HARDCASTLE CRAGS
Hardcastle Crags, just outside Hebden Bridge, is a deep wooded gorge, known as a clough in these parts, where Hebden Water flows among magnificent trees. Many were planted in the 1870s to improve the views on the drive to Lord Savile’s Walshaw estate on the hillside above.
It is an idyllic spot, covering 400 acres, now owned by the National Trust. Walks lead through the woods and by the river to the Crags and Gibson Mill, built by Abraham Gibson circa 1800 and used to make cotton and fustian cloth until 1902, when it was converted into a restaurant.
Gibson Mill is now a flagship off-grid property for the Trust. Its remote location meant it was difficult to get utilities to the site, so the mill, café and surrounding buildings are now totally self-sufficient in energy from solar photovoltaic panels, a biomass stove and hydro-electric turbines, powered by the original millpond, and in waste treatment, with composting toilets on site. The empty weaving spaces, which would have once been full of noise and dust from the machinery, are now atmospheric spaces for events and exhibitions.
The surrounding woodland would have been a valuable resource, with oak bark cut to supply tanneries, alder harvested for clog makers, trees coppiced or felled to supply coopers and furniture makers, and holly and beech wood turned into bobbins for the cotton mills.
“After the Boxing Day flood in 2015, the Trust has been working in partnership with Slow the Flow Calderdale to implement what’s known as Natural Flood Management,” explains National Trust ranger Natalie Pownall. “We’ve started to thin out areas planted with non-native conifers and large stands of beech, where few other plants can survive underneath their canopies. With the increased light, plants will grow, and biodiversity will improve. That wood has then been used to create more than 500 leaky dams in gullies across the site. In heavy rainfall, these encourage water to spill out at the sides and soak into the surrounding soil. This not only helps to prevent flooding downstream in Hebden Bridge, it’s also preventing silt and sediment from entering the river.”
The Crags are home to the northern Hairy Wood ant, distinguished from its southern cousin by its hairy eyebrows. “In autumn, the ants go into hibernation, but it’s still possible to see their enormous ant hills made from piles of pine needles,” says Natalie. “There’s one ant hill that’s nearly as tall as me, and I’m 5ft 10in (1.77m). Some of them are decades old.” Each nest is made up of a labyrinth of tunnels, which go several feet below ground. It is estimated there can be half a million ants in each nest, and it is thought that there are approximately 400 nests in the woods of Hardcastle Crags. “They’re a keystone species: without them other species would decline,” says Natalie. “The ants are one of the green woodpecker’s main food sources, which probably explains why we have such a good population at the Crags.”
For Natalie, it is the range of habitats that makes this a special place. “Normally with woodland management, you do the work during the winter months, finishing in March so that you don’t disturb the nesting birds, but here there are hay meadows, pastureland and lots of drystone walling to keep on top of. We have Roe deer and bats, and snipe and woodcock do dusk displays in the breeding season. A favourite walk of mine is the railway trail beyond the mill. There’s a beautiful mix of native trees and some old quarries, where I’ve seen Barn owls flying.”
needed to find another source of income, so they learned how to spin and weave wool. By the 16th century, the Calder Valley was well-known for its kersey cloth: a hard-wearing, waterproof fabric that was used for coats and jackets. This cottage industry was carried out in farmhouses and hamlets throughout the area, with the cloth transported to the growing market towns of Halifax and Rochdale along packhorse roads.
The valley bottom at this point was boggy, so the transport network of packhorse routes kept to the drier, higher ground, only dropping down into the valley to cross streams. The area is criss-crossed with these tracks; many of which are still passable and used by walkers.
As demand for cloth grew, entrepreneurial locals recognised the need to scale up production. Mills with water wheels were built to harness the power of the fast-flowing streams that tumbled down the hillsides, and, gradually, these sites became the focus for new settlements.
Trouser Town
Up until this point, Hebden Bridge was little more than a spot where the Burnley to Halifax packhorse route came down from the moorland to cross the fast-flowing Hebden Water. The topography of the area, with its deep valleys and waterlogged moorland, meant travel was difficult, particularly in harsh winters. But canals changed that. Along with the development of water-powered mills, the opening in 1804 of the Rochdale Canal, through the bottom of the valley, meant a town quickly grew around the production of fustian: a heavy, hard-wearing cotton fabric, mainly used to produce corduroy and moleskin for men’s clothing; especially trousers.
The Rochdale Canal travels for 32 miles from Manchester through Hebden Bridge to Sowerby Bridge. This incredible feat of engineering, using 91 locks to climb over the Pennines, transformed the Calder Valley. Cloth could be moved far more easily and in larger volumes, but, more importantly, it meant
that coal from mines in Lancashire and Yorkshire could be transported to places such as Hebden Bridge, making steam-powered mills and increased production possible. In its heyday, towards the end of the 19th century, Hebden Bridge was producing so much of this fabric it became known as ‘Trouser Town’.
The town’s population grew quickly, as did the need for places for people to live, but the lack of level building plots made this tricky. Hebden’s quirky ‘over and under’ terraced houses, that give it its unique look, were the innovative solution to the problem, creating two houses in one. Four- or five-storey houses were built, with the upper storeys facing uphill, forming one house, and the lower storeys facing downhill, with their back wall against the hillside, forming the other. It is a peculiarity that local solicitors often have to explain to mortgage lenders.
The textile industry slowly fell into decline in the 20th century as a result of cheaper imports. By the 1960s, mills and houses in Hebden Bridge stood empty as people left to find work elsewhere. But the town reinvented itself, thanks to an influx of creative people attracted by the relatively inexpensive housing and workspaces, so much so that it was crowned ‘Best Small Market Town’ in 2016, thanks to the wide collection of independent shops and places to eat.
Near the park is the Picture House; an Art Deco cinema, which is one of the last civic-owned cinemas in the country. A metal sculpture representing a fustian cloth-maker’s knife is at the heart of St George’s Square. Nearby is the Grade II listed White Lion Hotel, with the year 1657 carved in stone above the door, making it one of the town’s oldest buildings.
Many of the mills have been repurposed into workspaces for modern businesses. Nutclough Mill, the first workers’ co-operative textile mill in the world and the largest remaining mill building in the town, was scheduled for demolition in the 1980s, but survives, thanks to the restoration by Pennine Heritage, a local charity that promotes and conserves the area’s distinctive character. The mill is now the headquarters of an audio broadcasting equipment company. Other mills have become studios for yoga classes, as well as photographers and artists, such as Julia Ogden.
Originally from Brighouse in West Yorkshire, she came to Hebden 10 years ago. “I moved here after a spell of living in Brighton, because I missed the hills and open spaces,” she explains. Julia, who studied illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art, has gone on to develop a career painting landscapes inspired by the local area and creating screen prints of whimsical characters, such as cats and bears. “I love the colours here and the diversity of the area, and the old mills make great studios because of their high ceilings and big windows,” she says. “I paint best with plenty of natural light, and I love being surrounded by the history of these places. Lately, I’ve been focusing on skies in my paintings, so
if it’s a fantastic view with an interesting sky, it will be the right spot for me to paint.”
Hilltop hamlet
From Julia’s studio on Hangingroyd Lane, it is a short walk to the old packhorse bridge, which has stood since 1510, although it is likely that the stone structure replaced an earlier wooden one. Over the bridge, the old packhorse route, a cobbled street called the Buttress, rises steeply up to the pretty hilltop village of Heptonstall, which is a ¾-mile walk from here and well worth the climb. ‘Tonstall’ was a word that described the cattle-rearing farms of the area and is a common suffix in the region’s place names. This atmospheric spot was a pre-industrial centre for handloom weaving before the water-powered mills in Hebden took over production, and walking the narrow streets past rows of weavers’ cottages feels like stepping back in time. The cottages have rows of multiple windows to let in more light, so the weavers could see what they were doing in those days before electricity.
Notable buildings in the village include an unusual octagonal Methodist chapel on Northgate, built in 1764, and the 16th century Cloth Hall, the oldest in Yorkshire, where weavers would have brought their cloth to sell to merchants.
Two churches dominate the centre of the village. Along with the ruins of the 13th century St Thomas a’ Becket church, which was damaged by a storm in 1847, is its replacement: the church of St Thomas the Apostle, completed in 1854. It has three graveyards: in the third and newest one, across Back Lane, lies the grave of Sylvia Plath, American poet, author and the first wife of local poet Ted Hughes.
The old grammar school, established in 1642, is now home to the village’s museum. It was a school until 1889, then the Yorkshire Penny Bank from 1898 to 1954, when the building was gifted to the council. “The museum contains the original school desk and teacher’s lectern; books from the grammar school; and exhibitions on Neolithic and ancient archaeological finds, the English Civil War, the Cragg Vale Coiners and some examples of hilltop life, such as the knur and spell game,” explains Lynn Grady, visitor services manager for Calderdale museums. Knur and spell was a game played in Yorkshire and Lancashire, which has been described as poor man’s golf. It was played in a field by men who would hit a ball, called a knur, that was launched
“May Moorland weavers boast Pindaric skill, And tailors’ lays be longer than their bill! While punctual beaux reward the grateful notes, And pay for poems when they pay for coats”
Lord Byron, ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire’