Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge in the Calder Valley of West Yorkshire is one of the most culturally vibrant and most individually characterful small towns in northern England, a former mill town revived since the 1970s by an influx of artists, writers and alternative communities who have created a town of unusual creative energy in the dramatic landscape of the gritstone Pennine valleys. The combination of the Victorian mill town architecture, the creative and independent business culture, the excellent independent shops and restaurants and the beautiful walking available on the surrounding moorland and in Hardcastle Crags creates one of the most rewarding small town experiences in Yorkshire.
The town grew in the nineteenth century as a centre of the textile industry, its position at the confluence of several Calder Valley tributaries providing the water power and the transport links needed for the woollen mills that filled the valley floor. The decline of the textile industry left the town economically depressed but architecturally intact, the survival of the Victorian mill buildings and terrace housing providing the physical framework for the subsequent creative regeneration.
The literary heritage of the area is considerable, Ted Hughes having been born at Mytholmroyd immediately below Hebden Bridge and Sylvia Plath having been buried in Heptonstall churchyard above. The walking from Hebden Bridge through Hardcastle Crags to Haworth across the moor provides one of the most culturally rich walking routes in northern England, traversing the landscape of two of the most celebrated literary associations in Yorkshire.