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 northernmost of the three trans-Pennine railway lines. Elland Railway Station closed in 1962, and at the time of writing (May 2026), work has commenced on rebuilding and reopening it, although it is not expected to be completed until at least 2028. Until then, Calderdale has only six extant railway stations, with the sixth serving the village of Mytholmroyd.

As proceed along the Calder Vale Line towards the border with Lancashire, we shall once again see some of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, as it reaches it end and then joins the Rochdale Canal, parts of which we will follow on the last four walks. The River Calder too will be a constant companion, and shaped the history of the towns and villages of Calderdale by providing water power for the many mills that were erected during the Industrial Revolution. Along the way, we will see the world’s tallest folly, a town hall straddling a county boundary, and an astonishing number of listed bridges. This time, we start at a town that derives its name from one such bridge, as we arrive at Brighouse…