Halifax Minster - The Exterior Part 1

 

The east end of Halifax Minster

Setting off from Treeton at 8:10 am on my day out to Halifax and Huddersfield, I finally arrived at Halifax bus station at 11:50 am and immediately set off to find the Grade I listed Halifax Minster, formerly known as the Church of St. John the Baptist. This was originally built in the C12 but now mainly comprises a fabric that was built in several phases during the C15 – with some C16 and C17 additions and a restoration of 1879 by Sir George Gilbert Scott and his son John Oldrid Scott. 

 

The approach to Halifax Minster from King Street

 

Approaching from King Street and passing Halifax war memorial, my first view was of the tall tower, which was was completed c.1482 and dominates the rest of the church – described by Peter Ryder in The Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire as being “without doubt the largest and most impressive church in the county”. 

 

The British Geological Survey map of the area around Halifax

 

The bedrock underlying Halifax is the Rough Rock, which in this area is a coarse and pebbly gritstone and The Building Stones of England – West and South Yorkshire mentions that building stone for Halifax and its suburbs was provided by quarries at Norland Moor, Greetland and Ovenden, among others. 

 

Quarries shown on the Building Stones of England database map explorer

To the east of Halifax, stone for walling, roofing slates and paving for the cities of Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds and Bradford was obtained from many quarries on the Elland Flags around Northowram, Southowram, Hipperholme and Brighouse. 

 

The north aisle

 

The stonework of the tower is severely blackened, a legacy of the pollution produced by the steam powered textile mills, but the block size of its ashlar masonry immediately suggested that the Rough Rock as been used in its construction and probably for the masonry for the adjoining north aisle – with the renewed Y-tracery of its windows being dated c.1290 by Pevsner. 

 

A view along the north aisle

The western end of the north aisle has been rebuilt with ashlar where the arrises are quite weathered and adjacent to this is the north porch, which is built with large gritstone ashlar blocks that still retain their sharp profiles and are therefore probably of a later date. 

 

The north porch

 

Unusually for a C15 church, the nave does not have a clerestory and the usual castellated parapet and crocketted pinnacles but the Rokeby Chapel, dated by Ryder to 1533, has a  decoration to the parapet that I had not seen before and would describe as an acanthus leaf pattern but, very surprisingly, Historic England (HE) make no mention of this. 

 

Grave slabs adjacent to the north aisle

 

Alongside the north elevation, grave slabs and riven paving are laid between the fabric and the boundary railing, which are undoubtedly made from the Elland Flags sandstone. Although I had seen a lot of yellowish massive sandstone when exploring Headingley in Leeds, I had always associated this formation with flaggy beds – as seen at Leeds Minster and the Church of St. John the Evangelist and its former graveyard, which now forms the Penny Pocket Park. 

 

The Rokeby Chapel

 

All three elevations of the Rokeby Chapel have large Perpendicular Gothic style windows, with the north elevation having a square window and a door below that were inserted at a later date. Continuing to the 3-bay chancel, which does have a clerestory, the windows and decoration to the parapet are in the same style and indicates that it is contemporary.

 

A view of the Rokeby Chapel and the chancel

 

Continuing to the east end, a tree obscures the east window of the north aisle and I only took a couple of general photographs from a distance, but the parapet details and the windows look very similar, with some of the tracery in the chancel window having been restored. 

 

The east elevation of Halifax Minster

A Day Out to Halifax and Huddersfield

 

Huddersfield railway station

Following on from the field trip to Ilkley Moor with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group (SUGG) in August 2024, a few days later I returned to West Yorkshire for a long day out to Halifax and Huddersfield. Earlier in the year, I had visited Horbury, Ossett and Morley as a continuation of my investigation of the centres of textile production that grew rapidly in West Yorkshire during the Industrial Revolution, which I had started with days out to Dewsbury and Honley. 

 

Treeton, Huddersfield and Halifax as seen on Google Map

 

I had briefly visited Huddersfield a few times before, the last being after my trip to look at the geology of Beaumont Park, and I was aware that it has many fine historic buildings in its town centre; however, when entering a postcode for a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, I discovered that the vast majority of the listed buildings in the central part of Newsome Ward had already been photographed and there wasn’t much incentive to visit the town again. 

 

Listed buildings and results of the Photo Challenge

 

One of my visits to Huddersfield was undertaken when I had a car and, after finishing a meeting to discuss my Glowing Edges Designs, I drove to Halifax to see Dean Clough and briefly walked around the magnificent Grade I listed Piece Hall. 

 

The listed buildings in the Town Ward and the People's Park

 

Although another post code search revealed that most of the listed buildings in the Town Ward of Halifax had been photographed, I decided to have a day out to mainly see Halifax Minster, which Peter Ryder describes as being “without doubt the largest and most impressive church in the county”. I would then undertake a Photo Challenge that would take me from the town centre to the People’s Park and back, via a route that would enable me to get a good appreciation of the town. 

 

An illustration from Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire by Peter Ryder

Although closer to Treeton than Leeds, at a distance of 41 km as the crow flies compared to 48 km, there is only an hourly train to Huddersfield that takes 1 hour and 16 minutes hour and Leeds is much better connected to surrounding towns by both train and bus services. 

 

The railway network in West Yorkshire

 

Except for my field trips with the SUGG, when I obtained a lift in someone else’s car, very nearly all of my travels undertaken in the past 9 years had been undertaken with a travel pass that allows me to travel directly by Northern Rail from South Yorkshire to West Yorkshire. 

 

An extract from the timetable for the No. 501 and X1 buses

I had been prepared to catch a train from Huddersfield to Halifax, but the hourly train was due to leave just before my train from Sheffield arrived. A search on the West Yorkshire Metro website showed that the No. 501 and X1 bus services run regularly and take no more than 45 minutes and, recalling that my drive to Halifax was by a hilly and scenic route, I was happy to take in the surroundings from the top deck of a bus. 

 

The topography between Huddersfield and Halifax

 

With a good book and a copy of Private Eye to pass the time on the train from Sheffield, I arrived in Huddersfield on schedule and, with a walk of less than 500 m to the bus station, I took advantage of the sunshine to take photos of the bronze statue of Harold Wilson by Ian Walters and a couple of buildings around St. George's Square. 

 

The sculpture of Harold Wilson

The Grade I listed Huddersfield railway station (1850), by the York based architect J.P. Pritchett, has one of the most impressive entrances that I have seen and on the north side of the square is the Grade II* listed George Hotel (1850) by William Walker. 

The George Hotel

I just took photos from a distance, but it is extremely likely that these are built with the medium grained Rough Rock, which was once extensively quarried at Crosland Moor and used for the vast majority of historic stone buildings in Huddersfield. 

 

Paving stones on Railway Street

At the corner with Railway Street, I stopped briefly to photograph the massive paving stones, which would have been obtained from one of the very many quarries that once worked the Elland Flags to the north of Huddersfield. 

 

Huddersfield bus station

I had never used Huddersfield bus station before and didn’t know its layout, so I quickly proceeded along Railway Street and Half Moon Street to its entrance on Upperhead Road and soon found the stand from which the X1 departs.

 

The departure board

 

A Geology Field Trip at Ilkley Moor

 

A view down Backstone Beck

When undertaking the recce of Ilkley Moor for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip in August 2024, in the company of John and Trish, we were unable to locate Lanshaw Delves and, as a consequence, we did not get to see the sites 16-21 in the Ilkley Moor - Its Geology and Heritage geological trail by Gareth Martin and David Leather. 

 

The route of the geological trail 

 

With Ilkley Moor being too far away from Sheffield to undertake another recce, I decided that our field trip should concentrate on the sites around the Cow and Calf and Hangingstone Quarries, before further exploring Backstone Beck and Rocky Valley and then returning to the Cow and Calf car park via White Wells and Cowpasture Road. 

 

The revised route

On a very unseasonably cold day in August, 11 of us turned out along with Stephanie, a resident of nearby Addingham who had seen my photos of the recce on Facebook and had expressed an interest in joining us to learn more about the local geology. Meeting at the Cow and Calf car park, we then proceeded to the first locality, where a fossil mould of Knorria - the inner pithy layer of a Lepidodendron club moss - proved to be of great interest to the group members who had attended the field trip at Otley Chevin. 

 

The Knorria fossil

 

Continuing to the Calf, legend has it that it was detached from the Cow by the giant Rombald, who clumsily broke it off while running away from his enemy, his wife, before she dropped her skirtful of stones nearby during a fight with him, but the reality is that it was detached from the Cow by the glacier that flowed along Lower Wharfedale during the Pleistocene Epoch. 

 

Approaching the Calf

We looked for graded bedding in the pebbly gritstone, to prove that the large block had rotated 140 degrees, and evidence of that it was once attached to the main outcrop - the western side has a very flat surface that matches the nearby rock face on the Cow. John, who undertook the recce with Trish and I, then explained that the lyrics to the unofficial Yorkshire Anthem On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at were composed here by a church choir on an outing to Ilkley Moor. 

 

The field trip report for Ilkley Moor

 

Moving on to the entrance of the Cow and Calf Quarry, we had a quick look at various ripple marks that show the direction of current flow and a section of supposed tidal laminites, which we had seen at Otley Chevin. When studying the massive gritstone in the quarry faces, Stephanie - a rock climber herself - thought that the elaborate graffiti marks the climbing routes. As usual, when leading field trips, I didn’t get much opportunity to take photos and have relied on those taken of these locations by group members and used in my field trip report. 

 

A view from the path to the top of the Cow and Calf Quarry

 

Briefly stopping to take in the view beyond Ilkley, we then headed to the top of Cow and Calf Quarry and were all very surprised to discover that over an altitude of only 10 m, there was a considerable change in the force of the wind that was blowing from the south - from a light to a moderate breeze, as described by the Beaufort Scale.

 

Discussing the colonising of the ice scoured gritstone by heather

 

After having a good look at the Victorian graffiti at the Cow and Calf Rocks, we discussed the glacial history of Lower Wharfedale and Paul described the colonisation of the ice scoured rock by heather, which I emphasised had been helped by the disintegration of the feldspar in the gritstone to provide nutrients in the very thin siliceous soil. 

Exploring the Cow and Calf Rocks

With the wind still blowing strongly, we found a sheltered place in the woods below the escarpment to have our lunch, before commencing our afternoon walk by investigating the cup and ring marks above Hangingstones Quarry. 

 

Investigating the cup and ring marks above Hangingstones Quarry

 

This area, particularly Rombalds Moor to the east, has hundreds of rock carvings that date from the Neolithic to the early Bronze Age (c.4000-1500 BC) and the Victorian graffiti records Ilkley’s prosperity as a spa town, but other modern graffiti such as the Celtic cross can also be seen – which unfortunately includes very crude lettering that has no aesthetic value. 

 

A modern Celtic cross

 

Moving on to the slickensides in the south-west corner of Hangingstones Quarry, where the effects of movement along faults was highlighted, we continued to the glacial striations above it and carried on our discussion about glaciation and its effects on the rocks and landscape. 

 

The location of the glacial striations above the Hangingstones Quarry

 

Following one of the paths to Backstone Beck, the views to the west provided our first encounter with the large rotational landslide that covers much of the lower slopes and is characterised by very uneven ground upon which bracken has taken hold. 

 

A general discussion of the surrounding landscape

 

Carrying on down the path and heading up to the location of the waterfall and knickpoint, we stopped to examine the glacial till that is exposed in a couple of places on the east side of the valley, where the covering of heather has been eroded away. 

 

An exposure of glacial till at Backstone Beck

 

During the recce, we had not actually stopped to look at these exposures and I had to call John, who was leading the group along the path at this point, to come back with them and have a good look. Taking care not to lose my footing on the steep ground, I wanted to try and obtain a piece of Carboniferous Limestone, which would provide evidence that the glacier had flowed down Upper Wharfedale to the north, but I could not get close enough to the exposure. 

 

A detail of the glacial till at Backstone Beck

Reaching the point where the public footpath from the Cow and Calf Rocks crosses Backstone Beck, which here flows along a small shallow channel, we continued to Rocky Valley, which is forms the top of the landslide and stopped briefly to consider the differences between rotational and translational landslides. 

 

A view west along Rocky Valley

From this point onwards, we were in unknown territory and my priority was to ensure that the remainder of our walk went as smoothly as possible. With Stephanie taking the lead, we carried on along the path in Rocky Valley and, with only loose boulders being accessible - some of which are known to contain plant fossils - the other group members were left to their own devices until we reached White Wells. 

 

A view east along Rocky Valley

I had not given any thought to this when planning this part of the walk, but there has been bathing at White Wells since 1703 and it was instrumental in establishing Ilkley as a spa town, with a number of large hydros being built in the second half of the C19. 

 

White Wells

 

The bath that was outside to the rear of the premises were replaced in 1791 by two baths, one of which is on display today and is still used, particularly to celebrate New Year’s Day. It is not classed as a mineral spa, with the coldness of the water being supposed to promote circulation, and Charles Darwin is believed to have "taken the waters” when he visited in 1859. 

 

The plunge pool at White Wells

 

Having had the opportunity to take a short break to look at the plunge pool and purchase something from the shop or use the toilets, we then headed down the path to the largely man made Ilkley Tarn, before making our way down to Cowpasture Road and up Hangingstone Road to the car park and then finishing the day at the Cow and Calf Hotel.

 

Hangingstone Road

A Recce at Ilkley Moor - Part 2

 

An information panel at the Lanshaw Lad boundary stone

After taking our lunch in Hangingstone Quarry, having discovered the location of the slickensides during our recce of Ilkley Moor for the Sheffield U3A Geology Group field trip, in August 2024, we went in search of Site 7 highlighted in Ilkley Moor - Its Geology and Heritage (IMIGH) by Gareth Martin and David Leather. 

 

A large glacial striation above Hangingstone Quarry

 

When studying A Level geography back in 1978, I was taught about glacial striations, caused by the scouring of bedrock by lumps of harder rock that were embedded in the base of the glacier that flowed over it but, to the best of my knowledge, I had never seen any of these in the Scottish Highlands or the Lake District, while studying geology at Nottingham University. 

 

Glacial striations above Hangingstone Quarry

 

Those on Ilkley Moor are described as “some of the finest examples of glacial striae” that can be seen in the UK with a west-east direction and their height of 150 m above the valley floor indicating the minimum thickness of the glacier. 

 

The Crocodile's Mouth

Finding one of the many paths that criss-cross Ilkley Moor, we stopped briefly to look at the geomorphological feature called the Crocodile’s Mouth and then carried on alongside Backstone Beck, which runs along a fault controlled valley. 

 

A view towards the waterfall on Backstone Beck

The beck flows through quite a deep valley with steep sides, which changes abruptly into a small channel upstream and is marked by a waterfall. This is interpreted as a knickpoint, which is eroding up slope and was possibly a response to the formation of a hanging valley during the glaciation of Lower Wharfedale in the Pleistocene Epoch. 

 

A view of the mass movement deposits beyond Backstone Beck

 

Looking south along Backstone Beck, the very undulating bracken covered landscape that is seen beyond the valley is due to the mass movement deposits, which are a common feature of the north facing slopes beneath the Addingham Edge Grit along Lower Wharfedale and was seen during the field trip to Otley Chevin. 

 

Mass movement deposits at Ilkley Moor

 

Continuing along the unmarked path to a viewpoint, where the very worn public footpath from the Cow and Calf Rocks fords Bakestone Beck, we briefly looked for the unusual coarse gritstone mentioned in the IMIGH geological trail; however, I didn’t see anything that stood out from the many examples of very coarse sandstone from the Millstone Grit Group, which I had seen on my travels in South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire. 

 

A view down the path from Backstone Beck to the Cow and Calf Rocks

The next location on the geological trail was Rocky Valley, which marks the top of a rotational landslide, with Ilkley Crags forming its crown and the main scarp immediately beneath it. Having located the well used public footpath, we didn’t spend any time investigating its principal features, which can be seen from a distance, and set off to find the remaining 7 locations. 

 

Ilkley Crags and Rocky Valley

It very soon became obvious that the moorland here is again criss-crossed by a network of very poorly defined paths, which are marked on the 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey (OS) map but are not classed as public rights of way and signposted. 

 

The OS map covering the southern part of the geological trail

 

There are no obvious landmarks from which to get your bearings but, once we managed to find a path that crossed over Bakestone Beck, we kept close to the beck and carried on until we found the prehistoric Bakestone Beck enclosure and huts, which archaeological excavations suggest are late Neolithic (c.3000 BC) and late Bronze Age to early Iron Age respectively (800 to 500 BC). 

 

The Bakestone Beck enclosure and huts

 

Continuing along this path, we then encountered the Poetry Seat and Poetry Postbox, which forms part of the Stanza Stones Poetry Trail from Marsden to Ilkley, with poems by Simon Armitage cut into large stones by Pip Hall – the lettercarver whose work I had also seen on the Kilkenny limestone seats on The Moor in Sheffield.

 

The Poetry Seat and Poetry Postbox

Since leaving Rocky Valley we hadn’t seen any outcrops of bedrock, but a little further along the path I was interested to see a lump of very coarse gritstone sticking out of the path, which contained a bed of finger nail size quartz pebbles. Looking at the geological map, the underlying bedrock here is the Long Ridge Sandstone in the Millstone Grit Group. 

 

A detail of the pebbly gritstone in the path

So far on our recce, we had found most of the locations on the geological guide with relative ease, although the network of paths on Ilkley Moor is quite confusing and some of these would benefit from better descriptions of the precise locality and grid references. 

 

A Google Map view with Lanshaw Delves marked in red

 

Arriving at the Dales High Way, which is laid with flagstones, next on our list of places was Lanshaw Delves, is a west-east trending lateral moraine that is described as being approximately 600 m long by 40 m wide by about 3 m high. The Google Map satellite view and the OS map show that its western end is 115 m beyond the point where another public footpath splits off from it. 

 

The beginning of Lanshaw Delves on Google Street View

 

Keeping our eyes open for the junction of the two footpaths, we didn’t see any sign of this or any feature in the landscape that suggested that we had arrived at the beginning of a moraine and continuing along the Dales High Way and reaching the Lanshaw Lad boundary stone, we realised that we had completely missed this feature. 

 

The Lanshaw Lad boundary stone

Consulting our various maps, we thought that it would be easy enough to locate the path that would take us to the east end of Lanshaw Delves and carried on along a well established path past The Twelve Apostles stone circle. 

 

The Twelve Apostles stone circle

 

Failing to locate the public footpaths marked on the OS map, we had to stop three times to ask local walkers for help in finding a path that would enable us to get back to the Cow and Calf car park by the quickest route, without having to retrace our steps. All of the people we talked to told us that the paths on Ilkley Moor are notoriously difficult to navigate and, despite trying to follow their directions to the best of our ability, John and Trish had to use their GPS apps to get us to the Dales Way/Ebor Way. 

 

The OS map showing paths on our return from The Twelve Apostles

 

When we set off from Rocky Valley, the time was 13:34 pm and the route marked on the IMIGH geological trail covered a distance of 3.25 km. We had been confident that we would be back at the Cow and Calf car park well before 15:30 pm, which is the usual finishing time for field trips; however, although we didn't get completely lost, by the time we arrived at Hangingstone Road it was 16:23 pm. 

 

A distant view of the Cow and Calf Hotel

 

Finally arriving at the car park, we then finished what had turned out to be a very long and tiring day by enjoying a drink in the late afternoon sunshine at the Cow and Calf Hotel. Having collectively decided that we would have to revise our plans for the actual field trip two weeks later, we then set off on the long drive back to Treeton.

The Cow and Calf Hotel