Wessenden Head Road
3314.9 m · net rise 248.0 m · total ascent 254.9 m · overall 7.5% · confidence: good · Meltham · share
Shape: sustained — 30% of the climbing sits in a quarter of the distance; longest continuous stretch at 10%+ is 56 m.
Found purely from mapping and LiDAR data, and not yet matched against books, race records or lists — it may be well known to locals under a name we've never heard. It was cross-checked against the OS road network, surface models and map tags, but a discovery can still be an artifact of the terrain model or the map. Treat it as a well-evidenced hypothesis until someone has ridden it. If you know this road, tell us what you found — photographs, corrections and local knowledge all welcome; the map links below let you scout it first.
Gradient ladder what do windows mean?
| Window | Maximum | Located at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 m (diagnostic) | ≈16% | 855–857 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 87.2% at 563–565 m across a structure — excluded |
| 3 m (diagnostic) | ≈14% | 859–862 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 70.0% at 563–566 m across a structure — excluded |
| 5 m | ≈14% | 855–860 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 48.6% at 562–567 m across a structure — excluded |
| 10 m | ≈13% | 37–47 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 28.3% at 562–572 m across a structure — excluded |
| 20 m | ≈12.2% | 29–49 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 17.8% at 562–582 m across a structure — excluded |
| 25 m | ≈11.7% | 24–49 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 16.1% at 562–587 m across a structure — excluded |
| 50 m | ≈10.7% | 1468–1518 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 12.4% at 562–612 m across a structure — excluded |
| 100 m | ≈10.3% | 1447–1547 m | under overhead cover terrain reads 10.6% at 562–662 m across a structure — excluded |
may_start_earlierdescends_at_end Extent detection suggests reviewing where this climb starts/ends.
Map
Check this route yourself: Google Maps route via their router · Street View at the base where coverage exists · geojson.io our exact measured line · OpenTopoMap
This climb's data: OCL JSON — the full gradient ladder, quality flags and provenance in the OpenClimb Ladder format.
Measured, not vetted. This page records what the laser record shows about the road's shape — nothing more. Nobody has necessarily ridden or inspected this road for the survey, and a page here is not a recommendation and no guarantee that the road is open, surfaced, rideable or safe. Gates, private sections, missing rights of way and hazards do not show up in elevation data. Check access and conditions on the ground and make your own judgment.
Ridden it, or know better? Submit data for this climb no account needed · Share this climb
© OpenStreetMap contributors · topo tiles © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) · vector tiles OpenFreeMap
Profile
Provenance
{
"analysis_version": "0.1.0",
"sample_interval_m": 1.0,
"interpolation": "bilinear",
"smoothing": "none",
"gradient_windows_m": [
5.0,
10.0,
20.0,
25.0,
50.0,
100.0
],
"diagnostic_windows_m": [
2.0,
3.0
],
"elevation_crs": "EPSG:27700",
"elevation_resolution_m": 1.0,
"elevation_tiles": [
"data/cache/england/bulk_dtm_1m/SE0505.tif",
"data/cache/england/bulk_dtm_1m/SE0510.tif"
],
"calculated_at": "2026-08-19T17:26:07+00:00",
"road_source": "OpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)",
"road_attribution": "\u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL",
"osm_pbf_path": "data/cache/pbf/england-2026-08-12.osm.pbf",
"osm_snapshot": "2026-08-12T20:21:46Z",
"elevation_provider": "Environment Agency",
"elevation_dataset": "EA LIDAR Composite DTM 1m (2022)",
"elevation_licence": "Open Government Licence v3 \u2014 \u00a9 Environment Agency",
"elevation_coverage_id": "13787b9a-26a4-4775-8523-806d13af58fc__Lidar_Composite_Elevation_DTM_1m",
"elevation_tile_ids": [
"SE0505.tif",
"SE0510.tif"
],
"climb_origin": "discovered",
"notes": "Coarse pass: max 10.3% over 200 m (Terrain 50), gain 216.4 m over 2940 m way. EXTENDED by graph walk: +4 segment(s) at base, +0 at top (stop: base=no_descending_continuation, top=no_ascending_continuation; min_avg=2.0%). Review before adopting. DEDUPE: absorbed 2 overlapping proposal(s): leygards-lane, wessenden-head-road-2 ADOPTED (England launch slice 2026-08-16): big-gain.",
"license": "ODbL-1.0",
"license_url": "https://howsteep.org/licensing.html"
}