Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge is a market town in the civil parish of Hebden Royd, in the Calderdale district of West Yorkshire, England. It is in the Upper Calder Valley, west of Halifax and 14 miles north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and Hebden Water. The town is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Hebden Royd.
In 2015, the Calder ward, covering Hebden Bridge, Old Town, and part of Todmorden, had a population of 12,167. The town had a population of 4,500 as of 2024.
History
The original settlement was the hilltop village of Heptonstall. Hebden Bridge started as a settlement where the Halifax to Burnley packhorse route dropped into the valley and crossed the River Hebden where the old bridge stands. The name Hebden comes from the Anglo-Saxon Heopa Denu, 'Bramble Valley'.Steep hills with fast-flowing streams and access to major wool markets meant that Hebden Bridge was ideal for water-powered weaving mills and the town developed during the 19th and 20th centuries; it is said that at one time Hebden was known as "Trouser Town" because of the large amount of clothing manufacturing. Watercolour artist Thomas Frederick Worrall, who lived in nearby Pecket Well, depicted the mills in around 1900. Drainage of the marshland, which covered much of the Upper Calder Valley before the Industrial Revolution, enabled construction of the road which runs through the valley. Before it was built, travel was only possible via the ancient packhorse route which ran along the hilltop, dropping into the valleys wherever necessary. The wool trade was served by the Rochdale Canal and the Manchester & Leeds Railway .
Hebden Bridge also grew to include a Picture House, which remains open to the present day, and offices for Hebden Bridge Urban District Council. Hebden Bridge has no swimming pool, although for some years there was a small training pool for children in the adult education centre on Pitt Street. Hebden Bridge had its own cooperative society but, during the 1960s, it was defrauded and went bankrupt. The old Co-op building became a hotel and was later converted into flats. The Co-op returned in the 1980s with a supermarket on Market Street, on the site of an old mill.
During the Second World War Hebden Bridge was designated a "reception area" and took in evacuees from industrial cities.
During the 1970s and 1980s the town saw an influx of artists, writers, photographers, musicians, alternative practitioners, teachers, Green and New Age activists and more recently, wealthier 'yuppie' types. This in turn saw a boom in tourism to the area. During the 1990s Hebden Bridge became a commuter town, because of its proximity to major towns and cities both sides of the Pennines and its rail links to Manchester, Bradford and Leeds.
On 6 July 2003, Hebden Bridge was granted Fairtrade Zone status. On 6 July 2014, Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France, from York to Sheffield, passed through the town.
Governance
Hebden Bridge was a chapelry in the parish of Halifax. On 31 December 1894 Hebden Bridge became a civil parish formed from Wadsworth, Heptonstall, Erringden and Stansfield. On 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished to form Hebden Royd. In 1931 the parish had a population of 6312.Hebden Bridge Urban District was established in 1894. In 1937, the council merged with Mytholmroyd Urban District to become Hebden Royd Urban District. Hebden Bridge Urban District was administered as part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. These were abolished in the reforms introduced in the Local Government Act 1972. They were replaced by West Yorkshire, the metropolitan borough of Calderdale and Hebden Royd Town Parish. The town council is a parish council. Recently, it has attracted praise for its commitment to eco-friendly policies, following the example of Modbury in effectively banning all plastic shopping bags, thus becoming the largest community in Europe to do so. The ban is not legally enforceable, but rather a voluntary agreement between local shop owners and the community at large.
Hebden Bridge Town Hall and adjoining fire station is a Grade II listed building, built in 1898. The building was transferred from Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council to Hebden Bridge Community Association on a 40-year lease on 1 April 2010, along with funds for basic maintenance work. Substantial volunteer time was put into renovation works and fundraising to secure the building's future. The £3.7 million raised was used to create a small enterprise centre and new community facilities on land adjacent. More than 450 local people signed up as "Friends of the Town Hall" and became able to vote for the trustees.
Geography
Hebden Bridge lies close to the Pennine Way and Hardcastle Crags and is popular for outdoor pursuits such as walking, climbing and cycling. It lies on the Rochdale Canal – a through route across the Pennines.The town is on the route of the Calderdale Way, a circular walk of about around the hills and valleys of Calderdale, and it is connected with the Pennine Way through the "Hebden Bridge Loop".
Flooding
The town's location in the valley causes problems with flooding particularly between Hebden Water and the cinema on New Road, Brearley Fields in Mytholmroyd, and further up the valley at Callis Bridge by the sewage works and the old Aquaspersions factory. Flooding at Callis Bridge is so frequent that the level of the River Calder has been lowered and special perforated kerbstones fitted so that water can drain back into the river. Brearley on a flood plain contains the playing fields for Calder High School and local football, rugby league and cricket teams. Hebden Bridge suffered two devastating floods in the summer of 2012, and again on Boxing Day 2015; Todmorden, Mytholmroyd, Sowerby Bridge and York were also affected, with houses, pubs, shops and community centres suffering damage to property. The extent of the Hebden Bridge flooding was shown in drone videos of the flooded areas, the most severe flooding occurring in Hebden Bridge town centre.Demography
Hebden Bridge is a popular place to live. However, space is limited due to the steep valleys and lack of flat land. In the past, this led to "upstairs-downstairs" houses known as "over and under dwellings". These were houses built in terraces with 4–5 storeys. The upper storeys face uphill while the lower ones face downhill with their back wall against the hillside. The bottom 2 storeys would be one house while the upper 2–3 storeys would be another. This also led to unusual legal arrangements such as the "flying freehold", where the shared floor/ceiling is wholly owned by the underdwelling.Population changes in the 1990s led to a demand for more houses. This has proved to be extremely controversial for a number of reasons. The limited availability of houses has meant that prices have risen sharply. Demand for new houses is also a contentious issue as many of the sites for proposed development are areas such as fields or woodland that some local residents feel should be left as they are.
Hebden Bridge has attracted artists, and has developed a small New Age community. In the 1980s and 1990s, a prominent lesbian intentional community grew up in nearby Todmorden, and subsequently Hebden Bridge, "promot forms of queer intimacy outside of the nuclear family unit", with "a close-knit community of care" and mutual support, sharing childcare and community events, such as a "famous Todmorden Women’s Disco" held monthly. The nature of that community has changed with evolving queer politics, away from lesbian feminism and towards "homonormative assimilation". Hebden Bridge had the highest number of lesbians per head in the UK.
In April 2005, Hebden Bridge was named the fourth quirkiest place in the world by High Life and was described as "modern and stylish in an unconventional and stylish way".
The town was documented in the 2009 film Shed Your Tears And Walk Away, which made controversial claims about the levels of drug and alcohol abuse in the town, and consequent deaths among young people.
Economy
, the weekly market has moved to Lees Yard adjoining the pedestrian centre of St George Square, and the market days have been increased from two and a half to four full weekly market days: Thursdays to Sundays.Walkley's Clog Mill is one of the country's leading clog manufacturers. It moved from its original home at Falling Royd to a site on Midgley Road in Mytholmroyd.
Acre Mill was an asbestos factory in the hilltop settlement of Old Town, owned by Cape Insulation Ltd. It was opened in 1939 to meet the demand for gas mask filters made from blue asbestos during the Second World War, and diversified into the production of other asbestos products, including rope, pipe lagging and textile, after the war. In 1970, the company closed the mill and moved to Westmorland. The mill was the subject of a 1971 World in Action investigation entitled "The Dust at Acre Mill" which revealed how the factory broke the law regarding asbestos-dust control between 1940 and 1970. By 1979, 12% of a total of 2,200 former employees had asbestos-related disease. The mill was demolished in 1979. Cape Insulation also operated a second factory at Hangingroyd Mill.
Hebden Bridge has built a reputation for "great little shops" and has an unusually high density of independent shops for a UK town of its size with more than 20 cafes and tea rooms, and about 20 pubs, micro pubs and restaurants. In a national survey by the New Economics Foundation in 2010 Hebden Bridge was ranked sixth on a diversity scale and was praised for its independent shops and unique shopping experience. The Fox and Goose, West Yorkshire's first co-operative pub, is owned by 262 residents of Hebden Bridge. The co-operative was established in March 2014, when the pub was purchased from the previous owner.
In February 2016, Hebden Bridge won as the "Best Small Outdoor Market" in the Great British Market Awards run by the National Association of British Market Authorities. In December 2016, Hebden Bridge won the "Great British High Street Award" in the "Small Market Town" category, after most shops, cafes and businesses had bounced back better and more flood resilient than before the Boxing Day floods 2015; Hebden Bridge also won a second award as the People's Choice.