Stanza Stones Walk: Stage Three Leg Two

Stanza Stones Walk Three = 20.6mi/32.44Km

Haworth to Ilkley Leg Two
Make your way up the banking and go through the gate. Remain on the feint path which ascends the steep field with a stream on your left side until you emerge through a stone stile next to a wooden gate onto the road (Todley Hall Road). Turn left along the metalled road for approx. 100 yards to arrive at a stone wall stile into a field on your right. Once over the stile you need to cross seven more stiles and the same number of fields before arriving at Pole Road, named after the old county boundary stone Pole Stoops situated along the road in the field to the left. Walk left along the road for approx 100 yards to a lay-by on the right. At the far end of the lay-by the field wall forms a corner jutting out into the road. The Pole Stoops can be seen protruding above the wall in the corner on your right side. A better view can be had when you make the turn right 20 yards beyond the lay-by at a finger post beside an iron gate. Once past the gate turn to your right and the leaning stone can be seen in the wall at the top of the field. Straight ahead a wide gateway leads into a second field which we cross by turning north and walk diagonally across to a step stile leading into a smaller field.  Keep walking in the same direction until about half way across this field, turn half left and follow the wall in front into the corner of the field at the bottom. There is a finger post and a stile into a lane. The stile here needs treating with caution as at the time of writing; a steel wire has been strung across the steps which could cause a bad accident to the unwary.
Turn left along the lane and in 20 yards turn right down the track into the farm yard (America farm), keep straight ahead between the two cottages to reach a stile in the wall beyond.

A short walk following the left hand wall down a field takes you through a gate and out into a large field and a cluster of farm building away to your left. The footpath here crosses this field towards these buildings before doubling back along a farm track to a point very close to where you entered the field. My personal opinion is, if a crop is growing in the field, to follow the wall on the right for 50 yards to regain the path as it leaves the field through a gate, then to stay on the metalled track until you reach another farm on Ellars Road.
Cross Ellars Road and walk through the farm yard at Long House, follow the track where it turns left past the farm building and keep on the path passing through the yard at Valley Farm. The path continues as a walled lane which you remain on until you pass through a gate into a long field. Cross a wall stile at the other end of the field close to a telephone mast. Keep on the path as it crosses two more walls and rises gently up to the top right corner of the second field before emerging onto a farm track alongside a cattle grid. Turn left along the farm track and after a quarter of a mile turn left again onto the bridleway where a track crosses your path from the right and winds left down the hill in the direction of a wood (Currer Wood). The path bends left before the wood and descends the hill in a north westerly direction. Once past an old quarry on the right the path bends right and becomes a metalled lane (Moor Lane) which is followed down to the B6265 Main Road.
Turn to the left along Main road and cross over at the controlled pedestrian crossing and turn left again. Immediately after a red telephone box turn right into Green Lane and follow the lane down to the bottom until the junction with Lyon Road. Turn right onto the track (Millennium Way) at the junction and follow the Millennium Way where it crosses the Keighley Skipton railway line then across two damp fields and emerging via a stile onto the side of the A629. Remain on this side of the dual carriageway along the grass verge until you can cross to the other side at an uncontrolled crossing just before the roundabout. I must stress that great care is require here as the road is very busy.
Cross carefully over the Bypass A629, there is a crossing but it is not controlled. Walk along the left side of Keighley Road A6034 in the direction of Silsden village crossing the River Aire on a bridge. About 100yards after the bridge look to the other side of the road for a gap in the wall and a finger post, cross the road to pass over a narrow little footbridge into the meadow.
The walk initially follows the Millennium Way as far as Holden Bridge. From the bridge follow the track which goes to Howden Park Farm, but immediately after going through the gate into the farmyard turn right and follow the grassy track which runs parallel to the electricity pylons and rises through Alder Carr Wood to reach Jayhill Farm and further to Holden Gate.
Continued Leg Three