B6137

A short route connecting small West Yorkshire towns, the B6137 is also mostly anonymous and unsignposted.

The road begins at a crossroads on the A656 just east of Kippax, which is unusually a rural signalised junction. The A-road here is subject to a 50mph limit but the other approaches are NSL.

After a short run westwards between fields the road arrives at Kippax, which - like most places around here - is a former mining town, now serving mostly as a dormitory settlement for Leeds commuters. It is centred on the peak of a steep hill, where the B6137 turns to the right at a very small roundabout. The approach from the east is actually quite level, running along the high point of a ridge with side-streets running downhill to both sides, but from the roundabout both other options also drop away steeply.

Kippax

We run downhill to the north from here, and shortly the road opens out to form the main road through a large 1970s housing estate, typical of Leeds's expansion in that era. Similar brown brick semis are found all over Garforth, Allerton Bywater, Boston Spa and elsewhere.

Kippax ends and the road rolls across some gentle hills for a while, under a 40mph limit and with streetlighting all the way. Before long it stops at the A63 at a notorious T-junction called Charlie Sweep's Corner. This tricky Give Way junction has seen more than its share of bumps and scrapes. We turn left here, following the A63 Selby Road over a disused railway line and turn right onto Lidgett Lane at a set of traffic lights - installed in 2008 to replace another formidable Give Way line that was well known for waits of up to five minutes for right-turning traffic to make it on to the A63. The section north of here was originally unclassified, although had become part of the B6137 within ten years of classification.

The road here is again suburban, with bungalows on one side and the local secondary school on the other. Speed bumps are installed here as we pass a primary school and, a couple of turns later, we are among Victorian miners' terraces and, on Garforth Main Street, the slightly run-down centre of the town. Again, Garforth is mostly a dormitory these days, and most people shop elsewhere, leaving this as a quiet run of charity shops and convenience stores, though it does have a couple of well-regarded family businesses, including a rightly famous traditional butcher.

At the top of the hill we reach another signalised crossroads, this time with the A642, where the B6137 terminates without fanfare.