This question is for people who know the town well.
I鈥檓 considering moving there but it鈥檚 been a few years since I last visited. Honestly is it a good place to raise a child?
Thanks in advance. Do you like Lesbians, asbestos, murders & floods?
Housing
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 (for example, a house valued at 拢54,000 in 1998 was valued at nearly 拢150,000 in 2004). 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.
Unsolved murders
Hebden Bridge and nearby Mytholmroyd have seen several unsolved murders in recent years. The first was Agnes Ogden. She was suffocated by an intruder on the night of 18th-19th December 1991 at her home in Mytholmroyd.
The second was Lindsey Rimer. She disappeared on the night of November 7th 1994. She was last seen on CCTV at 22:30 at the Spar supermarket in Hebden Bridge. Her body was found in the Rochdale Canal at Callis Mill the next April.[3].
Acre Mill
Acre Mill was an asbestos mill in the hilltop settlement of Old Town owned by Cape Insulation Ltd.[4] It was open from 1939 to the 1970s and manufactured filters for gas masks. Many people who worked at Acre Mill contracted diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer. The local newspaper still carries stories about people dying from these conditions.
Another legacy of Acre Mill was the disposal of asbestos waste. The main dumping grounds were at Pecket Well, Scout Road and Heptonstall. The issue of how to make these dumps safe is still a current problem and the Pecket Well dump has only just been sealed.
Floods
Because Hebden Bridge is in a valley, it has always had problems with flooding. These tend to affect the area 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 is a flood plain but it is also the playing fields for Calder High School and a number of local football, rugby league and cricket teams.
The 1995 drought
Although Hebden Bridge frequently gets flooded, it also has occasional water shortages. Particularly during the 1990s it had a number of hosepipe bans over summer designed to cut the amount of water used. In 1995 the shortage was particularly severe and the water supply to Hebden Bridge, Halifax and the rest of Calderdale failed completely.
Yorkshire Water, the local water supply company, tried a number of methods to manage the situation. They applied for drought orders to cut the amount of water flowing into rivers, particularly Hebden Water. Emergency supplies of mineral water in bottles and bowsers were provided to public buildings such as schools and hospitals. They also attempted to introduce standpipes to Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd but this was abandoned after threats of civil disturbance.
Another method used was to ship water in from other areas such as Kielder Water in Northumberland. The water was shipped in using tanker lorries and was dumped straight into Scammonden Dam via a specially built holding centre just off the M62 motorway. This was controversial due to the large number of tankers travelling along the busy M62 and A629 Elland bypass, and also because some of the tankers had previously been used for transporting liquid fertiliser.
Yorkshire Water also built a number of emergency pipelines, including one running underneath the Rochdale Canal.
During the drought Yorkshire Water was heavily criticised for having one of the worst rates of water lost due to leaks in their pipes. The amount of water lost was around 30%. Yorkshire Water was privatised in 1991 and a number of people felt that this drought was caused in part by them failing to maintain their network since privatisation.
Attractions
Hebden Bridge lies close to the Pennine Way and the well conserved region of Hardcastle Crags and is popular for outdoor pursuits such as walking, climbing and cycling.
For boaters (typically, people holidaying on narrowboats), Hebden Bridge's many shops and pubs make it a popular overnight or lunchtime stop, between Todmorden and Sowerby Bridge, on the Rochdale Canal - a through route across the Pennines.
The Arts Festival takes place every year in the late spring, the traditional Pace Egg plays are an annual Easter event. Hebden Bridge attracts artists and admirers alike from many miles around.
Walkley's Clog Mill was the only clog factory in the world and has recently moved from its original home at Fallingroyd, to a site on Midgley Road in Mytholmroyd.[5]
Hebden Bridge also has one of the few moorland golf courses left in the area.[6]
Other features
Hebden Bridge is noted for having significant numbers of alternative New Age types and a gay and (especially) lesbian community. In the 1980s and 1990s a lot of lesbians moved there, and to neighbouring Todmorden, to raise their children in a place of mutual support.[7] As of 2004 Hebden Bridge had the highest number of lesbians per head in the UK.[8]
Hebden Bridge railway station features the original Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway colours, rather than the red and cream colours of Metro, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. The station roof was replaced a few years ago during a major overhaul and a cafe was opened in the old Red Star parcel office. No it's very near Manchester which has the title of European Capital of Gun Crime 2008. |
