A classic example of opportunity lost in terms of our title is the route of the Hull and Barnsley rail-line through the Yorkshire Wolds and parts of west Hull and west Hull suburbs.
Although sections of the line across the Vale of York have been adopted as public rights of way most of the route has been lost to agriculture or building. On piercing the lower part of the scarp slope of the Yorkshire Wolds south of North Cave a long cutting survives but the rail-track-bed has not been adopted and has become impenetrable, this best seen by looking over the parapet of the bridge which carries the minor road from North Cave to Everthorpe over the once rail-line.
East of the A1034 ‘Roman Road’ (South Cave to Market Weighton) the rail-bed is walkable south of Drewton Manor although not identified as a public right of way. East again the rail-line followed the bottom of Weedley Dale. Again here signs erected by the Drewton Estate make it clear that the track-bed is not a public right of way although a footpath in the Drewton area follows the side of the track-bed as does a section of the Wolds Way (national long-distance path) until it turns north up East Dale. From this point through to Willerby the route of the line is not a public right of way.
For sure, the two-kilometre ‘Drewton Tunnel’ under the area around Riplingham Grange, above which the tops of ventilation shafts can be seen in nearby fields, would not have been a wise section to open to the public without measures to ensure health and safety for walkers, but east of this the cuttings coming into Little Weighton station site and beyond would have made a fine public rights of way, reminiscent, in places, of the Hudson Way.
(to be continued).