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FLOCKTON

Field paths and tracks in pleasant pastoral countryside. Approx 5 miles

Directions to walk: A quarter of a mile east of the Kaye Arms public house on the A842 Wakefield to Hudderafield road at Grange Moor there is a walled lane on the north side of the road and a lay-by opposite it. Park there.

1. Two footpaths leave the lay-by at stiles. Cross the righthand stile (immediately to the left of a gate) and follow the hedge on the left through two fields. At the end of the second, cross a stone step-stile, turn left along the wall and follow it round to a stile in the fence. Cross and follow the wall on the left to a gate, a ginnel and the road. Turn left along the road through Flockton Opposite the telephone kiosk turn right down Doctor Lane. At the T-junction go left, and a few yards after the surfacing ends and the lane narrows to a footpath find a ginnel on the right. In a few yards a stile leads to a field. Follow the hedge on the left over another stile and drop to cross the beck by a slab-bridge. Cross a stile and walk straight up the field to the top corner of the wood, passing round a plantation of young oaks. Cross a stile in the fence and keep the same direction over the field to a stile by a gate. Bear very slightly left across the next field to a stile in the fence opposite, and now very slightly right to a stile in the facing wall.
2. Turn right up the road. In a few yards, opposite the farm at the top of the hill, take the unsurfaced track on the left and follow it to a T-junction with a farm road. The farm is on the right, but turn left and find a stile in the hedge on the right. Walk straight across the field to another stile in the hedge opposite and continue straight on with the hedge now on your left. Look out for a stile in it. Cross this and follow a wire-fence on your left down to the beck. Turn right along the beck to a footbridge. Cross it and the fence facing you and walk straight up the middle of the field, passing just to the left of the stone barn, to a stile in the top corner. Cross this and walk straight on. Keeping to the left of a row of trees.
3. At the road cross to the rusty gate and drop diagonally left down the field to a stile in the bottom corner. Go left for a yard or two to a macadem lane, and turn right down it. Walk straight through the grounds of New Hall Detention Centre to the far side. At the end of the houses, where the road swings left. keep straight on on a narrower lane. Follow this straight through between the buildings of a large farm and keep on until you reach a T-junction. Here turn left up another lane, marked with a public footpath sign, past a trig point, to the main road. Turn right towards Overton.
4. On a right hand bend, steps between red brick walls on the left indicate your path. Walk down the field, bearing slightly right, until a stile in the fence on your right gives access to a track which you follow to the road. Cross, turn left and in 100 yards cross the stile by the Public Footpath sign. Turn left down the track, but in 100 yards where it swings right, leave it and keep straight on, dropping steeply down the field to the beck, which you cross by a footbridge beyond a stile. Walk straight on parallel to the beck, in the direction of the farm, to the next stile in the field-corner. Cross to the hedge ahead and turn left along it. Cross a farm track by stiles and continue with the hedge on the right to a stile in the corner of the field. Over it, head half-left down a track, then bear right over the beck to cross a stile by a gate.
5. Walk up the sunken track. Where it goes through a gate on the right walk straight on over a stile into the wood. The clear path follows the wall on the right before bearing left, crossing a ride and dropping to a bridge over the beck. Cross the fence ahead and bear fairly sharp right to a stile onto a track. Turn left up it and at the T-junction go left again, still climbing. Just after a group of modern houses there is a fork, the macadamed road goes right, but take the unsurfaced road on the left. Cross a stile by a gate and continue up with the wall on your left. At a modern house ahead either cross the step-stile or go through the gate on the left and follow the lane back to your car.
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