Calderdale: Steep Valleys, Stone Towns and the Spirit of the Hills
Calderdale takes its name from the River Calder, which runs through a valley so steep that the towns and villages perch on shelves of land above the water. Halifax, the administrative centre, sits high on one side. The Piece Hall, a stunning colonnaded cloth market built in 1779, has been restored and reopened as a cultural and retail space — it is the only surviving intact piece hall in the country, and on a Saturday morning, with the farmers' market running in the courtyard, it is one of the finest public spaces in northern England.
Hebden Bridge, upstream in the narrowing valley, became a haven for artists, writers, lesbians, and alternative lifesyers from the 1970s onward, when cheap property in a declining mill town attracted people from the cities. It now has more independent bookshops and vegetarian cafes per head than almost anywhere in England. The town floods regularly — the Calder overflows its banks every few years — but rebuilds each time. Todmorden, further up the valley near the Lancashire border, has its own character: the Incredible Edible movement, which planted vegetables in public spaces, started here.
The valley sides are covered in woodland and rough pasture, rising to moorland above. Hardcastle Crags, a National Trust valley of beech woodland and a tumbling stream, is a few minutes from Hebden Bridge. The borough population is around 210,000, with the economy balanced between manufacturing (which persists in the valley in engineering and speciality products), creative industries, commuting to Leeds and Manchester, and public sector employment.
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Calderdale takes its name from the River Calder, which runs through a valley so steep that the towns and villages perch on shelves of land above the water. Halifax, the administrative centre, sits high on one side. The Piece Hall, a stunning colonnaded cloth market built in 1779, has been restored and reopened as a cultural and retail space — it is the only surviving intact piece hall in the country, and on a Saturday morning, with the farmers' market running in the courtyard, it is one of the finest public spaces in northern England.
Hebden Bridge, upstream in the narrowing valley, became a haven for artists, writers, lesbians, and alternative lifesyers from the 1970s onward, when cheap property in a declining mill town attracted people from the cities. It now has more independent bookshops and vegetarian cafes per head than almost anywhere in England. The town floods regularly — the Calder overflows its banks every few years — but rebuilds each time. Todmorden, further up the valley near the Lancashire border, has its own character: the Incredible Edible movement, which planted vegetables in public spaces, started here.
The valley sides are covered in woodland and rough pasture, rising to moorland above. Hardcastle Crags, a National Trust valley of beech woodland and a tumbling stream, is a few minutes from Hebden Bridge. The borough population is around 210,000, with the economy balanced between manufacturing (which persists in the valley in engineering and speciality products), creative industries, commuting to Leeds and Manchester, and public sector employment.
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