Baildon Heritage Trails

Here you will find links to the text and in many cases images of walks around Baildon.

Heritage Trails

The Railway Arch, Otley Road, Woodbottom, Baildon. Drawn by Roy Lorrain-Smith

In 2008 the Baildon Local History Society contacted Baildon Parish Council and asked about producing Heritage Trail booklets based on the walks that the History Society sometimes conducted people on. The History Society showed examples of what they had put together. Baildon Parish Council agreed to fund the the first batch of booklets.

The first six walks (printed in Nov 2009 by Moorprint at a cost of £695) were made available, free of charge, from various places in Baildon including the library. Demand was high and the first 600 had all gone within 3 weeks. After a reprint the booklets were made available from the library at a price that just covered the cost of the printing - £1 each.

PDF versions of these walks were made available from their website and Baildon Town Council have continued this. You can find these files in their document management system here. The Town Council website may change over time so if that link doesn't work you may need to search for them. The latest version should always be somewhere on the Town Council website but I have made versions available from here. Each entry below has a link to a local PDF file if I have been able to get one.

The pages linked to in the wiki below will contain the text of the booklets and should also include the images but the intention is that they will include links to other pages to create a wider experience for the visitor. (This may be limited to the ones that Paul Marfell worked on.)

• Railway Walk Heritage Trail - the arches at Woodbottom to the great Viaduct at Tong Park. A PDF version of this is available here.
• The Turnpike Walk Heritage Trail - takes you between the old turnpike road milestones on Otley Road. A PDF version of this is available here.
• Kirklands Walk Heritage Trail - St John's Court to St James;s, Kirklands and Hoyle Court. A PDF version of this is available here.
• Baildon Village Walk Heritage Trail - visits the old lanes, folds and corners around the centre of Baildon. A PDF version of this is available here.

• Riverside Walk Heritage Trail - will take you from Roundwood Road to Charlestown centre along the River Aire. A PDF of the 2018 version is available here or the older 2009 version here.
• The Charlie Thompson Walk Heritage Trail - takes you round the places of interest around the St John's Court area of Charlestown. A PDF version of this is available here.
• Threshfield and Low Baildon Walk - from Brook Hill Stores to Threshfield and back. A PDF version of this is available here.
• The Ferniehurst and Baildon Green Walk - A walk looking principally at the sites of two Victorian mansions with Salt family connections. A PDF version of this is available here.
• Lost Hamlets Walk - This walk is in two loops: the first visits some of the hamlets which used to thrive on the edge of Baildon Moor; the second looks at some of the the history and archaeology on the higher reaches of the Moor itself. A PDF version of this is available here.
• Coach Road to Shipley Glen - A walk from Higher Coach Road through woods up into Shipley Glen and the Bracken Hall Centre, and back. A PDF version of this is available here.
• The Salt Market Walk - Sconce, Birch Close and Faweather by old lanes. A PDF version of this is available here.

Other Walks

The Baildon Local History Society have also released some of the walks that will probably not be made available in the same way but can be read here.

• Baildon Moor Walk
• Baildon Green Walk
• Shipley Glen and Trench
• Shipley Glen and Milner Field
• The Baildon Peace Walk - a walk to see the three war memorials. This was produced in conjunction with Baildon Community Link. A PDF version of this is available here.
• Exploring Baildon - A Guide to Public Open Spaces. People from the local history society were involved in this but it was commissioned by Baildon Town Council in 2015. PDF version is available Exploring Baildon:A Guide to Public Spaces.