Wade Wood and the Cat-i-Th-Well

Luddenden Dean is a tranquil gem, tucked away in a corner of Calderdale with only limited road access. Despite the valley’s small population – a few scattered farms and cottages, and the picturesque hamlet of Saltonstall – its remote Cat-i-Th-Well pub is rarely quiet.

A site of scientific interest and a private estate

Jerusalem Farm itself is a 32-acre (13ha) nature reserve set in a valley carved out by a glacier some 30,000 years ago. The converted farm buildings offer facilities to school groups, and Calderdale Council’s Countryside Service runs environmental education workshops, providing an eclectic mixture of subjects, from mankind’s effects on the landscape to environmental art, and biological sampling techniques to teddy bears’ picnics.

The farm has its own, tents-only campsite, sited above Wade Wood, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Among its many trees and plants are species that suggest this could be ancient woodland, looking much as it would have in the wake of the last ice age 12,000 years ago.

At the valley head stands an ornate gateway, the entrance to the old Castle Carr estate. There are no public rights of way through the estate, which was somehow also excluded from new access rights introduced by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act of 2000. Occasionally, however, guided walks led by The Ramblers, or local walking festival events, are granted permission to enter the grounds and such excursions are worth keeping an eye out for.

The estate was established by Captain Joseph Priestley Edwards in the mid-1800s. After buying up large areas of farm and moorland, he set about building a mansion of breathtaking opulence. Mile-long driveways led to a coach house for half a dozen carriages. Beyond a Norman archway – complete with portcullis – was a huge banqueting hall with an oak-framed ceiling and a floor laid on springs for dancing.

The grounds were even more impressive: laid out around a series of reservoirs, their focal point was five fountains, the highest of which flung water 130ft (40m) into the air – said to be the highest in Europe.

Edwards died in a railway disaster in Abergele in 1868, before the house was finished. Successive owners found the estate too expensive to maintain and the house, which fell into ruin, was demolished in the 1960s. When guided walks pass through the estate, however, the ornate fountains are occasionally brought back to life, as great a spectacle today as they ever were.

Pass through the stile at the bottom of the car park and descend the walled lane beyond, to cross Wade Bridge over Luddenden Brook. Several routes diverge from the opposite bank: take the broad, timber-edged path which climbs gently ahead-right. At a junction, bear left on the ascending Calderdale Way. At a second junction, head up steps to your right, signed ‘Saltonstall’, into a well-worn earthy path that ascends to a gate through a fence in a field corner. Through this bear slightly right for 20yds (18m) to climb a stile, being careful not to dislodge loose wall stones.

Cross the next field diagonally to its top-right corner. Pass through the gate there and maintain direction across the next field, to pass through an open gateway. Parallel the top-left wall through the next field to a wooden gate in its top corner. After that and the stile beyond turn left, ascending the final field, to exit through a small gate in the top-left corner. Ascend a rough driveway to a metalled road.

Turn right, down the quiet lane, past the Cat-i-Th-Well pub. Cross Caty Well Bridge over Caty Well Brook and climb the lane for 60yds (55m), to take a surfaced track off to the right signed ‘Public Footpath’. Through a wooden gate at the end pass to the left of a cottage and take a gate beyond a strip of grass. Bear right on a 330yd (302m) field-edge path and back into the lane at its far end. Turn right, downhill, past a row of cottages known as Jowler.

In 90yds (82m) beyond the cottages, where a sign points to Jerusalem Farm, pass through a gap in the wall on your right and descend steps, kinking left at the bottom on a cinder track for 10yds (9m), then right, down more steps. Pass through a kissing gate and cross a bridge over the outflow of a small pond. Around 100yds (91m) past an area of woodland art, the path forks. Bear left, descending your outward path back to Wade Bridge and the track to the car park.