Arrival at the railway station takes you back in time a little to the heyday of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway of years gone by. The route connects Manchester with Leeds so is busy with commuters travelling to the east or to the west.My favourite route from the station to the town centre is along the Rochdale Canal past the usual quota of houseboats and visiting vessels that line the towpath. Former mills and warehouses take on new lives as apartments or homes for small businesses. It was closing in on lunchtime so I took the chance of a very pleasant ploughman’s lunch in the Bay Tree café before the lunchtime action kicked in. The place has been noted, I will be calling in again. The Pack Horse bridge over the Hebden Beck that gives the town its name. This is where the old packhorse route that wound its way above the hilltops dropped down from the village of Heptonstall up above Hebden Bridge to cross the Beck. He sings for his supper while she dances a jig for the crowds. There’s always something going on.It’s location and multi layered cultural life has made Hebden Bridge a very desirable and attractive place to live, bolstered by transport connections to large parts of the North West of England. It also has a large core population of artists and creators living and working out of the former mills and weavers cottages that spiral up the roads which cling to the rising valley slopes. Sorry but I had to, a pistachio ice cream clenched in my gorilla like hand. If you want to starve in Hebden Bridge you would have to try really, really hard. The selection of cuisines on offer are truly mind blowing.
The Makers Market is a feature of Sundays in the town, an eclectic mix of craft items and artisan foods.George Square, the place to stop and let the world pass by.A guitarist serenades from the centre of the square’s sundial, the thing behind him isn’t some sort of Yorkshire rocket launcher, it’s the pointy thing (gnomon?) that casts the shadow that tells the time.TV fame and notoriety have also done their bit to raise the town’s profile.I had time for one more stroll along the towpath before…….A relaxing drink in the Albert Pub and to make the journey back home.
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