A walk along Spring Bank West to Springhead Pumping Station

 Springhead Waterworks was built in 1862 to increase water supply to the growing city of Hull. The marshes where Hull was built and the river Hull were too salty for driking water, so freshwater from wells at the foothills of the Wolds at Anlaby, which included Julian's Well were used. This was piped, but had been by ditches earlier, and hence, 'Spring Bank' which led to the name of one of the main arteries of the city. Spring Bank runs almost straight from Springhead, at the westernmost edge of the city, to the city centre in its confluence with Beverley Road. Nowadays this makes a E-W green corridor that links the playing fields and allotments of Anlaby, through a green lane that includes the disused Hull and Barnsley railway tracks and sidings at both sides of Calvert Lane now rewilded, through to Stable Walk, and the Western and General Cemeteries. A large tract of Spring Bank West has a wide central reservation, likely a legacy of the old tram system, with a verge and trees which contributes to this green corridor.

It is a cold and cloudy morning. I walk west from home making my way to the Pumping Station alongside Spring Bank, and the parallel path just W of Calvert Lane, a brownfield site with birch and meadows. Bird's foot trefoil is blooming. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs sing, a Fox scuttles ahead into the verges.

A displaying collared dove, bowing and stretching, and doing some footwork in between

The southern path along the western sidings off Calvert Lane. The brownfield that were the disused railway tracks of the Hull and Barnsley railway are now wooded, mainly with birch, and have an interesting flora.

A meadow with flowering Pignut off the railway sidings

I finally get to the Springhead Waterworks. There is a public footpath around it, but the fence and hedges around it makes it hard to get good views.

Behind the waterworks there is a ditch, the Sand Dike, running south-north to the confluence with the Setting dike.

The football pitches just south of the waterworks were teeming with rabbits, I counted 20, many of them young.

Woodpigeons and rabbits on the playing fields.

The waterworks octogonal tower.

The very pleasant Spring Bank West green lane.

Grey Squirrel feeding on a male pine cone.

This Chaffinch sung while sitting on a branch, maybe something wrong with its feet?

One of the ten Swifts flying over Spring Bank West, the highest number I've seen this year.