Oakworth to Oxenhope Steam Trail

Begin by catching the train from Oxenhope Station to Oakworth Station. Take time to enjoy the beautifully maintained platform at Oakworth Station, decorated with old advertising signs, milk churns and luggage. The station is much as it would have been in 1910, lit with gas lamps and with vintage signage. Oakworth Station is most famous for being the station in the 1970 film The Railway Children. As a recap, the film tells the story of three children who move from London to Yorkshire. They become friendly with the station porter, Albert Perks, and are involved in several adventures including alerting a train to a landslide. Leave the station, turn left over the level crossing and you will see the first house on the left, Railway Cottage. In the film this was the home of Albert Perks, the station porter. Follow the pavement downhill and swinging right. Further along the pavement leads you alongside the beck and under the impressive arch of an old mill building. Vale Mill was built around 1785 and was a spinning mill. Continue on the road as it swings left around the end of the mill, taking care of any traffic on this blind corner. Follow the right-hand edge of the road ahead and, where the road swings left, turn right onto the stone track (Mytholmes Lane) passing Vale Fold Cottages on your left. These cottages were seen in the film during the Paper Chase sequence, a hare and hounds type game where the person designated as the hare leaves a trail of paper for those people designated as hounds to chase.

Just beyond the cottages, turn left through the kissing gate to join the public footpath signed to Ebor Lane. Continue on this enclosed path and pass through the next gate to join a section of path with Bridgehouse Beck running immediately on the right. Further along, the path leads you over a footbridge across the beck and begins to climb towards the railway. Towards the top of the slope (before the path swings left), look over the wall to the right and you will see the entrance of the railway tunnel, Mytholmes Tunnel. The tunnel was an important landmark in the film, and one of the main reasons that this railway was chosen as the filming location. It is alongside this tunnel that the landslide was filmed, with the children waving their red petticoats to warn the train driver of the danger. The tunnel is a lot shorter in reality than it appears in the film, for which a temporary extension to the tunnel was made using canvas covers. Stay on the path which bends left and ahead you will see a road bridge over the railway. This is a recent replacement for the metal bridge which featured in the closing scene of the film. Keep ahead and a few metres later you will emerge to the junction with Ebor Lane.

Cross over with care and turn left along the road edge. Soon you can merge with the separate walkway which runs behind a wall on the right-hand side of the road. Follow this over Ebor Mill Dam, with the mill and its tall stone chimney across to the left. Follow the pavement as it swings right, heading uphill. At the T-junction at the top, turn right and follow the road downhill, passing between a number of small shops. You will reach Haworth Station on the right. It was within Haworth village that the filming was undertaken for the village scenes. The tourist information centre was transformed into a butcher and other outlets became an ironmongers, gift shop and post office.

Use the zebra crossing just before Haworth Station to swap to the left-hand pavement and continue along Station Road passing the engine sheds and fire station across to the right. When the road swings right (with the war memorial across to the right), keep ahead on the left-hand pavement which leads you into the side road, Brow Road. Follow the road as it bends left, and immediately afterwards turn right onto the public footpath signed to Oxenhope. Go up the stone steps and along the flagstone path to reach a gate. Pass through this and continue on the fenced stone path with a wall running on the right. A kissing gate leads you onto the next stretch of path, running along the right-hand edge of a meadow, with the train line now running just to your right. Continue in the same direction through a gate and across a second meadow, then cross a footbridge to the right. Swing left to continue on the path through a belt of trees, with Bridgehouse Beck running down to the right. Pass through the next kissing gate and keep ahead passing between a horse paddock on the right and a ruined farmhouse on the left. Beyond the farmhouse, keep ahead climbing the narrow steps set within the stone wall. Continue on the narrow path climbing steadily and the next gate leads you down through the front courtyard of a stone property, Ives Bottom Farm.

Continue ahead to join the concrete access drive for just a few paces and, just beyond the gateway, turn right down the narrow stone path. This path swings left to once again run alongside the beck. Continue along the waterside path, ignoring the first bridge, a stone arch bridge built for pack horses, on the right. Keep your eyes peeled within the beck as you may be lucky enough to spot a dipper or kingfisher. Continue ahead, crossing a wooden footbridge across a stream inlet and passing through a wooden squeeze gap. The path swings left, up some steps and then turns right through a stone squeeze gap. Cross the metal footbridge over the beck and turn left to continue on the path with a wire fence running on the right. As you approach the cottage ahead, swing left following the line of the stone wall. Merge with the cottage access drive and follow this ahead. The drive swings steadily left and leads you past a water treatment works on your right. Immediately after the works, turn right through a kissing gate and follow the path with a stone wall on the right. At the end of the path you will come to a signed T-junction. Turn left (signed to Oxenhope) and cross the metal footbridge. At the far side turn right (signed to Oxenhope village and station) and follow the path with the beck running down to the right. Continue past Wilton House on the left and on to reach a T-junction with the village road. Turn right, taking care of any traffic, cross over the beck and you will come to Oxenhope Station on the right where this walk terminates.