The Bingley Camera Club photo challenge for this month is iconic/famous #yorkshirebridges so I went out on Friday with the intention of getting a suitable photo or two. I have quite a few photos of interesting bridges but taken to record my visit rather than with a view to entering the monthly camera club challenge.
As usual tap on an image to scroll through them in their gallery carousel.
The first place to call was the small stone footbridge over Gill Beck at Tong Park. After looking through the photos I decided that another visit with wellies was needed. I still took photos of the bricks that were probably used to build parts of the cottages that were there many years ago. Part of a tiled hearth is still visible. The tree roots are quite spectacular. I guess it shows that the soil is being eroded over time.
It was quite a long walk to the next planned bridge. This walk took me over the footbridge over the river near the ruins of Buck Mill. The bridge was built in 1889 and funded by the Local Boards of Baildon and Idle. The bridge has a cast plaque at each end with some of the details. I have several photos of the bridge but I put my camera club hat on and took some more. The bridge is sometimes a good vantage point to watch for birds like this Grey Wagtail. I have watched Cormorant, Heron, Kingfisher, Dipper, Goosander, Treecreeper, Blackcap, Goldcrest and Water Rail from the bridge. On this particular visit I spotted a Blackcap, a first of the year for me.
I will be back to the bridge many times and I might try for some more with horses crossing it. This time I was more than half way across the bridge when they came onto it. I would like to get some photos with a greater length of the bridge showing. I’m not sure if they will work as a photo but if I don’t give it a try I won’t know. I quite like this one with the horse looking straight forward and the riders bent over to avoid cracking their heads on the top rails of the bridge. The website can crop the shape of the images so to see it at its best please click on it to load it in its gallery carousel.
The walk then took me along the Leeds Liverpool canal to the railway bridge near Field Locks. Along the way I heard and saw several Jays and down below the canal a couple of Roe Deer. Quite a few Celandine and Wood Anemone flowers were out in the sunshine and I was really pleased to spot a Holly Blue butterfly flitting around and land on a Celandine flower. This bridge was a contender for the camera club challenge so I clambered up onto it for some photos. I looks like a well used footbridge now. If I remember I might try to find out when it was last used as a railway bridge. A quick look at some of the oldish maps show quite a few rail tracks for the sewerage works. Older maps show the Shipley Guiseley branch of the main railway but no tracks at the sewerage works which were much smaller then anyway. It looks like, on this map of 1967, the tracks used to join up with the “main” line not so far from Dobson Locks on the canal just above Apperley Bridge.
The other candidate for the camera club challenge was the Esholt Suspension bridge. I took a slight detour off the canal towpath to get my first glimpse of the bridge through the trees. There is then a path down to it that at one time had concrete posts and rails and substantial steps leading to it. Can I suggest that you don’t go down to it in Winter wearing thick jumpers and coats. If you do then it could be a struggle to squeeze past the posts that are at each end of the bridge. I had to lift cameras and binoculars up to get just me through.
After crossing the bridge I carried on the footpath into Esholt Sewerage Works keeping an eye out for wildlife. Robins and Dunnocks were making themselves heard but the Peacock butterfly was the only thing I managed to get a photo of. I then came to the barriers at the end of High View, Esholt. The last time I was there you could easily walk around the barriers, pedestrian access was permitted. That has now changed. Pieces of fencing have been fixed between the barrier supports making it impossible to simply walk through. The pivots for the barriers have big muddy footprints on top of them so people are still going through. The lower hinged part of the barriers can also be pushed to the side for a crawl space but I was hampered with cameras and binoculars. I had just started taking things off and putting them on the other side of barrier when I heard a wagon. There are signs saying “Don’t tailgate” but the driver let me through first.
I then had the walk through Esholt and then onto the riverside path where a decent number of rabbits were eating and running about. The next field on, at Ford House Farm, had Pied Wagtails feeding amongst the horses legs.
And then finally back to my car in the lay-by on Otley Road near St James Church.
My legs were aching a bit by the time I got home but that didn’t stop me having a walk on Baildon Moor on the Saturday. One of the highlights was watching two Hare chase each other around a section of dry stone wall. They went round a couple of times until a pheasant got between them and decided to go through the gap in the wall. The second Hare waited patiently until the Pheasant was through and then set off in chase again but I didn’t see them again. The first Hare probably lost interest in the chase and settled down to eat.
I have included more photos than I normally do because it was fun to watch and I can’t decide which of the remaining ones to leave out.
One of the sights was a Rook with a very strange looking beak. I don’t know if this is a breeding season change but I have never seen anything like that before. Lapwing, Curlew, Skylark, Meadow Pipits, Pheasant and Chaffinch were showing themselves and calling. I saw and heard several Skylark in the sky but once they are on the ground I can’t tell them apart from the Meadow Pipits unless they put their crest up. Reed Buntings were also around and I also got a good sighting of my first Willow Warbler of the year looking good in-spite of its long travels from sub-Saharan Africa.
And now to the camera club challenge. These are the two I have submitted. I went back to Tong Park with wellies so that I could go paddling and get a photo of the bridge showing the right hand end of it looking as though it could drop into the water at any time. The Buck Lane Footbridge was not one I originally planned but I thought this shot was framed a bit by the tree and the walker and dog add a bit of interest.
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