Langfield Common and Stoodley Pike
Level B
YHOA Championships
&
Yorkshire Super League Event
Sunday, 9th March 2014
Final Details v1
Parking
Signed from the A646 2km east of Todmorden 5km west of Hebden Bridge at Grid ref SD951245 (nearest post code OL14 6BL Woodhouse Road)
Approach from this junction only as the other road leading into the Mankinholes area is very narrow and has some nasty acute bends.
Linear parking on the roads to the west of Mankinholes. (Mankinholes Bank and Lumbutts Road).
Grid ref SD 961 235 - Post Code - OL14 6HR
Please follow the directions of the marshalls.
The road through Mankinholes itself must be kept clear.
Unfortunately the fields at Langfield Farm are just too sodden to be used. This means that it will be from 800-1700m to the start depending on where you are parked. Pre-entries can proceed straight to the start.
Facilities
Mankinholes Youth Hostel
Enquiries, Registration, Download, Results and Toilets.
There will be some room to leave clothes at the hostel.
No muddy shoes inside the hostel and definitely no spikes.
Car keys can be left at registration.
Lumbutts Methodist Church
Toilets (conveniently located on the way to the start).
Terrain: Varied, but mostly runnable Pennine moorland, with areas of intricate contourand rock detail. Glacial ‘slump’ and significant quarrying activity have altered the landscape over geological and human timescales. Courses make full use of the north facing slope and its complex features with longer courses (black, brown and short brown) visiting the western section (not used in the previous event)
Map: 1:10000 scale with 5m contours, updated 2014.All maps are pre-marked on waterproof paper. Much of the area contains extensive rock and in these areas only the more significant features are marked.
Layout
Registration :10.00am - 12 noon
Starts:10.30am - 12.30am. 800m distance and 50m climb from parking field,
Approximately 10 minutes walk. Signed and taped from assembly up a broad bridleway then short section of steep paved path. Same start for all courses.
Start Times These will be pre-allocated so please check the Start List on Fabian. We are using a punching start. If you miss your allocated time you will be slotted in as soon as possible, although on popular courses this may take some time. Last starts 12:30.
Finish: 5 minutes (500m) walk back to the Youth Hostel assembly – follow tapes
You must report to the Finish by 2.30pm and must go to download before returning to your car
Pre-Entries: Online entries onFabian Closing date for online entries, Sunday 2nd March.Senior; £9.00 for BO members. £11.00 non-members;Juniors; £3.00. Students with valid card £3.00. Families £22.00. Entries so far. Pre-entered competitors may proceed to the start unless a hired dibber is required.
Entries on the day:Entry on the day will first use up the overprinted maps, then choose another course with spare maps.
Senior, £12.00. (£10.00 BO members); Juniors; £3.00. Students with valid card £3.00. Families £23.00.
EOD to shorter Colour Coded:White, Yellow,Orange, Lt Green. Adult £6.00. Junior, £2.50
Courses combinations for Yorkshire Superleague:
Course / Distance / Climb / Controls / Men / Men / Women / Women / Junior / JuniorKm / M / Long / Short / Long / Short / Men / Women
Black / 9.4 / 420 / 28 / M21L
Brown / 8.1 / 380 / 23 / M35L M40L
Short Brown / 6.9 / 250 / 20 / M45L M50L / M21S / W21L / M20L M18L
Blue / 5.7 / 210 / 19 / M55L M60L / M35S M40S / W35L W40L / M16
Short Blue / 4.5 / 185 / 14 / M45S M50S / W45L W50L / W21S / W20L W18L
Green / 4.1 / 140 / 13 / M65L* M70L / M55S M60S / W55L W60L / W35S W40S / M20S M18S / W16
Short Green / 3.3 / 135 / 11 / M75 M80 / M65S M70S / W65L W70L / W45S W50S / W20S W18S
Very Short Green / 2.7 / 120 / 11 / W75 W80 / W55S W60S W65S
Light Green / 3.2 / 125 / 11 / M14 / W14
Orange / 2.8 / 105 / 10 / M12 / W12
Yellow / 1.7 / 105 / 9 / M10 / W10
White / 1.5 / 90 / 10
*Any M65L who wishes to run Short Blue (the BOF recommended colour for M65-69) will still count for the YOS, their points in the YOS being based on their minutes per kilometre (adjusted for height gain).
Safety: All competitors take part at their own risk. This is high exposed Pennine moorland and weather conditions can change very quickly All courses venture onto the exposed summit plateau, so please wear appropriate clothing, most particularly junior competitors who should wear or carry a cagoule. Whistles will be compulsory and will be checked on the start line. We will advise whether cagoules will be compulsory for seniors on the day.
Due to the nature of the competition area, in stormy weather or conditions of very poor visibility the possibility of delaying or cancelling the White, Yellow and Orange courses or only permitting chaperoned juniors will be considered.
YHOA Champs - Prizes for 1st in each Long Classes. Prize giving at Youth Hostel – approx 2 p.m.
Final Updates:Visit the EPOC websiteto check for updates to the above details, before you set off to the event.
Cancellation:If the weather is dodgy for any reason check EPOC’s website,or ring the Organiser
Officials:ControllerChris Burden AIRE Planner Mike Pedley EPOC
Organiser Alistair Tinto EPOC 07887835703
The Historical Bit
Stoodley Pike is a 1,300-foot (400 m) hill in the south Pennines, noted for the 121foot Stoodley Pike Monument at its summit, which dominates the moors above Todmorden in West Yorkshire and can easiy be seen from many parts of the Calder Valley. The monument was designed in 1854 by local architect James Green, and completed in 1856 at the end of the Crimean War.
The monument replaced an earlier structure, started in 1814 and commemorating the defeat of Napoleon and the surrender of Paris. It was completed in 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo (Napoleonic Wars), but collapsed in 1854 after an earlier lightning strike, and decades of weathering. Its replacement was therefore built slightly further from the edge of the hill. During repair work in 1889 a lightning conductor was added, and although the tower has since been struck by lightning on numerous occasions, no notable structural damage is evident. There is evidence to suggest that some sort of structure existed on the site before even this earlier structure was built.
Stoodley Pike Monument contains a spiral staircase of 39steps, accessed from its north side. During repairs in 1889 a grill was added to the top step, allowing more light in, so that only 6 or 7 steps are in darkness. There are no windows. The entrance to the balcony, the highest point that can be reached, and some 40 feet above ground level, is on the west face.
Not far away lies a remarkable stone spring next to the old track heading east from the Pike. Despite its location near the summit it continues to run through the driest of weather.
Six local fell races visit the Pike - the Noonstone; Hebden Bridge; Shepherd's Skyline; Coiners; Howarth Hobble and the Stoodley Pike Fell race itself.
The Pennine Way (Britain's first National Trail, opened in 1965) passes Stoodley Pike.
Langfield Common is a true moor and an SSSI. It’s history as common land began during the
Reformation. Its then owner, Sir Stephen Hamerton, a Roman Catholic, rashly rebelled against King
Henry VIII not once (he was pardoned for his first offence) but twice. He was executed by hanging
and beheading in 1537.
In time, the Crown awarded ownership of the common to itself. In a Royal Decree (recorded in ‘An Exemplification of a Decree between the King and Priestley’) dated November 25, 3rd year of the reign of James I (i.e. 1606), the Chancellor and Council of the Court found that the ‘said moor or waste ground called Mankenholes otherwise Mankenholes Moor otherwise Mankenholes Edge is the
King Majesty’s.’
The status of the Common as Crown property precipitated a system of tenure based on pasturing rights, expressed as ‘gates’ which can be sold or bequeathed. A 1912 reference to the gates states ‘Fifty and a half cattlegates or pasturage for fifty and a half cows or other beasts of pasturage or a number of sheep or other cattle usually taken and accepted as and for and equal to the depasturage of fifty and a half cows and denominated by the name or term cattlegates in and upon and throughout the Common Moor or Waste Ground of and in the township of Langfield…