This provides a walk along the wooded edge with views over the river towards Thorp Arch Hall and its surrounding farmland.

At the weir a new footpath has been created and this follows the line of the river upstream until the level bankside area runs into the projecting cliffs and a flight of steps zig zags up the embankment to join the high level path. This new path was opened up by a team of regular volunteers which meets once each week to carry out regular and seasonal maintenence work along the path. A local contractor, David Dykes, was engaged to construct the new steps and help with the fixing of edge boards along the path adjacent to the river. More recently there has been a lot of path work completed by the Conservation Volunteer group which is a local community project. Read more about their work here.

The woodland on the eastern side of Deep Dale was bequeathed to Boston Spa Parish Council by Sir George William Martin, KBE, LL D, JP who lived at Adel Grange and was a former Lord Mayor of Leeds. He gifted the land to the Parish Council in 1967 and he in turn seems to have bought it, and other parcels of woodland from the Wetherby Grange Estate/Robert Gunter in 1959 although Trustees of the "Warehousemen, Clerks and Drapers Schools" seem to have been involved with some of the lands purchased. It is a much valued resource both for its natural features leading down to the limestone cliffs at Jackdaw Crag, and also for the pleasure it gives to people who walk there. At the time of the gift the wood was dedicated for the growing of timber by a legal agreement with the Forestry Commission but this restriction was lifted in 1971 to allow the woods to be enjoyed as an amenity for the community.

The Parish Council also owns the riverside meadow immediately to the west of the bridge and more recently has bought the river bank between the public footpath and the centre of the river for the whole of the area between the bridge and the back of the West End estate. This is for use as an amenity space in perpetuity. Since its acquisition in 2008 a lot work has been undertaken to survey the ecology and geology, advice has been taken from FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group), Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the Forestry Commission. A management plan was drawn up by FWAG to establish sound woodland management, environmental conservation and increased public access and education.

Thanks to the support of the local Ward Councillors Leeds City Council has made a generous grant to enable the management plan to be actioned and this started with thinning the area at the bottom of Holgate Lane order to open up the woodland canopy. 

The woodland in Deep Dale was clear felled in around 1920 and since then much of it had grown up very densely packed and many trees are too close together and too tall. The next stage of the Management Plan is at Deep Dale and the thinning of trees has now been completed. This provides better spacing between trees and will encourage understorey species, as well as selecting the native types for the limestone area, such as ash and beech. It will allow more light to fall on the woodland floor and this in turn will encourage the regeneration of natural species of trees, shrubs and wild flowers and will encourage a greater diversity of wildlife. The footpaths will be more open and some views created for greater public enjoyment.

In association with the woodland work the stream has been cleaned and cleared to allow a more regular flow and it is hoped to plant some reed-beds in and alongside the stream which will help to keep the water clean and will provide additional habitat for water-loving plants, birds and insects. 

Geology

 West Yorkshire Geological Trust has designated the riverside area from the bridge to Jackdaw Crag as a Local Geological Site (LGS). The Walton Moraine and the riverside cliffs in Wetherby have also been designated as LGS and whilst both these are outside Boston Spa they are of local interest. The moraine is significant to us because of the effects of the ice of the Vale of York glacier in forming our riverside cliffs/gorge, and the Wetherby cliffs are similar to ours, but of a different stratum of the limestone.

The LGS listings can be seen by clicking these links Boston Spa, Wetherby and Walton. The purpose of these LGS's is to record sites across West Yorkshire which have particular examples of types of geology - the WYGT started with sites down below Leeds and it was the interest of the local geology group which drew attention to our magnesian limestone features, and which then also lead to exploring the morraine in Walton.

Fish species such as salmon, sea trout, barbel, chub and dace all move up and downstream at different times of the year and spawn in the middle and upper reaches of the river.

“Large weirs like the one at Boston Spa have a serious impact on fish communities because they affect the flow of water and can pose a difficult obstacle to overcome,” said Environment Agency fisheries technical specialist Dave Bamford.

“All species of fish, at one or several stages of their life, depend on upstream and downstream migration. Large numbers of salmon are now accessing the tidal River Ouse because water quality has improved and they and other species are trying to move up rivers such as the Ure and Wharfe”.

“The presence of salmon is a useful indicator of good water quality and the Wharfe is particularly suitable for salmon habitat as it has a lot of gravel, which is important for the fish in the earliest stages of their life.”