home and away

Harakeke in Dean House? Cabbage trees in Holmfirth? Palms in Thongsbridge? Ok so pampas grass in Honley is nothing new (oh so 7o's...) but since when did the Holme Valley go sub tropical? Given the icy wind blowing today I remain somewhat homesick and unconvinced.

The sign at the bottom of the road here says 3 1/2 miles to Holmfirth - having taken a somewhat circuitous route I reckon I walked at least 8miles today meandering round the lanes and footpaths between Honley and Holmfirth vaguely following old bus routes (the old 'long way round') and distant memories. I walked paths I've not walked in well over 20 years, lanes that I was reasonably convinced were heading in the right direction but wasn't entirely sure where they came out and followed the old rule of thumb that if you can see either Castle Hill or Holme Moss you can't get lost!

Walking along the footpath from Miry Lane to Station Road I was getting decidedly confused though - a case of not being able to work out where in the wood I was for the trees - and more to the point a new housing estate that I just couldn't figure out the location of. Finally I saw our old house ahead of us... chuffin' 'eck, thinks me, they've built here too? Quickly followed by "chuffin' 'eck????" Blimey probably haven't even thought that since I left school....

Much has changed, and yet some things are surprisingly the same - I don't think Wagstaffs have changed their window dressing style since Mum was buying us childrens shoes there in the 1970's. There seems a certain poetic justice in Nigel Hinchcliffe's old shop now being called 'Your Nuts' but it seems sad that in the home of postcards there was a decidedly limited selection in the Tourist Information Office and many of the images that were there (apart from the historic saucy Bamforth's ones for which fair enough) I remember from the '80's.

It's nice to see it all again but I don't ever miss it.


update - there's a thundering great big harakeke plant outside Huddersfield Bus Station too. Huddersfield Bus Station? Honestly, I ask you.... mind you they haven't half tarted up the inside of it too since I was at Greenhead. And is it me or is the piazza smaller than it used to be, or is it just that the trees have grown in the last um, ah twenty years.... yeah ok, I get it now.