Friday night walk on 22nd August
Kirklees Valley and Twelve Lodges
It may be worth mentioning that a ‘Lodge’ is a Lancashire name for a body of water used by the textile mills.
It was a lovely summer evening for the last of our 2025 Friday Evening Walks, which was a very easy four-mile walk without any stiles or steep hills.
Twenty-six people took part in the walk, which started from Greenmount Old School and went down Brandlesholme Road, past the Cricket Club and down the ivy-clad footpath to Shepherd Street and Tower Farm before reaching the first of the lodges, which had been unsuccessfully made into a Dipping Pond. This lodge was possibly the deepest in the valley, as it was used to extinguish any fires occurring in what was Tottington Mill.
We continued passing three other Tottington Mill lodges, ‘Cartwheel, a small one next to it, before walking along the far side of Island lodge, once the best fishing lodge in the valley, taking Pride of Place in the Kirklees Valley, but is now the worst after having years of pollution from the 1960s surface water drain.
It was good to see the mother swan and her cygnets, now almost fully grown.
The next two lodges belonged to Stormer Hill works, Field lodge and Mill Yard lodge. We then made our way onto the Kirklees Trail before turning off on the path going through Kingsbury estate and Wood to arrive at Square Lodge, the first of five lodges connected to what was Kirklees works.
Heading towards the Kirklees Animal Wildlife Rescue Centre, we diverted off to pass a beautiful lodge full of bull rushes and other plants before climbing up to see Big Carcass and Little Carcass lodges.
Passing the Wishing stone, we went round Tubb lodge, then a small, narrow lodge before heading back via St John’s Cricket Club and the Kirklees Trail.
At the end of the trail, saying goodbye to everyone was like a leaving party, and all said they hoped to be back next year.