Halbri one

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I walked from Halifax to Brighouse last week.

While there are some very pleasant sections of this route, there are other sections which are unnecessarily awkward or impassable, hence this low rating.

This route has several staircases, overgrown sections and some (very) narrow parts. I had to make three diversions on my walk. I'll be suggesting an alternative Halifax-Brighouse route shortly, but here, I'll attempt to go through the main problems with this route.

Firstly, the bridge leading from Lilly Lane leads to a long and uneven staircase ending in a narrow tunnel (complete with shards of glass on the floor) underneath the railway, This felt somewhat unsafe; I would have turned around if it hadn't been the middle of the day.

The path down from Water Lane along the Hebble Brook begins with another uneven staircase to a very overgrown and dingy path, which then leads to what seems to be a graffiti hotspot. Again, I didn't feel particularly safe here, and because the rain had made a section here impassable anyway, I turned back and walked up the Siddal Old Road to meet the path.

There appears to be a path on the route going left from Siddal Top Lane which doesn't exist (although there is actually a turning nearby that leads to a dead end and a big pile of ash). I continued on, taking the first left to meet Coalpit Lane.

From Coalpit Lane until Southowram, the 'path' was very difficult to determine, as it was basically just fields. This also was very overgrown and not especially easy to walk through. I took an early diversion onto West Lane to avoid what felt like walking straight through farmers' fields.

The path immediately east of School Lane is bizarrely narrow. It runs parallel to a private driveway; it seems as if the fence could have been erected to make this public right of way as narrow as possible. Overgrown holly bushes made this treacherous, and I struggled to squeeze through the stile!

The path at the end of Cromwell Wood leads to the bottom of the "Cat Steps," which is of course a long staircase. This seemed a little unneccessary given that there appears to be a step-free path further along.

These are the main issues. Also to note: there are a few main roads that need to be crossed without crossings: Church Street/South Parade in Halifax is perhaps the worst, Water Lane and Elland Road weren't quite as busy.

Despite all this, I don't want to be all negative. Cromwell Wood, and the section along the canal following the Calder Valley Greenway were both delightful, and there's some cracking views from the tops. But I do believe that we can do much better.

I hope this is useful, and I hope that my photos reflect the review. Please do reply if you have any questions.

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