Trans Pennine Trail and the Cuckoo Way

A few weeks back I decided to go for a walk on the Trans Pennine Trail. I’ve walked the stretch close to where I live before, reaching as far as Renishaw a few miles to the south, but I’ve never followed it any further than that.

So, on the day in question, I decided that I would see what was down there, walking the stretch between Renishaw and Staveley and then following the Cuckoo Way on the return journey.

Looking east from the Trans-Pennine Trail towards the village of Mastin Moor. The Cuckoo Way meanders its way north over near where those pylons stand.

The Trans-Pennine Trail follows the path of an old railway along this stretch of it’s route and is relatively straight as a result. It’s also flat and doesn’t tend to get muddy at all. The Cuckoo Way, on the other hand, follows the route of the Chesterfield Canal and can be hiked all the way from Chesterfield to the River Trent – about forty five miles away as the route takes you.

Looking west from the Cuckoo Way. The Trans Pennine Way is where the row of trees is on the horizon. The houses are on the outskirts of Staveley.

The Cuckoo Way is easy to walk in many places, particularly sections where the canal still exists, but this stretch just winds through fields, sometimes with little sign of where the waterway once flowed. This particular stretch was quite muddy. Not wet sloppy mud, but the thick stuff like you find on a playing field after a game of football has been played when the ground isn’t dry. It quickly clogged up the soles of my hiking boots with it’s thick clay-like weight and took quite some time to wash off when I got back home.

Heading back north and following the former route of the canal. Teh Cuckoo Way is just off-camera to the right.

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 27 January 2024

Lost toy

Perched inside a leaflet box affixed to a map and information board on the Trans Pennine Trail at Renishaw, there sat a tiny princess.

I’ll leave it to you to complete the story. 🙂

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 27 January 2024

Shelters by the sea

The weather in the UK is, being generous, changeable. A day at the seaside, no matter what the forecast might promise, always bears a risk of it raining for the full duration of your visit. So what are you meant to do in these situations? Get wet?

Well we inventive Brits have a solution to everything, and so many seaside resorts around the country have you covered with a selection of shelters in which you can attempt to avoid the elements. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes, from simple bus-shelter-style to grandiose Victorian architectural gems. And if the weather is nice, maybe you can just take the weight of your feet and enjoy your fish and chips or an ice cream or something.

I really like this couple of photos. I don’t think there are any other shelters like this in Cleethorpes, but I know there are many dotted around the country’s resorts. maybe a long-term project is a possibility?

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

Interesting house

I take a lot of pictures of buildings of all shapes and sizes, but sometimes I find one that grabs my attention because it has a particularly interesting design.

The photo in today’s post illustrates this quite nicely. I have no idea of the history of this structure, but it’s an unusual shape to be sure. The wedge-shaped roof of the far section, to the oddly narrow middle section, then dropping down to a single storey section that has, what looks like, a more recent extension. It looks like an interesting place to live (I’m not sure, but it might be made up of apartments) and, as I walked past it in late December, I could see the Christmas decorations still present within, giving it a very homely feel.

Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

Papa’s once more

It seems that every time I visit Cleethorpes, I photograph Papa’s fish and chip restaurant. Or, rather, I photograph the pier. Papa’s just happens to be the current tenant. It’s a photogenic scene though, so I’m not surprised that it draws my lens.

I think this is the third time I’ve featured the pier and chippy on the blog (here and here, although it might be in some other posts too , just not where I’ve mentioned it by name).

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

Groynes and marker posts

These groynes are both at Cleethorpes, but the ones I remember most vividly are the ones at Mablethorpe, a little further down the coast (although those didn’t have marker posts as far as I remember).

On days at the beach they would provide lots of opportunities to play at receding, or low tide. Most of the groynes would trap pools of water beside them or around their ends, and these were often good places to catch small crabs (I never saw any more than a few inches across their shells). The water in these pools could sometimes be deceptively deep (maybe three or four feet sometimes) and it was quite easy for the waterlogged sand to collapse beneath your feet and lurch you into the depths. I have memories of my sister doing this when she was a toddler – suddenly flipping headfirst into the water fully dressed before she was swiftly grabbed and rescued by my mum.

The outflowing water provided a multitude of engineering projects for my young self, usually in the form of creating dams, or sometimes intricate and meandering canal systems to take the water to holes I’d dig in the sand. Sometimes I would float small pieces of driftwood, upturned shells, or lollipop sticks and watch them make their way out to sea (or, usually, to a place where the sand could no longer hold its structure and the waterway had collapsed).

Unlike Cleethorpes, the groynes at Mablethorpe are no longer present. Or if they are, then they are buried beneath the sand. Mablethorpe undertook a project of offshore dredging to place a thicker layer of sand on the beach. This has not only removed the groynes, but also made some of the sea defences less vertiginous than I remember them being when I was little.

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

Footbridge and football ground

Just behind the Cleethorpes sea defences, not far from the section of beach where the wooden post that featured in yesterday’s post stands, the railway line to Grimsby passes by. On the other side of the tracks stand streets of houses and, a little beyond, the stadium of Grimsby Town Football Club.

The railway line can be crossed by a pedestrian footbridge, as seen in the first photo of today’s blog post.

Climbing the steps to the top of the bridge presents a much better view of the football ground, with the terraces of houses in the foreground. The winter sunshine was playing ball too on this day, so the scene is lit with nice low light which casts great, contrasty shadows over the scene.

Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

An old stick in the mud

This wooden post protrudes from the sand at the northern end of Cleethorpes beach, just beyond a stone breakwater. The water comes right up to the sea defences at this part of the beach, as evidenced by the treacherously slippery concrete I had to navigate, but at low tide a large expanse of sand is exposed. I say ‘sand’, but because Cleethorpes sits at the mouth of the Humber estuary, it’s a brown, silty, almost muddy sand, quite different to the golden grains you normally imagine a beach to be made of.

Further south towards the other end of the resort, the sand becomes “beachier” (if that’s a word), with the high tide not reaching as far, and more conducive to typical seaside beach activities. However, this wooden post doesn’t stand on that part of the beach.

After spotting it from the shore, I decided to walk across the beach to take the picture you see here. This was mostly uneventful – the sand was wet, with waterlogged ripples present, and mostly firm underfoot. However, in a couple of places, it felt somewhat less secure and I felt my foot instantly sink a few inches when I placed it in certain spots. As I’d reached the post I took the picture, but I was regretting having done so. While there were no signs in evidence indicating quicksand, that didn’t mean that there might not be treacherous sections present and, even if I wouldn’t sink completely, the thought of getting stuck in a foot or so of cold muddy sand didn’t appeal, so I quickly (and carefully – following my footsteps) retreated to the safety of the more solid sand closer to the sea defences.

I’m not sure of the purpose of the wooden post – there are no signs affixed, and it doesn’t have the marker atop it in the same way that the posts at the end of wooden groynes do. Maybe it’s to warn idiot photographers away?

Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

Water tower

This is not the first time this water tower has featured here on the blog. There’s an earlier shot from a previous visit here.

Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+ . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023

Winter beach attractions

Back at the closing days of December, just before New Year, I decided to take a trip to the seaside. Cleethorpes is the resort that’s easiest to get to as it can mostly be reached by motorway, with the journey taking about eighty / ninety minutes or so.

Attractions at British seaside resorts are largely closed at this time of the year, as can be seen from the picture of the helter-skelter and big wheel (sans seats) that stand on the beach just past the pier. Largely closed doesn’t mean totally closed though, and there were still arcades and cafes open (I even had myself an ice-cream before I left for home!).

I managed to get good weather for most of the time I was there, the cloud cover only arriving (along with rain) as I was heading back to the car at the end of my visit, and I shot four rolls of film through the GW690. Most of them have turned out well and I’ll be publishing them over the coming week, although I did make a complete noob mistake of shooting a couple of frames with the lens cap on – a painful error when you only get eight shots per roll!

Fujica GW690 & Ilford HP5+ . Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken on 28 December 2023