The Wakefield Way Songs of Praise

75 miles of tracks and towpaths

make up West Yorkshire's Wakefield Way.

Encircling the city of Wakefield, the trail winds through a landscape

shaped and scarred by centuries of industry.

But, as industry has retreated,

the emphasis has been on regenerating the communities and reclaiming the land.

Many of the locals call this "God's own country",

but whatever your original allegiances, you can't deny

this is certainly God's own countryside.

In today's programme, a land

once given entirely to farming and industry

is now embracing leisure and artistry.

A performance from members

of this year's Yorkshire Championship brass band

and hymns from a congregation gathered in Wakefield Cathedral.

Under the tallest spire in Yorkshire,

the cathedral is the focal point for the Wakefield area

and it's sharing its own renewal for 21st-century worship

with the whole community.

And it's worship that's the subject of our first hymn,

sung by a congregation that's drawn from across the Wakefield diocese.

Before the last war, Woolley Hall was the seat

of local land and colliery owners, the Wentworths.

And everyone in Woolley village was their tenant.

We paid an annual rent for the land to the Wentworths.

We knew our place. But it was kindly.

So it was a bit like living in Downton Abbey. When you say you knew your place, what was your place?

How did the hierarchy work?

At the top were the Wentworth family, right?

There were the Wentworths. And then? The vicar,

the schoolmaster and then the tenant farmers

and then the, er...the cottagers.

When we first came to Woolley village

we lived in a tied cottage.

You were always a little bit on edge.

You've got to do everything right

because, you know, you could be out if you didn't.

For the Wentworths, the winds of change came after World War II

when the family sold the village.

Woolley Hall became a teacher training college,

where Margaret worked as a flower arranger.

But there's one aspect of Woolley village

that has played an unchanging role in local lives.

The church played a big part in my life.

Because I was in the church choir

and I used to make eyes at the village organist.

Cos there was a mirror.

And then I got confirmed there.

And married there.

Woolley church has been part of my life since being a little boy.

Um, I think I learnt to tell the time by looking at the church clock

as I went on my way to school.

I've made various things for the church -

the notice boards, the gates, the kissing gate, various other things.

Always in English oak, always,

whenever possible, using oak from Woolley estate.

The church has helped me through grief twice.

My husband died on the 19th of January this year.

And he was a wonderful man.

Woolley village has always been close to my heart.

And, er...and Ken loved it.

Absolutely loved it.

During the 1980s, when pits were closing down

and lots of factories were closing,

people were losing their jobs, people were fighting,

not only for employment, but for their own communities.

And people struggled.

During that time, I was a head teacher at the small village school

and children were coming to school hungry.

I personally took this very hard.

Not only for my schoolchildren,

but for my community at home in Castleford.

And everything that was going on in the parish made me very depressed.

And I had a breakdown.

As I recovered, I was surrounded by people

who wanted to love me and care for me.

And it's that working together

of everyone's efforts which I think is the love of God.

It's not a sentimental soft thing,

this love, it's a tough, hard-working thing.

And it's in all of us who want to do good.

As part of her recovery,

Alison devoted her energies

to rebuilding the community she cared so much about.

She became involved in the Castleford Heritage Trust,

a project to redevelop the area.

They've built a new bridge across the river, added fishing platforms,

but Alison's pride and joy is the flour mill,

which the trust has bought for the town.

Two years ago, when they closed the mill,

it was a real blow.

It was another part of our industrial heritage gone.

And we weren't prepared for that.

And our intention is to use this lovely building to continue milling

and to tell the story of our industrial and social heritage

in order to help young people especially

to be proud of this community and who they are,

to be proud of their roots and their story because some children,

they were ashamed to say they came from this community.

We are God's hands in the world

and it's that love that motivates us,

and certainly motivates me, to want to make this a better place

for the people of our town today,

for visitors that come here and for our children in the future.

Proud of their history and heritage

at the heart of the former mining village of South Elmsall,

the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band

has championed local culture and community for well over a century.

This was them in 1912.

Today, they're one of the top ten bands in the world.

But more important to them, they're this year's Yorkshire champions.

So here's the Quintet from the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band

playing a tune called Gresford.

It was inspired by a Welsh colliery disaster,

but it's been adopted everywhere simply as The Miners' Hymn.

The Wakefield Way passes through Newmillerdam Country Park,

where Roger Parkinson works as a volunteer tree warden.

These are trees from all over the world, and although

the neighbouring woodlands are native British trees,

this is a really varied collection that people can come and enjoy.

The volunteers are all ages, really,

and quite varied abilities.

We like to get people out doing things

and just enjoying working with trees and being in the countryside.

People got to know what we were doing and how we were doing it

and engaging different people from different groups and disabilities.

And I got a phone call from a social worker a couple of years ago to say

that she had a young man in her care

and she wanted to get him involved in something outside.

Yeah, that's great.

Robert really hadn't spoken for quite some time

and it was about getting his confidence back.

That's good, yeah. Let's see what we've got.

'So Robert came along, and for the first visit,

'he was about 20 feet away'

with his head down, didn't really want to engage with us.

By the second visit, got a bit closer.

By the third, he was tugging my shirt and pointing at things.

How much of an area do you cover? Is it just this bit?

Well, you came from down there, didn't you? Yeah.

The steps. That's right, all the way down the steps.

It goes along down that way.

Do you have to do this every day? No, just once a week.

And when you come, do you notice the change in the seasons? Yeah.

Which is your favourite season here? Oh...

it's all...it's all good.

It's all nice. Yeah.

All the time.

I know I've had many conversations with people who walk onto this site

and have given me various stories

as to why they like to be in this particular location.

A lot of the trees are in memory of someone.

So it's a nice place if you have planted a memorial tree,

it's to come and just reflect and enjoy that peace and tranquillity

and think and perhaps say a prayer.

It's about getting people out into the woodlands

and enjoying those environments, so they can find those peaceful places

and enjoy the tranquillity of the woodlands.

And I know it's brought the local community together.

Artist Carrie Scott-Huby lives and works near the Wakefield Way.

Her art and faith are influenced by the rhythms of life and landscape

to be found along its varied route.

My creative process is, I absorb what's around me,

whether it's the landscape or little details

of, say, flowers and the ebb and flow of life.

Or things that have been discarded on the floor

or things that nobody wants.

I always look for the element of beauty

that people don't necessarily see themselves.

They walk past and go, "Ugh, that doesn't look nice."

You can just take it on face value,

but there's a wealth of things underneath if you're willing

to just take that time and pause.

When I walk every morning out over the fields, I think

that that's my meditation time, really.

And this is one of my favourite spots

where I've come along the path and it opens up

and as you walk through, you can see all the different horizons emerging.

The horizon line is one of my favourite things to draw.

Autumn...I do love autumn.

And people start getting miserable and I start getting more excited,

And I think it's that time when you can start reflecting

and not as busy as summer

and try and reflect more about being patient in life.

Things just change. Nothing ever ends, it just changes.

So through walking, looking at the dying flowers,

and seed heads kind of depicts

# Each little flower that opens

# Each little bird that sings

# He made their glowing colours

# He made their tiny wings

# All things bright and beautiful

# All creatures great and small

# All things wise and wonderful

# The Lord God made them all

# The purple-headed mountains

# The river running by

# The sunset and the morning

# That brightens up the sky

# The cold wind in the winter

# The pleasant summer sun

# The ripe fruit in the garden

# He made them every one

# All things bright and beautiful

# All creatures great and small

# All things wise and wonderful

# The Lord God made them all

# He gave us eyes to see them

# And lips that we might tell

# How great is God almighty

# Who has made all things well

# All things bright and beautiful

# All creatures great and small

# All things wise and wonderful

# The Lord God made them all. #

Margaret Pawson and her dog Rio

walk the Wakefield Way near their home every single day.

Even when Margaret was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer,

she didn't break their daily routine.

I love this spot. I call it my seat, it's not my seat really.

I share it with other people.

What does this place mean to you?

It gives you a sense of well-being,

freedom, fresh air.

Especially when little white feathers come

and fall on you as you walk along.

That gives you such a feeling of... you're not alone.

You lose yourself, you lose yourself in God.

December 2012, I was going through an uncertain time, where, er...

they were contemplating operating on my spine

to remove the tumour. Yeah.

This was a beautiful December afternoon,

the sun was shining.

I walked up and as I approached the seat,

I could see there was a lady sat at the side.

So if little Rio doesn't sit on his seat, he doesn't think he's been for his walk, so I just said

could I join her and sit down, which we did.

And she just looked up at the clouds and said,

"You could talk to those clouds, couldn't you?"

And I just said, "Yeah, I talk to God in those clouds."

And quite easily we had a conversation and ended up telling her

about this uncertainty and my cancer and things.

So we stood up and I said, "I'm walking back this way."

She said, "I'm going that way."

So we stood up, and as we stood up,

she said, "It'll be all right, you know, Margaret. It'll be all right."

You hadn't told her your name? No, I'd not told her my name.

And I started to walk away and this, like...

So I turned round - and I was only there, just beyond the seat -

and there was nobody here.

Nobody. And I've not seen her since.

Not seen her before, not seen her since.

So you went and had things checked after that, and how's it been?

I had a complete response to the chemotherapy

so they actually said I'm in remission.

Who do you think she was?

God's messenger?

An angel?

She had to be.

She just disappeared, she couldn't have gone anywhere else.

And she told me it'd be all right, and it is all right.

May almighty God, who has filled the Earth with all that is needful,

for our sustenance and delight,

grant us grace to rejoice daily at the wonder of creation

and to be faithful stewards of the world entrusted to our care.

And the blessing of God almighty,

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,

be among you and remain with you always.

ALL: Amen.

Walking part of the Wakefield Way hasn't just been about

seeing communities and countryside transformed.

This area and its people have an indomitable spirit.

And at the end of the day,

it's people that bring about heaven on earth.

So perhaps this really is God's own country, after all.

And the hymns include a special performance

by our senior school choir of the year.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd