Purston Jaglin: A winter cycle ride taking in the best place name in Yorkshire - with a fine cafe

It features countryside in the former mining area around Featherstone and takes in pleasant places including High and Low Ackworth and Nostell Priory – an 18th century palladian house built on the site of a priory.

The route also features my favourite place name in the whole of Yorkshire – Purston Jaglin – which is reportedly from the Old English for ‘priest’s farmstead’.

The village also boasts one of my favourite cafe stops, The Prince of Purston, featuring outside seating, a bar and a place where you can buy vegetables.

I do most of my longer rides on a road bike, using a mountain bike for coffee shop commutes et cetera, but I would always recommend the road version for longer rides.

If you’re thinking of getting a road bike, then I’d wait until the spring weather is with us just to be on the safe side, as it’s easier to stay upright on a mountain bike.

Although road bikes are much lighter and will get you up a hill faster than a mountain bike, you do need to have a decent level of fitness to ride the steep hills.

Mountain bike gears go down much lower and you can plod along at walking pace on some going uphill. But I’ve found that 7mph is the slowest I can go on a road bike in bottom gear on a steep climb, ie on the absolute limit.

• Leave the car park at Streethouse, heading west on Whinney Lane and taking the first right on to Mill Lane past the primary school. Follow Mill Lane to the north-east, and bear right through the village of Old Snydale.
• Take the left at the roundabout after the village, heading to Ackton. Turn right on Ackton Lane and follow up to the crossroads at North Featherstone, then turning right.
• Follow the road south, which bears right then turn left on to Station Lane, which goes over the level crossing at Featherstone station, then passing the start of Post Office Road, on which is the famous rugby league ground.
• Turn left at Wakefield Road and right on to Ackworth Road, taking you past the aforementioned Purston Jaglin and a nice cafe stop.
• Turn left at the A628 heading into High Ackworth, go right on Long Lane, right on Lee Lane and turn left on to Station Road, following the road through Low Ackworth, then turning right on the A639. Ackworth, divided into four parts, is thought to have been founded by settlers from modern-day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.
• Turn right on the A6474 and into Thorpe Audlin, then following the road to Badworth.
• Take the right at the roundabout at the village and follow New Road out to Doncaster Road, where you do a quick left and right, and on to Royd Moor Lane.
• Follow up to the A628 and turn right, then go left at the roundabout and into Hemsworth, another of Wakefield’s ‘Five Towns’ and taking its name from ‘Hymel’s enclosure’.
• Turn right on to Wakefield Road in the town centre and head north-west, through Kilnsey and Fitzwilliam. At the latter, go straight over the B6428, until reaching Doncaster Road again.
• A left turn here takes you past the scenic grounds and lake of Nostell Priory, after which, turn right on to West Lane, heading north.
• Turn right at Weeland Road at Sharlston Common, heading east through the former mining village. Those with longer memories will recall its winding wheel memorial once on these pages.
• Turn left at Whinney Lane, taking you back to Streethouse Station car park.

Difficulty: 3/5

Start: Car park, Streethouse Station, Whinney Lane, Streethouse, WF7 6UJ

What3words: wasps.gears.fools

Time: 2hrs 10mins approx

Distance: 22 miles

Climbing: 908ft

Refreshments: The Prince of Purston, 79 Ackworth Road, Featherstone. WF7 5LY

Reference: www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/6373445872