger on the train (would it be too hard for one of those members of staff to relocate to the ticket office or even have a portable ticket machine to provide customer service for those whom can’t use the hopeless LNER TVMs?).  Anyhow it was onto 150203 for the short trip to Wakefield Kirkgate changing to a busy 150210 to Castleford into a large crowd waiting (I presume this would be the first train to Leeds from Castleford on a Sunday).

I hung back a few minutes before 150222 rolled in from the Knottingley direction, being happy when it rolled into platform 2, the recently rebuilt platform (which allows the TPE service from York to call).  I took this 150 to Leeds where I changed onto a reasonably busy 802209 on a TPE service to Liverpool Lime Street which was diverted via the Calder valley line so called additionally at Brighouse (for replacement buses to Huddersfield), which was quite handy.  After exiting the station and swinging via the Sainsburys for lunch items (and to visit the toilet) I started my walk.

150222 at Castleford Station

I soon joined the Calder & Hebble Navigation to walk west leaving the town centre area with the River Calder on my left hand side of this busy towpath.  There was a couple of times the towpath switched sides near a fishing lake in Cromwell Bottom.  My walk continued along the tarmac towpath heading towards Elland and underneath the railway line & busy looking A629 road.  This is an area where my walk left the side of the canal due to a long-gone footbridge near Elland wharf.

The canal was soon re-joined, and I continued my walk towards Halifax (the Salterhebble area of the town) with another detour required due to the construction of a new road bridge closing part of the towpath.  I passed a guillotine lock at Salterhebble (I presume built due to being close to the road bridge and not having space for usual lock gates) and headed up to the top lock where the Halifax branch of the canal branched off, which is where I turned to follow the branch canal.

A TPE 802 crossing the Calder and Hebble Navigation in Elland

This was a short branch as most of it has been lost under modern development, the canal coming to an end with a small basin alongside an old looking Premier Inn (Halifax South) with the path continuing as the Hebble Trial which was quite scenic with the trees, passing the remains of an old lock and an old canal bridge.  At the end of the old canal section, I did a U-turn to head back towards the canal and junction with the main Calder & Hebble Navigation.  There is another section of this path on my list to do near Halifax station but that is a job for another day.

Back on the main Calder & Hebble Navigation, I went underneath the railway bridge (carrying the Halifax – Brighouse line), heading towards Copley where on finding a nice bench seats I decided to sit down for 10 minutes to have lunch whilst listening to passing trains on the nearby railway.  After lunch I continued along this scenic canal walk, going underneath the Copley viaduct (carrying the Halifax – Sowerby Bridge line).  A couple of miles later I reached Sowerby Bridge itself where the Rochdale Canal meets the Calder & Hebble Navigation near Sowerby wharf, switching onto the Rochdale canal where the towpath wasn’t quite as nice (hard-core with some cobbles).  At the first lock I crossed over the canal to explore part of the Sowerby wharf to finish the canal before returning to the Rochdale canal.

Rochdale Canal Zero Mile Marker, Sowerby Bridge

I soon reached Tuel Lane tunnel requiring a detour onto the road network, passing a busy looking Wetherspoons, coming onto the canal near Tuel Lane lock (deepest lock in the country) as the canal continued, the river Calder not being that far away.  Some lovely views of countryside from this canal as well as some views of woodland.  I would love to do this canal in autumn time when the trees are all in various colours.

The canal continued away from Sowerby Bridge towards Luddenden Foot turning quite rural, but still quite busy with other walkers & joggers.  I continued my walk towards Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge with another little detour due to the Fallingroyd Bridge underneath the A646.  I soon reached the end point of my walk (with my legs letting me know they were suffering) and I headed to Hebden Bridge station for a 20-minute wait for the next Leeds trains (during which time a diverted pair of 185s passed as well as a GBRf 60 hauling biomess).  The canal itself was very scenic in places, an enjoyable walk and unlike some canals very peaceful in terms of road noise.

60095 passing Hebden Bridge Station

The next Leeds bound service formed of 195130 rolled in and I managed to get a decent seat to put my phone on charge and relaxed with the journey towards Leeds, where I boarded 170472 for the run to Horsforth for some better photos of this station.  The difference in acceleration between a 195 & 170 was quite notable and soon I had alighted at the border station (beyond the line goes into a place where there be dragons, also known as North Yorkshire).  After a quick visit to Tesco for a quick nosey I returned to the station to take 170475 back to Leeds and headed towards the 18:45 LNER service to Peterborough, which was formed of winner 800206, which happened to be my final 800 to ride on.  A very quiet train (3 other passengers in the middle coach) as I took it to Wakefield Westgate, returning to Leeds on a late running 331007 on the stopper from Doncaster.

I was feeling hungry after a long walk and ended up walking to “The Cuthbert Brodrick” Wetherspoons to have a mixed grill. After food, I headed back to the station for 150275 on a Knottingley train to take me to Pontefract Monkhill (via Wakefield), another station on my list I wanted to revisit for a better photo (although I might come back again for a walk).  I had 15 minutes before the sprinter returned from Knottingley to take me to Wakefield Westgate to walk back to the shared house for my final night of this current stay.  An enjoyable day with the canal walk with the bonus of my last 800 (just leaves half a dozen 9 coach 801s for the LNER fleet before the new trains arrive).

800206 at Leeds Station

19th February – A trip to Nottingham

When I originally extended this stay in Wakefield I was puzzling at how to get back to London with the ECML closed south of Peterborough, I could either head towards Crewe making use of a northern freebie single ticket for a cheap LNR ticket to London, in the end I looked at the fares from Nottingham to London using the sale, picking up a reasonably priced split advance from Nottingham on EMR as well as a cheap Northern ticket from Wakefield to Nottingham.  The idea to head to Nottingham was to hunt down some sub mile trams and see if either of my last couple of 170s I needed for ten miles were floating around.

I checked out of the shared house heading out into the light rain, passed the prison and towards Wakefield Kirkgate station going via Sainsburys for breakfast, a bit tighter than I would have liked due to wasting time waiting for traffic lights to change as 195009 was rolling in just as I arrived onto the platform, amazingly I found a seat (after asking someone to move their oversized handbag) and settled down for the run towards Barnsley, Sheffield & Nottingham, the train getting quite busy after Langley Mill.  Along the way I used RTT to form a rough plan to get both my remaining 170s as both were due to be in Nottingham around the same time.

170424 departs Bulwell Station

But first I had some time to waste so after heading to the tram stop to buy a Robin Hood day ticket, I jumped onto 170424 (one of the former Southern/Scotrail units) to Bulwell and headed across to the tram platforms getting lucky with sub mile tram 206 being the first service to roll in which I took to David Lane for sub mile 225 behind it which I took to High School (was originally going to bail at the Forest but changed my mind).  Another sub-mile tram was following with 230 which I took to Lace Market followed by a short wait before taking 209 to Nottingham station to head downstairs to return to the big trains.

It was onto 170510 on the next Lincoln train which I took to Newark Castle, forgetting just how slow this line feels.  Lots of flooding in the fields near the line but soon I had arrived at Newark with just over an hour before what should be 170423 coming back so I headed out of Newark Castle to walk towards the river Trent path, heading towards the town lock, watching the fast flow of water and flooding of the towpath in places.  After reaching the weir I did a U-turn to cross over the river and back towards the remains of the castle and carried on along the south bank towards a footbridge near the A46 Newark bypass.  Had I had more time I would have continued the path as it goes underneath both the Nottingham – Lincoln & ECML railway lines (although I wouldn’t have been surprised if those bridges were flooded).  I crossed over the river and onto a muddier path on the northern bank, dodging some flooding and going underneath an old railway bridge which looking at old maps used to carry a curve linking Newark Castle to the ECML.

Newark Castle on the banks of the Trent

More solid ground was reached near the marina for the walk back towards the station, only to be greeted with that horrible C word again.  The train back to Nottingham was cancelled ‘due to a person hit by a train’ so I was expecting the next Lincoln train to get terminated at Newark to work back to Nottingham (assuming the line was blocked between Newark & Lincoln) but that departed without issue.  So, with some time to waste I took a seat, had my lunch and waited for 170206 (still in Greater Anglia colours) to arrive from Crewe to terminate and form the next semi-fast service back to Nottingham.  3 coach trains don’t quite fit at Newark Castle, so it was SDO for the front 2 coaches before I walked to the rear coach, sadly it wasn’t the end with the former 1st class seats in but ah-well, the front looked very busy.

Sadly, that cancellation meant 170422 had buggered off to Skegness by the time it arrived in Nottingham (delayed further by an emergency stop around Burton Joyce due to an idiotic dog walker misusing a foot crossing).  Once back at Nottingham, I headed to the trams once more with 224 taken to Royal Centre & 205 to Nottingham Trent University, arriving at a time where the university had finished for the day (judging by the number of students floating around ignoring the big tram bearing down on them as they walked across the road face looking at their mobile phone).  I knew one more sub mile tram was out (as I saw it earlier at the station before my trip to Newark) with one potentially being on an afternoon peak throw-out from the depot (as I saw it on the entrance track).

Nottingham trams 205 & 223 at Lace Market

I kept my eyes peeled at the trams, but sadly that luck I had in the morning had run out before 237 arrived from Hucknall to take me back to the station (just over a mile).  I returned towards the city centre with 225 for another short section before calling it a day with 224 back to the station.  Had my legs felt a bit more alive I was toying with the idea of a walk along the canal from the station towards Beeston, but I think after the 2 days of long walks they were a bit sore.  Anyhow back to the big trains again with 170514 taken to Netherfield (for a random revisit) with a fast walk to Carlton to beat the level crossing to board a busy 170505 on the next Newark Castle terminator to take me back to Newark Castle.

Wasting some time, I popped to the Waitrose to have a look for any reduced to clear bargains, picking up a couple of items before returning to the station to find the next Nottingham train was delayed for some reason.  I noticed the next Lincoln train (a 2 coach 170) depart looking rather cosy as the previous Lincoln train had been cancelled.  Eventually 170423 rolled in and I headed to the former 1st class area at the back of the train for the nonstop run back to Nottingham.  One more 170 into my book for ten miles (previously only had this unit on a Haymarket leap before it transferred to Southern getting turned into a 171 of either 2 or 4 coaches.

170514 at Netherfield Station

Due to the delay, I was originally going to take this unit to Beeston to intercept something coming back the opposite direction, but that was ditched as I headed to grab dinner from the Tesco Express outside the station before heading to locate my seat on 222002, one of the remaining 7 coach units.  My reserved seat was in coach D (in the middle) but when the guard announced that one of the 1st class coaches was declassified, I hopped into that coach (for the extra comfort of the 1st class seats).  The coach I was originally in had refurbished seats but was quite busy (probably due to being the first standard class coach people would reach).

This service was the slower Nottingham – London train calling at Beeston, East Midlands Parkway & Loughborough towards Leicester before the usual calls at Market Harborough & Kettering before running fast to St Pancras, as I settled down watching some videos the 222 catching up with a late running service from Corby near Luton so the last few miles weren’t as fast, but it was nice to be back on a 222 again with a decent run (pretty sure the last time was September 2022 on the trip I had a 180 to Skegness).  Arrival into St Pancras was near enough on time, and I guess I could have dashed to the underground to attempt to make the 20:20 service from Waterloo (25 minutes) but decided to have a gentle walk to Waterloo, getting some fresh air.

222002 & 222014 at St Pancras Station

I arrived at Waterloo around 40 minutes later and relaxed looking at the advertising screen (mainly at the advert featuring the beautiful lady in sports clothing) before boarding the 21:20 service to Salisbury with 159004 & 159014.  A shame what would have been the 20:50 starts at Basingstoke after running ECS from Reading (had it started at Reading it would have allowed more options from Paddington), but this train was lightly loaded as I relaxed looking at the internet with my tablet (having finished the series I was watching earlier and not wanting to start a new series).  Nothing unusual happened along the way to Grateley as I had a gentle walk home, sorting out my back and going to sleep.

A later finish than usual, but that was due to the prices on EMR, an enjoyable day in Nottingham, shame I missed out on 422 but that will still be around next month when hopefully I do an East Midlands Day Ranger from Crewe.  An enjoyable few days away, getting lucky with the weather and in a decent shared house (although in my eyes not worth the £55 a night they now want for it).  Thanks for reading, more photos are on my Flickr here.  Next few weeks are day trips with no overnight stays, hopefully the weather is kind.