Hornbeam Park Trail
Hornbeam Park is a small, primarily industrial, suburb of Harrogate that was originally home to companies including Imperial Chemical Industries, who invented Crimplene in their laboratories on the site and named it after the nearby Crimple Valley. It was developed as an office park and retains many offices, but is now also home to Harrogate College (a campus of Hull University) and retail premises. A small industrial estate may not sound like an appealing place for a walk, but it forms but a brief part of it: the walk also includes Oatlands, an affluent and leafy suburb of Harrogate boasting a large number of fine houses, and a surprisingly rural stretch in the Crimple Valley.
Hornbeam Park Railway Station is the newest station on the Harrogate Line, having opened in 1992 on land provided by Imperial Chemical Industries; unsurprisingly, it is a simple two platform affair, with the platforms staggered on either side of the bridge that carries Hookstone Road over the railway line. From the northbound platform, we leave the station on Hookstone Road and turn right, shortly passing Oatlands Recreation Ground on the right. Opposite this is the Wild Plum, which despite its name and the appearance of the building, is not a former pub but rather a licensed day restaurant above a fashion boutique. Continue past this to Oatlands Infant School, a former Victorian Board School, on the right, and opposite this turn left along Hookstone Avenue, immediately passing the Oatlands on the corner. A private members club established in 1899, this was re-branded as the Oatlands in 2019.
Follow Hookstone Avenue to a crossroads, then turn left along Beech Avenue. When this bends right, continue straight ahead along Birchwood Mews, following a footpath past the private carpark at the end to reach a public bridleway. Turn right and follow this past a football pitch on the left, at the end of which it bends slightly right and continues to end at Fulwith Mill Lane. We turn left and follow this downhill as the walk enters more scenic surroundings, and just before it bends left, we turn left through a gate along a waymarked public footpath. Follow this, passing through another gate and then crossing a footbridge over the River Crimple, also known as the Crimple Beck as was noted during the Pannal walk.
Continue to follow the path through one of the arches of the Crimple Valley Viaduct, which has dominated the view since leaving Fulwith Mill Lane.
Crimple Valley Viaduct.
The Grade II*-listed Crimple Valley Viaduct was built c.1848, has 31 arches, and is 110 feet high, and carries the Harrogate Line over the valley. We passed over it on the train to get here. Once through the arch, turn right, following a well-marked path parallel with the viaduct, then pass through a gate and turn right, once again passing through an arch of the viaduct. This path is the former track bed of a now disused branch of the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, which once passed through the arch, and which we will encounter again towards the end of the walk.
Continue straight ahead along the path, which eventually passes through another gate and ends at a junction. Here, turn right, passing through another gate and then following a field edge downhill before crossing another bridge over the River Crimple. On the other side, continue straight ahead through another gate and along the edge of a field, and when this path reaches a junction, turn left. Follow the well-marked path along the edge of a field and then across two more fields, before passing through a small copse of trees. The path eventually becomes a track and ends at Leeds Road.
Cross straight over the road and continue along another footpath, then turn right at a junction and follow a path that runs gently uphill alongside Stone Rings Beck (a tributary of the River Crimple) on the right. This section of path forms part of the Harrogate Ringway Walk, a twenty-one mile walk that encircles the town, and this particular stretch of path may seem familiar, since we walked down it on the Pannal walk. On reaching a junction, bear right along a tree lined path, which ends at the end of Stone Rings Lane. Here, turn left through a gate and follow another path straight ahead between fields, which ends at Throstle Nest Drive. Continue straight ahead along the drive until it ends at Leadhall Lane, then turn right.
Follow Leadhall Lane until it reaches a crossroads, then turn left along Leeds Road, cross at the pelican crossing, and follow the road through the centre of Oatlands, which has a number of grocery stories and takeaways, as well as a post office, all on the right hand side of the road. At the junction with Mount Street on the right, take a short detour along this to see Oatlands Community Centre, which occupies a former Methodist Church building dating from 1883. The Sainsbury’s convenience store on the corner of Mount Street and Leeds Road occupies a former public house, the Mile Stone.
Continue along Leeds Road, and when it reaches a roundabout, look left to see 36 and 38, Leeds Road, an unusual and distinctive pair of Grade II-listed semi-detached houses built in coarsed stone with ashlar dressings. Opposite this is the Grade II-listed Church of St. Mark, which dates from c.1898, although it wasn’t completed for another couple of decades. Turn sharp right past the church along Langcliffe Avenue and follow to Tewit Well Road, then cross this and bear slightly left along Langcliffe Avenue East. This shortly crosses a bridge over the railway line, after which it becomes Wheatlands Road East. Stay on this until it eventually ends at Oatlands Drive.
Turn right along Oatlands Drive, then follow it as it turns left and becomes Hookstone Drive, passing the impressive buildings of St. John Fisher Catholic High School on the right. The school buildings were first built in 1903 to provide a new home for a Catholic convent school under the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, which moved from a building on Clarence Drive near Valley Gardens near the centre of Harrogate. Continue past the school, then just after passing the junction with St Helen’s Road on the left, turn right and follow a signed public footpath into Hookstone Wood. The wood is a remnant of the ancient Forest of Knaresborough mentioned on the Pannal walk and is a designated Local Nature Reserve.
Follow a well-marked path through the wood, eventually passing a pair of nineteenth century quarry ponds on the left.
Hookstone Wood.
Here, follow a path to the right, leaving the wood and running past a fence to end at the Coach Road. Turn left and follow this to a car park serving the Great Yorkshire Showground. As its name implies, this is home to the Great Yorkshire Show, an annual agricultural show which lasts for four days, starting on the second Tuesday of July. It is currently the largest agricultural show in England. Turn right and follow a permissive path to the right of Railway Road downhill, bearing left through a gate to join the road just before it bends left. Continue to follow the Railway Road past a car park on the right, then when the road reaches a gate, turn sharp right and follow a track past the other side of the car park.
Continue to follow the track as it runs downhill, passing Crimple Valley Low Viaduct on the left. This was built in 1848 by the Leeds and Thirsk Railway to carry the now disused line that we followed under Crimple Valley Viaduct earlier in the walk. It has ten arches and is almost 200 yards long, making it fairly modest in comparison to its larger neighbour, although it remains impressive. By 1951, it had deteriorated to a point that repair was deemed uneconomical and the line closed. The end of the viaduct is fenced off, although one can’t help but wonder if one day it could be made safe and repurposed as a pedestrian path, like so many other disused railway viaducts. Until such time, the walk continues straight ahead downhill past the viaduct, with the River Crimple on the left. When the track bends right, continue straight ahead into trees, and then follow a path that turns right, crosses a footbridge over the Hookstone Beck (another tributary of the River Crimple) and then runs uphill through the edge of woods with fields on the left, across which the Crimple Valley Viaduct can be seen once more for the final time on the walk.
Stay on the path, which eventually gradually turns left through trees and joins the end of a track. Continue straight ahead until this ends at Hornbeam Park Avenue, then turn right and follow this through Hornbeam Business Park. Just before reaching Harrogate College, a striking glazed pyramid called The Inspire can be seen on the right, a distinctive office building that was built from 2002-2003. Finally, when the avenue ends at Hookstone Road, turn left to return to the railway station.
The last two walks have seen use edge ever closer to Harrogate, as we have moved from the countryside around it and into its suburbs. Our next stop is in the town centre, for a walk packed with history.
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