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Todmorden Trail
Our final station in Calderdale serves the town of Todmorden, located on the very western edge of Yorkshire and in fact straddling the historic boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire, which is formed at this point by Walsden Water, a tributary of the River Calder. The Local Government Act 1888 moved the official boundary, bringing the whole of the town into the West Riding of Yorkshire, and of course today is falls within the Metropolitan and Ceremonial County of West York
Paul Clarke
May 317 min read


Hebden Bridge Trail
Hebden Bridge started life as a settlement based around the old bridge across Hebden Beck (also known as Hebden Water, or the River Hebden). The Hebden part of the town’s name comes from the Anglo-Saxon name “Heopa Denu”, which means bramble valley, whilst the bridge part is self-explanatory and we will cross the eponymous bridge on the walk. Like so many other towns in the West Riding, Hebden Bridge flourished during the Industrial Revolution, with water-powered mills built
Paul Clarke
May 317 min read


Mytholmroyd Trail
Mytholmroyd is the only village in Calderdale with its own railway station, although a sign close to the station directs visitors towards the “town centre”! The village’s distinctive name means “ a clearing for settlement, where two rivers meet”, and the village has existed since at least the thirteenth century, when it was recorded as Mithomrode. Finds from the Bronze and Iron Ages have been found in the area, as has a hoard of Roman coins. The village was once home to a now
Paul Clarke
May 305 min read


Sowerby Bridge Trail
The town of Sowerby Bridge started life as a fording point over the River Calder, close to where it is joined by the River Ryburn. More so even than its neighbouring West Riding towns, it expanded during the Industrial Revolution, with water-powered textile mills erected around the bridge and the opening of the Rochdale Canal providing a route for transport by water over the Pennines. As such, most of its oldest buildings date from the nineteenth century rather than earlier.
Paul Clarke
May 298 min read


Part 6 - Calderdale
Calderdale is the second Metropolitan Borough in modern-day West Yorkshire not to contain a city, being administered from Halifax, its largest town. Like Kirklees, it was formed in 1974. Named after the River Calder, it includes six main towns – in addition to Halifax, these are Brighouse, Elland, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, and Todmorden. All of these bar Elland have a railway station on the Calder Valley Line, which connects Leeds and Bradford with Lancashire and is the
Paul Clarke
May 251 min read
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