Denby Dale Trail

The village of Denby Dale is famous locally for its giant pies. These aren’t baked regularly, indeed only eleven have been baked for special occasions between 1788 and 2012, but their size has always been prodigious. The pie baked to celebrate the millennium in the year 2000, for example, weighed 12 tonnes and was forty feet long. The pies have all long since been eaten of course (save for one, which spoiled and was replaced), although the huge pie dish used for one of them survives and can be seen on the walk. Pies aside, Denby Dale is an attractive village, sparsely populated prior to the Industrial Revolution, but expanded afterwards due to local production of coal, other raw materials, and transportation. The walk takes in the village centre, whilst also including large stretches of scenic countryside and the nearby village of Upper Denby.

Denby Dale Google Map

Denby Dale Railway Station opened in 1850 on the Huddersfield & Sheffield Junction Railway. Like several other stations on the Penistone Line, it originally had two platforms, but lost the northbound one when the track was singled in 1969. Most of its original buildings have long since been demolished, save for a couple nearby in industrial use. From the station, the walk takes us via the car park to exit on Wood Lane, where we cross over and walk straight ahead downhill before bearing left to follow a footpath through trees to an unnamed road. Here, turn left and follow the road to Wakefield Road, passing the Dale Inn on the right. Turn left and follow Wakefield Road, then take the next left turn along Wesley Terrace and follow it until it ends at Cumberworth Lane. Denby Dale Methodist Church can be seen on the left, a Grade II-listed church which dates from 1799 and was enlarged in 1859.

From the church, we turn right and walk down the lane back to Wakefield Road, passing the White Hart public house on the right. Turn left and follow the road, shortly passing Denby Dale Pie Hall on the right; just in front of this, the huge pie dish used for baking the 1964 pie (“The Village Hall Pie”) is now used as a small flower garden.

The Village Hall Pie Dish.

The Pie Hall was originally Birkwood House, which was purchased in 1969 and converted into a village hall. After passing the Pie Hall, take the next right turn along Cuckstool Road, and follow this as it curves round past the Denby Dale cricket and bowling clubs. At a junction, turn right (still on Cuckstool Road) and follow it to the next junction, passing an old chapel on the left. Turn right along Miller Hill, then left along Dearnside Road. Follow this until Springfield Mill appears on the right. Turn left at the crossroads by the mill and follow Trinity Drive to Holy Trinity Church. This is not an ancient church, but rather was built in the nineteen thirties in a mix of traditional and Art Deco designs, and replaced an earlier church made of wood. Continue straight ahead past the church, following a footpath uphill across Churchfield to Barnsley Road.

Turn left and follow Barnsley Road, passing the Wesleyan Reform Church on the left and eventually reaching a junction, where the Dunkirk public house can be seen on the left. Turn right and follow Lower Denby Road, then turn right again along a signed footpath past houses and along the edge of a field. Cross a farm bridge over the railway track, then continue to follow the path across two fields, eventually reaching Denby Lane. Turn right and follow this to the village green of Upper Denby village, passing the George Inn on the right. Continue to follow Denby Lane, until a signed footpath appears on the right. Here, take a short detour further along the road to visit the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a handsome Grade II-listed church built in 1842-1843.

The Church of St. John the Evangelist.

After visiting the church, return to the footpath and follow it past the edge of a cricket pitch and then along the edge of three fields to a track. Turn left and follow a path between fields, which soon bends right and then left again and runs along the edge of three fields to a track. Continue straight ahead, then turn right and climb over a stile to enter Denby Delf. This is a 31-acre wildlife site consisting of arable farmland, hay meadows, pasture, grassland, woodland, scrub, and small abandoned quarries, which also has a wetland area.

Follow the path straight ahead, downhill through Denby Delf, eventually reaching another field. Follow the path across this to reach another track, then turn left and stay on this as it loops right and then turns left, eventually joining the end of Toby Wood Lane. Follow this round to the right and downhill through woods, crossing a bridge over the River Dearne to reach Barnsley Road. Turn right and shortly before the road passes under Denby Dale Viaduct, turn left along a signed footpath. The twenty-one arch viaduct is a Grade II-listed building constructed in 1884 for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and we passed over it on the train as we approached the station. Follow the path as it turns right and then left, running alongside the viaduct to a drive. Cross this and follow a stepped path straight ahead up the hill to Wakefield Road.

Cross the road and bear left along a lane, then turn right and follow a signed footpath leading to the railway station, turning right to pass through a subway under the railway line and then finally left up steps to return to the platform.

Denby Dale is just one of a string of rural villages along the Penistone Line, albeit the only one famous for giant pies. The next one, just a few minutes further along the line, is Shepley.