Top and Bottom Houses, Hebden Bridge. Hebden Bridge is one of the finest examples of a Yorkshire mill town. Here houses cling onto the hillsides that flank this small town. The town is known as the Pennine Centre and takes it's name from the packhorse bridge over Hebden Water. It was founded during medieval times but it was not until the arrival of the Industrial Revoloution and the cotton mills that Hebden Bridge boomed, aided by the arrival of the Rochdale Canal and later a railway. |
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The mid-twentieth century saw the Rochdale
Canal fall into disuse. By 1947, most of the independant
canal companies had sold out to the various railway
companies and when the railways were nationalised under
the Atlee goverment during the post-war reconstruction,
the goverment inherited the canals as well and put them
uder control of British Waterways. Not so the Rochdale
Canal who's company discontinued operating the canal save
for a short stretch in Manchester, linking other
waterways. Recent years have seen a successful campaign
to restore the Rochdale Canal and today boats can visit
Hebden Bridge. The Rochdale Canal. |
| Hebden Bridge is a progressive town, with a
number of it's population drawn to New Age ideals and
alternative lifestyles. The Alternative Technology Centre
by the canal not far from the town centre is well worth a
visit, encouraging people to use renewable sources of
energy such as solar power. www.alternativetechnology.org.uk.
The centre also reflects the Hebden Bridge lifestyle. The ancient custom of 'Page Egging' takes place at various venues around Hebden Bridge on Good Fridays and there are numerous other festivals and events which can be checked out on the town's website at: www.hebdenbridge.co.uk |
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The well-stocked Tourist Information Centre
has plenty of old photographs from the region's past and
features a model of the viaduct that took the Hardcastle
Crags Railway over Blake Dean during the construction of
the Walshaw Dean Reservoirs.HEBDEN
BRIDGE TOURIST
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