A 5 mile circular walk from Oakworth to Goose Eye

Starting from Holden Park in the centre of Oakworth, there are plenty of points of interest and beautiful Pennine scenery on the way to the picturesque hamlet of Goose Eye just to the north of the village.

Holden Park is the site of the long-demolished Oakworth House, home of Victorian businessman, inventor and politician, Sir Isaac Holden. This staircase was part of the winter gardens, a series of huge heated glass houses that contained tropical plants, waterfalls and a network of man-made caves and grottoes, such as those below. Most of the hard-landscaping from these glass houses still exists and is fascinating to explore.

The structure you can see here is almost all that remains of the house. This is the front entrance portico. The house stood where the bowling green is now.

The drinking fountain was bought in memory of Sir Isaac Holden by public subscription and originally stood on Victoria Road outside what is now the Co-op. With the advent of the motor car, it soon became an obstruction and was moved to a position just inside the entrance to the park and subsequently to its current position behind the bowling green.

Slack Lane Baptist Chapel, opened in 1880 to replace the old chapel that still stands just down the road (see next photo), is an imposing building in a secluded spot just outside Oakworth. It closed in 2018 and was converted to apartments.

The original chapel was built in 1819. When the new chapel came into use, this one was used as a Sunday school.

The Baptists’ Graveyard is just over the road from the old chapel and has some lovely Victorian headstones and monuments. Lovely, that is, apart from many of the inscriptions, many of which mention children.

Share and share alike.

Wonky shed near the hamlet of Holme House

Mossy walls on the road to True Well Hall Farm and Carr Laithe

A nice Victorian post box in Goose Eye

The lesser-used part of Holme House Lane as it heads up out of Goose Eye

Just around the corner, there is a small mill pond on the left.

Having turned around, I headed back into Goose Eye

In the photo on the right is the former Brow End Mill, which manufactured cotton fabric, then paper. It was converted to apartments in 2000 and is now known as The Rag Mill.

The name of the the Turkey Inn comes from Turkey Mill, another paper mill, which was just over the road and is now also apartments.

A view of Goose Eye from the very steep Game Scar Lane

A reliable source of water, Dean Beck is the main reason why two mills were built here.

A weir, built to regulate the the water flow to the mills

Teapot Dam, a mill pond in the woods near The Rag Mill.

I had intended to head further up the beck to Newsholme Dean and then head up Cat Clough but the mud was thick and very slippery, so I thought better of it and took the footpath out of the woods two Carr Laithe instead.

The view from the Carr Laithe farm track to Laycock.

True Well Hall Farm

Newsholme New Road (honest).

Lower Laithe Farm, Newsholme

Green Bottom Farm, Newsholme

The old bobbin mill in Newsholme supplied bobbins to many of the local mills

White Lane Tewitt Hall Farm

An example of the current craze for piling stones on top of stuff. This is an old waymarker stoneat the junction of White Lane, Willgutter Lane and Turnshaw Road