Norwood Green and Judy Woods

Judy Woods are hemmed in by Wyke, Hipperholme, Shelf, Wibsey, Stone Chair and other intriguingly named West Yorkshire villages. Nevertheless, these are some of the finest broadleaved woods in the county. You will look in vain for “Judy Woods” on the Ordnance Survey map, as each spur of woodland – Doctor, Low, Old Hanna, Jagger Park and Gannerthorpe among them – bears a different name. But to locals the whole area is known as Judy Woods, recalling a woman called Judy North, or Gurt (Great) Judy, who lived here during the 19th century.

Judy – a local legend

Her cottage was near to where Horse Close Bridge (usually known as Judy Brig, or Bridge) spans Royds Hall Beck, the boundary between Calderdale and Bradford. The North family occupied two cottages here and earned their living weaving but in the 1830s opened their gardens to the public, and sold spice sticks, ginger beer and Judy’s renowned parkin to passers-by. Judy was born Judith Stocks in 1795, and married into the family when she wedded Joseph North in 1847. Joseph had several grown-up children, while Judy had had five in a previous marriage; only one – John O’Judy – survived to adulthood and he earned his keep selling vegetables. Judy died in 1870 and her cottage was demolished the following year but she is immortalised in the name of the woodlands and the bridge by which she lived.

The geology of Judy Woods is defined by layers of coal over a bedrock of millstone grit. The coal has been mined for centuries; shallow depressions visible on the woodland floor are the remains of bell pits, an early and primitive method of mining. Coal and ironstone were extracted in the 18th century by the Low Moor Company, based just to the east of the woods. The ironstone was used in forges at Low Moor – fired by the coal dug here – was used to make cannons used at the Battle of Waterloo, during the Napoleonic Wars.

A less obvious sign of local industry is the predominance of beech trees, probably planted during the reign of Queen Victoria. These are a colourful sight in autumn, when the leaves are turning from green to golden oranges, reds and yellows, but were actually planted for a more prosaic purpose: to provide the raw materials for the manufacture of spindles and bobbins for the textile trade. The woods are owned by Bradford Council and managed by the countryside service, in conjunction with the Friends of Judy Woods.

Walk through the kissing gate and follow a path signed to Woodside. After 220yds (201m) a path climbs off to the right but you should stay with the main, left-sweeping broad path, smooth enough to cater for wheelchair users, along its 940yd (860m) length. Of all the paths that score the woodland floor this is by far the finest and most scenic, passing beneath magnificent, towering specimens of beech, some of which are more than 200 years old.

Where the engineered path terminates at a fence in the woodland corner, turn left, down an enclosed stepped path that parallels a rough track on your right, signed for Norwood Green. Within 140yds (128m) this descends to Judy Bridge, or Horse Close Bridge as it is also called.

Ascend the lane beyond the bridge, ignoring an early fork, for 550yds (503m), after which it passes a series of domestic garages to end at a junction with a road.

Turn left, into the village of Norwood Green, passing the former Church of St George on your right and the Old White Beare pub on your left. Follow the road all the way through the village, past the Pear Tree pub and a warehouse on the right before rising gently back to the start point.