Newton

A Saturday excursion out to Hellifield provided an opportunity to explore some new spots, on what was the hottest day of the year so far.

My walk took me out from the station across fields toward Newton Moor, which looked more promising on the map, as a little island of access land, than it did in reality. Still, there was a trig point and views north and west into the Dales and south toward Pendle Hill (extra).  It was quiet out; other than in Hellifield itself I didn’t see a single person.

The land, as I discovered, is rough grazing, so not that ecologically interesting, but there was a steady sprinkling of Green-veined White, Orange-tip and Peacock butterflies, along with my first Small Copper of the year. And there were plenty of Skylark and Meadow Pipit, pairs of Stonechat and Buzzard, and in the still partially flooded valley bottom, a pair of Shelduck.

On a few occasions I had to negotiate fields full of cattle, including one large herd of Highland Cattle with calves (extra), with the bulls off in another field (extra).  I’m a little more nervous in these situations than I ever used to be, but managed  to negotiate my way.

I timed the end of my walk for the start of the football: Hellifield v Chatburn in a Craven League Division 1 fixture - proper village football (extra). Chatburn has only managed to raise ten men, and that imbalance showed in the end with a comfortable 5-0 win.

Back at the station, a bonus was a visit from locomotive 44871 (extra) which was stopping to take on water. And there is plenty to admire at the station with ornate canopy (extra) full of golden Midland Railway wyverns (extra), and a café full of railway arcana. 

Plenty of extras for you, some of which are more interesting images, but one of my blip selection rules is ‘image least likely to be repeated’ and while I will probably revisit Hellifield I can’t see myself bothering clambering to the top of Newton Moor again.