Between the months of September and March, the Society runs a fortnightly lecture programme with talks on a wide variety of aspects of local history. These take place at the Methodist Church in Hebden Bridge (opposite the Co-op) on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7.30 pm. Talks are free to members. Visitors are welcome (£4).

Recordings of presentations are usually made available to members for two weeks after the lecture on Vimeo. Information on how to access these is sent to members when each one is available.

For reports of lectures during the last 12 months go to [Lecture Reports](/lecture-report). Reports of lectures from previous years are available in the relevant Spring [Newsletters](/newsletters). Events for the next season will appear around the beginning of September.

Reports of lectures from previous years are available in the relevant Spring [Newsletters](/newsletters).

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Privacy Policy

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**Membership benefits**  
- Free entry to lectures including access to recordings of those lectures for a short time afterwards (where the lecturer gives consent)
- Free access to the archive when open
- Borrowing rights for the archive (published items only)
- Reduced fees for research enquiries
- Free membership of Family History and other special interest groups
- Two newsletters a year with news, lecture information and short articles
- Regular email news on society and local history matters

Membership costs £15. The membership year runs from 1st September to 31 August each year. If you join after the end of the lecture season in April your membership will include the following subscription year. Renewal invitations to existing members are sent out at the end of August each year.

The information you supply is used by us in accordance with the Data Protection legislation to administer your membership of the Society. Our privacy policy is available [here](/pages/privacy-policy) or you can contact the [Membership Secretary](/contacts/membership-secretary). Your personal information will never be passed on to third parties without your consent. 

## Download the membership form:

[Download a membership form](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/raw/upload/v1661940918/Email_membership_form_2022_fe8eafeb33.doc)

##  Or pay online:


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Join the Society

**International customers**  
Please note that the shipping prices quoted below are to United Kingdom addresses only. Before ordering, please [contact us](mailto:orders@hebdenbridgehistory.org.uk) for details of shipping costs to addresses outside the United Kingdom.

**UK shipping costs**  
Prices quoted below are for individual books. Shipping costs for multiple books are calculated on checkout.

**Publications Mailing List**  
If you would like to be added to our mailing list so that we can inform you of future publications, [please click here.](/contacts/join-the-mailing-list)

**Your privacy**  
The contact information you supply when buying a publication is used by us in accordance with the Data Protection legislation to administer your purchase. Our privacy policy is available [here](/pages/privacy-policy) or you can contact the [Membership Secretary](/contacts/membership-secretary). Your personal information will never be passed on to third parties without your consent.


Browse the books published by the Society

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Publications

The archive will normally be open every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 2-5pm. However, this is subject to volunteer availability. Any closed days are indicated below. Numbers at each session are limited and pre-booking is required by emailing the [Archivist](/contacts/archivist-1). If possible, please indicate which documents you would like to look at. Our catalogue can be searched here:  [Catalogue search](/catalogues/hblhs-archive-catalogue).  
Non-members who wish to visit the archive are very welcome to do so but must pay a visitor’s fee of £3.00.  
It may be possible to arrange alternative visiting times if you are unable to visit at the standard opening times.

## 2024

|           |  Wednesday 2 – 5pm |  Thursday 2-5pm |
|-----------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|
| January   | 10th; 17th; 24th closed; 31st                   | 11th; 18th; 25th                  |
| February  | 7th; 14th; 21st; 28th                   | 1st; 8th; 15th; 22nd; 29th                   |
| March     | 6th;  13th; 20th closed; 27th                     | 7th; 14th; 16th; 21st; 28th                        |
| April     | 3rd closed; 10th closed; 17th; 24th                      | 4th; 11th; 18th; 25th closed                       |
| May       | 1st; 8th; 15th; 22nd; 29th                     | 2nd; 9th; 16th closed; 23rd closed; 30th closed                        |
| June      | 5th; 12th; 19th; 26th                    | 6th; 13th; 20th; 27th closed                  |
| July      | 3rd;  10th closed; 17th; 24th; 31st            | 4th; 11th closed; 18th; 25th                     |
| August    | 7th; 14th; 21st; 28th               | 1st; 8th; 15th; 22nd closed; 29th closed                     |
| September | 4th; 11th; 18th; 25th               | 5th closed; 12th closed; 19th; 26th                 |
| October   | 2nd; 9th; 16th; 23rd; 30th           | 3rd; 10th; 17th; 24th; 31st                    |
| November  | 6th; 13th; 20th; 27th            | 7th; 14th; 21st; 28th                   |
| December  | 4th; 11th; 18th; 25th closed                | 5th; 12th; 19th; 26th closed                |


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Visit our archive

The Society will do its best to answer queries about the history of the Upper Calder Valley using the expertise of members and our archive but cannot guarantee to provide a complete or satisfactory result. The Society does not accept any liability for the accuracy or completeness of information provided.

There is a nominal charge for queries of £2 for members of the Society and £5 for non members. These sums go towards helping to maintain the Archive. Your request may be submitted using the form below which will take you to our shop for payment. Unfortunately we are unable to answer any queries for which payment has not been received.

It may be possible to supply copies of documents by email or post subject to the completion of a copyright declaration form. Basic digital copies are free. Photocopies are charged at 10p per page and £1 for postage. These charges are additional to the query charge


## Information request

Please follow the links below. When you click to submit the form you will be then asked to make a payment of £5 for non-members or £2 for members.

The information you supply is used by us in accordance with the Data Protection legislation to administer your enquiry. Our privacy policy is available [here](/pages/privacy-policy) or you can contact the [Membership Secretary](/contacts/membership-secretary). Your personal information will never be passed on to third parties without your consent. We would like to keep your information on file to keep you updated on this query and to let you know about other information that may be of interest. Please select Yes in the cart summary if you consent.

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Research service

The Family History Group is a sub-group of the Hebden Bridge Local History Society and meets regularly at the Birchcliffe Centre to further our knowledge of the people who live and have lived in the Upper Calder Valley. We also are happy to help local people who are researching their own families in different parts of the country.

The aim of the group is to promote and assist the study of genealogy and family history, the prime interest being the study of people and where they lived. We do this by:
- offering members an opportunity to meet like-minded people locally and to share their interests, resources and experience
- helping people with online research sources and we welcome visitors to our drop in sessions for this purpose. We have access to genealogy and other resources. More experienced members are always needed to help at these sessions.
- building up a database of local families and welcome any contributions to this. There are a number of surnames local to the Upper Calder valley such as Greenwood and Sutcliffe.
- welcoming visitors from other parts of the country and from abroad, who are researching families that originated in this area. 


**Meetings**

Meetings are usually held on Tuesday mornings between 10am and 1pm at the Birchcliffe centre. There is a visitor's charge of £3. Numbers at each session are limited and booking is essential to ensure that there is a volunteer available to help with your enquiry.  If you are not able to visit on a Tuesday please let us know and we may be able to arrange for you to visit on another day.

You can book by using the [contact form](/contacts/family-history-session-bookings). Please also use this contact form for further information about the Family History Group.

**Research enquiries**

We try to answer research enquiries from people who are unable to visit us. Enquiries can be submitted via our [Research Service](research-service) for a small fee.

**Monumental inscriptions**

We have now completed transcribing the gravestones in the Heptonstall Old Churchyard which has taken several years. It was an enormous task, especially when working on the older graves. The results can be accessed on the [Monumental inscriptions](monumental-inscriptions) page. Another team has transcribed the graves in the ‘new’ churchyard and these are also accessible on the same page. All these transcriptions can also be found on the [Calderdale Family History Society](https://www.cfhsweb.com/index/select/). We hope to continue the task in other local graveyards.


Family history articles from HBLHS Newsletters

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Family history

For some years now a small group of friends has been exploring the evidence for prehistoric activity in the South Pennines, roughly from the M62 up to the Stanbury-Colne road and from the main Pennine watershed in the west across to the urban fringe in the east. There is no particular prehistoric or archaeological significance in these boundaries, this is simply the present extent of our fieldwork.

The images below illustrate some of the features we have examined. Below the images are articles and updates that provide summaries of our work over the years.

![Arrowhead](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648910930/Arrowhead_a416f2f455.jpg#medium)

Arrowhead: a typical barbed and tanged arrow-tip from the early bronze age. It would have been fixed to the shaft using wool twine and birch bark glue. This one seems to be made from grey Wolds flint – flint does not occur naturally in the South Pennines and was traded across country. These arrowheads are often found damaged from use. This undamaged one, from Midgley Moor, may be a hunting loss or a ritual deposition.

![Millers Grave](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911057/Millers_Grave_d11ae23650.jpg#medium)

Miller's Grave: a singular feature. The name is modern but the thing itself is prehistoric. 
The central element, either two slabs of rock close together or one that has split, has been surrounded and concealed from view by a substantial bank of earth and stones. Robin Hood’s Penny Stone – another modern name for a much older feature – can be seen on the skyline.

![Letterstones](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911126/Letterstones_53d1b9f460.jpg#medium)

Letterstones: Prominent stone overlooking Green Withens valley and oriented toward where the sun rises in November and again in February marking the pre-Christian festivals of Samain and Imbolc (which were later adopted and adapted as All Souls and Candlemas), essentially straddling winter and denoting the end of the harvest season and the coming of spring.

![Linear feature, Widdop](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911192/Linear_feature_Widdop_5927d5b8eb.jpg#medium)

Linear feature, Widdop: a curious wall of erect slabs curving down the valley side edging a one-time re-entrant. The reservoir water here, as elsewhere, has stripped off the peat and soil to leave the prehistoric land surface exposed. Where erosion has continued the slabs have fallen over. This linear feature may have been a ritual boundary or the basis for a stock-proof barrier to keep animals away from the stream people were using.

![The Gorple Dagger](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911298/The_Gorple_Dagger_286beb338c.jpg#medium)

The Gorple Dagger: a high status, prestige item which would have been worn for show. The flint dagger is a copy of early bronze forms and would have had a handle of decorated bone, horn or wood. This is one of the best examples in the country and is similar to north European forms. It was found adjacent to a washed-out burial on the shore of Upper Gorple Reservoir. The acid soils of the South Pennine uplands have destroyed many traces of prehistoric people; bone, wood, leather, horn, textile and ceramic are very unlikely to survive.

![Recording rock art](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911387/Recording_rock_art_2_55880f2956.jpg#medium)

Recording rock art: a camera-on-a-stick is being used to take a vertical photo (as an alternative to making a scale drawing in the field)

![Standing stone, Heptonstall](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911478/Standing_stone_Heptonstall_aecbb9e0c9.jpg#medium)

Standing stone, Heptonstall: sited just above the break of slope, and now incorporated into a wall, this stone may well have a stellar reference. There are several stones that appear to point to a position on the horizon too far south of east for the sun or moon. In fact they all indicate a place where the constellation Capricornus rose in 1500BC.

![Cupmarks, Higher Moor](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911643/Cupmarks_Higher_Moor_d56f5cfba2.jpg#medium)

Cupmarks, Higher Moor: just south of Stoodley Pike. The cup-marks - the circular depressions – are a common form of prehistoric rock art. These cups seem to have been placed in a particular configuration.

![Midwinter sunrise](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911748/Midwinter_sunrise_ac53012722.jpg#medium)

Midwinter sunrise: From Robin Hood’s Penny Stone the midwinter sun appears to rise out of the Miller’s Grave. This kind of alignment to significant solar and lunar events is quite common in prehistoric features and is unlikely to have occurred by chance here.

![Robin Hood's Penny Stone](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648911839/Robin_Hood_s_Penny_Stone_9104094c9d.jpg#medium)

Robin Hood's Penny Stone: a large block of a gritstone called Huddersfield White Rock. HWR outcrops further down the moor and this stone may have been moved some 300m to its present position

![Barrow, Ridge](https://res.cloudinary.com/hhdifljso/image/upload/v1648910930/Barrow_Ridge_5f9741d9f4.jpg#medium)

Barrow, Ridge: a turf-covered mound of stones with a ditch around it. Another form of prehistoric burial.


Evidence of prehistoric activity in the South Pennines

Articles and updates

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Prehistory Group

From generation to generation, people pass on their own ways of doing things to families, friends, colleagues and anyone they spend time with. These fragments of their culture can include all sorts of information - how to dress, games and rhymes, customs to keep around the house or community, what seasonal festivals to observe and how, sayings and expressions and much more.

This body of acquired knowledge can be thought of as cultural tradition, and varies from place to place, helping to foster a sense of identity from family to village to school or larger unit, such as a country. It is more widely known under the name of folklore.

John Billingsley collates the folklore side of local history for the society. The Folklore Section covers the everyday customs and expressions of local people as well as the stories they tell and the customs they observe. We would invite anyone to share folkloric memories or documentary material on the folklore of our area, either for publication here or for inclusion in our expanding database. Please contact John through the [Society Secretary](/contacts/secretary).
 
John has been involved with local folklore for thirty years, as a speaker and writer, and as a tutor for Bradford University’s Lifelong Learning Department. He also leads guided walks with strong folkloric content for Calderdale Heritage Walks and is the author and editor of several books, as well as the ‘new antiquarian’ magazine, Northern Earth (www.northernearth.co.uk). Readers wishing to follow up local folklore may find the titles below of interest:
- A Stony Gaze: Investigating Celtic and other stone heads. Capall Bann 1998
- Charming Calderdale. Signs and customs used to protect the home folk-magically. Northern Earth 2020
- Folk Tales from Calderdale. Place legends and their context. Northern Earth, 2007
- Hood, Head & Hag: Further folk tales from Calderdale. Special focus on Robin Hood, the severed head motif and witchcraft. Northern Earth, 2011
- West Yorkshire Folk Tales. History Press, 2010
- The Mixenden Treasure: A true tale of magic in 16th-century W Yorkshire. Northern Earth, 2009

Below are articles, including photographs, that offer a flavour of the stories that are still told in Calderdale communities in the surrounding areas.




Articles

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Folklore

THIS PAGE IS HERE JUST FOR THE INFO TO PLACE ON THE HOMEPAGE. DO NOT ADD TO OR AMEND

Our Newsletters are usually published in September and April, at the start and the end of the lecture season

Newsletter Archive

Through our lecture programme, archive collections, special interest groups and publications, we offer a variety of ways to enhance your knowledge of the history of the Upper Calder Valley.

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Welcome to Hebden Bridge Local History Society

Todmorden Town Hall, one of the most impressive buildings in the Calder Valley, is about to celebrate its 150th birthday, as Margareta Holmstedt told Hebden Bridge Local History Society. She has lived in Todmorden since 1970, serving as a town councillor for many years, and as a volunteer guide and member of the Town Hall Friends is both knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

Todmorden had no real identity before the Industrial Revolution. Its position on the county boundary of Lancashire and Yorkshire meant it looked more towards Manchester and the cotton industry, growing rapidly in the 1800s. There was very little local government. Local decisions were taken by church vestry committees; boards of health and magistrate courts met in local pubs. A growing sense of civic pride led to a desire for a more dignified and prestigious place.

In 1860 a committee was formed to build a town hall, a site chosen and foundations laid. But the timing was wrong, as the American Civil War cotton boycott meant they ran out of money. It was the pre-eminent and wealthy Fielden family, (Radical MP John Fielden and his nephews) who ten years later bought the site and engaged the architect John Gibson, who had designed such different Fielden-linked buildings as Dobroyd Castle and the Unitarian church. 

On the first floor was to be a grand ballroom, and the ground floor was to be the new home of the Magistrates’ Court. It was completed by 1875, costing the Fieldens £54,000. The Magistrates now had a dignified place to conduct their business, with rooms for the police, a dock for the accused and seats for the public to see justice done. But the pride of the place must have been the glittering ballroom, reached by a sweeping staircase, wide enough for the ladies’ voluminous skirts. There was a sprung floor for the dancing, but also a stage and balcony for musical performances. The decoration was superb, with the best stucco and numerous sculptures and relief medallions. Todmorden could also show off its cutting edge technology, with ultra-modern ‘gasoliers’ – gas chandeliers, which elegantly provided ventilation through hidden vents, allowing stale air to rise and be expelled through the roof.

The opening ceremonies in April 1875 were lavish – with a procession lasting 4 hours and a banquet of nine courses for 400 people. Todmorden finally had a building to be proud of, in a classical style, and topped with a beautifully sculpted pediment celebrating the dual heritage of Lancashire and Yorkshire skills. However it was its position, literally built on top of the river marking the boundary that left Todmorden as a proud possessor of a town hall but no town. It was not possible to incorporate a borough that was in two counties. The boundary was redrawn in 1888, so that Todmorden was in Yorkshire. It was not until 1896 that Todmorden was granted its charter as a town, but some families still haven’t forgiven the betrayal. 

Guided visits are regularly available and look out for lavish celebrations in March 2025.



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Todmorden Town Hall - 150 years old


Who knew that so much information could be gathered from wills and probate records or that maps and records to excite a group of neighbours would be found in the Hebden Bridge Local History Society’s archive?

Instead of the usual lecture, members of the Society were invited to report on their recent and ongoing research. Barbara Hall has been involved for many years with a group looking at late 17th century Wills, Inventories and Probate Documents  from the ancient parish of Halifax. Barbara explained the meticulous process of transcription and research of documents from the Borthwick Institute in York. Groups in Hebden Bridge and Halifax  have now successfully published this work, with indexes, glossaries and analysis.

Barbara’s group has now moved on to the first decade of the 18th century in the township of Halifax itself, and already there is plenty to interest family and local historians. Family relationships can be untangled, and the inventories of house rooms and contents provide a snapshot of how people lived and the details of their occupations and wealth and debt. Perhaps another book is on the way.

Sheila Graham reported how a group of neighbours at Edge Hey Green in Colden banded together to find out more about their properties. They wanted to understand when the houses were built and by whom; who lived there; what their lives would have been like; how they would have been employed.

The architecture – different window styles and obvious additions - provided some clues that this was not built as a unified row. Some of the three storey backs had one roomed under-dwellings which have been integrated with the front house – explaining the mystery of gaps in modern house numbers. Deeds and auction adverts provided more details about the cottages.

The group made use of historic maps, including one from 1833 held in Calderdale and Hebden Bridge LHS archives, with area and names of fields as well as all the buildings. It links with information in the Township Valuation book which gives names of owners and tenants of cottages and farms as well as their annual rental values.

The first census of 1841 shows that 75% of the occupants were hand loom weavers and Uttleys, Greenwoods and Sutcliffes occupied over half the houses. In a later census the occupants all stated that they were born in Heptonstall with the furthest coming from Sowerby.
The census in 1861 showed signs of social change with the end of handloom weaving and more working in the mills. Older former handloom weavers were now often defined as ‘paupers’. A number of elderly women paupers lived in one cottage, with a 9 year old girl the only worker – this was actually one of several small workhouses in the area. In the Society archive the records of the Poor Law guardians reveal the scale of the poverty during the ‘cotton famine’ of 1862-3, with almost every household on the row receiving some kind of help, including a Christmas dinner.

Both talks provoked a lot of interest from those with their own memories and information to share. Hebden Bridge Local History Society would love to hear about other local research members are involved in.

report by Catherine Chatham


Members' talks by Barbara Hall and Sheila Graham

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Where there's a will & Neighbours and a neighbourhood


Peter Thornborrow is well known for his talks about buildings, and drawing on his experience as an architectural historian and surveyor of listed buildings, he introduced members of Hebden Bridge Local History Society to Hartley Royd in Shore. He described a remote moorland location and showed the remains of the drovers’ roads, packhorse tracks and causey ways which allowed textile production to flourish alongside agriculture. As well as the tracks, large crosses still remain where they have marked the salt ways since Medieval times. Stone drinking troughs are a reminder of the pack horses which were a crucial part of the transport system until the advent of turnpike roads more suitable for wheeled vehicles.

When Peter first encountered Hartley Royd to complete its listing, it was in a semi-derelict state, with windows walled up and mullions missing. The owner at the time was not co-operative and when he found that the listing involved an obligation to repair the building, he decided to sell. The new owners were very keen to restore the house, and Peter took on the job of designing the restoration. This involved examining the building to find evidence of how it had been built and used. Some of the building dated back to the 16th century, and was probably originally timber-framed. The upper floor with a transom window was where the weaving workshop was situated, and below was a vaulted arched cellar. 

Alongside the architectural clues, detailed inventories from probate records, listing the contents of each room, provided evidence of how rooms were used. There were two parlours at the front of the house, to the east and west of the entrance and at the rear the service rooms - a kitchen as well as the housebody which would have been at the heart of the building. A restoration project can also pick up evidence of changes from hearth tax returns. People were taxed on the number of hearths or fireplaces there were in the house, and the records of these show that Hartley Royd went from three to four hearths. The original arched fireplaces were still in place. Other architectural features were influenced by the location; then as now Hartley Royd was frequently subject to wind and rain, and it was to mitigate this that the house has unusual recessed doorways and an inner porch and entrance lobby.

The detailed inventory listing everything from beds and their hangings to the arks for storing oatmeal brought colour and detail to life lived in this remote area. There were oxen with their yokes used for ploughing and a few cows identified by their names. Tools like harrows, mattocks and turf spades for cultivating the land and were also listed. The second arm of the dual economy was textile production, and the shop, wool chamber and shop chamber were the location of equipment for spinning and weaving cloth. Images from Peter’s collection illustrated many of these items.
 





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The dual economy of textiles and agriculture: a case study at Hartley Royd

As Michael Peel explained, you won’t find a place called Calderdale on the map, and until the Calderdale Metropolitan Borough was created in 1974, the name had very little currency. It encompassed the settlements of the Calder Valley from Todmorden to Brighouse, including the largest town of Halifax. The Local Government Act of 1972 aimed to reduce the number of councils, streamlining services and responsibilities of district and county councils. As a journalist, Michael has monitored the activities of Calderdale from its beginnings, and drew on reports in the local and national press over the years to remind us of what has changed and how much has remained the same. 

In the 70s there was a legacy of housing deemed to be unfit for habitation, and many in the council were keen to employ the wrecking ball and start afresh. One news story highlighted how squatters ‘invaded’ a row of unoccupied houses marked for demolition in Queen’s Terrace, Hebden Bridge in the early 70s. Opinion in the town was split, but in the end the council opted to bring such houses up to date, and with council improvement grants much of the housing stock was retained. Redundant textile mills were also ear-marked to be demolished but some saved by conversions into apartments or, in the case of Nutclough Mill, into premises for tech companies like Calrec Audio. 

Tourism was the major economic activity in the Upper Calder Valley and the council set to encourage visitors and give support for the reopening of the Rochdale Canal and  local walks such as the Calderdale Way. Hebden Bridge town centre was a sad sight with a quarter of shops standing empty in 1975. There were ambitious plans to demolish old buildings in St George’s Square, with futuristic replacements, but instead the council opted for pedestrianisation using large planters to do the job.

Increased tourism raised the issue of another intractable problem: parking. There were some rather alarming plans such as using Calder Holmes as a coach and car park, and building a multi-storey carpark on Garden Street. Ever increasing parking charges helped to limit traffic with the added benefit of providing an income stream to an ever cash-strapped council. But the problem remains.

Over the years the demand for services crashes into the lack of funding from central government. Recent years have seen losses of the services expected fifty years ago – swimming baths, libraries, police stations, courts, fire stations have all closed as part of the drive to save money. But there has been renewal across the Borough – new medical centres and hospitals, flood alleviation schemes, road by-passes and the successful re-imagining of the Piece Hall.

 Interest in formal local democracy may be weak, but people in Calderdale are still keen to make their opinions known, with campaigns, meetings and marches the chosen vehicles. Local newspapers no longer have the influence of fifty years ago, but perhaps social media can get people more directly involved with issues of democracy? 






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Fifty years of local democracy in Calderdale: an awkward birth, a tough upbringing and a place well worth celebrating.

Lecture reports

Todmorden Town Hall - 150 years old

Where there's a will & Neighbours and a neighbourhood

The dual economy of textiles and agriculture: a case study at Hartley Royd

Fifty years of local democracy in Calderdale: an awkward birth, a tough upbringing and a place well worth celebrating.

August 1842 - the people versus the establishment