Oxley Trail
A 7-mile walk in West Yorkshire developed as a Duke of Edinburgh challenge walk by the Skelmanthorpe Youth Club. With map, statistics, and GPX route file.
Statistics and Files
Grid Ref: SE 233 106
Distance: 7 miles (11 km)
Time: 3–4 hours
Duration: 1 day
Ordnance Survey Explorer Map (1:25,000):
288 Bradford, Huddersfield and East Calderdale
Summary
The Oxley Trail is a walking route in and around Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire, originally created by young people from a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award group based at Skelmanthorpe Youth Club. It is subtitled “A fun day out exploring the beautiful countryside in and around the Skelmanthorpe and Deffer Wood area”.
The trail is named after the Oxley family, who appeared to be of some standing in the area, with a Robert Oxley recorded in the Wakefield Court rolls as steward to the Lord of the Manor in the 17th century. A marriage between William Oxley and Mary Wainwright is recorded in local parish registers of 1688. Further research revealed William Oxley’s birth around 1661 and his death in 1724, while Mary Wainwright was born in 1663 and buried in August 1728. Local lore holds that she died in a fire and her ghost haunts the cruck barn encountered along the walk.
Beginning and ending in Skelmanthorpe, the walk goes via Green Side, Pilling Lane, Scissett, Cuttlehurst, Hay Royds Colliery, Deffer Hill, Deffer Wood, Denby Hall Farm, Exley Gate, Dobroyd Hill, Denby Dale, Kitchenroyd, and Thorpe Dike. Along its course, the Oxley Trail connects with the Kirklees Way and the Dearne Way.