• Hebden Bridge is on the Yorkshire side of the Pennine Hills. Not long ago, it was a small mill town producing wool and woollen goods. By the end of the sixties, the town was in bad shape. Shops were empty and blocks of terraced houses were being pulled down.


• During the seventies and eighties the town was repopulated by a motley mixture of artists, writers, photographers, musicians, alternative practitioners, teachers, green and New Age activists and more recently, wealthier yuppy types. The area has a rich literary history. The Bronte sisters wrote their famous novels just a few miles away in Haworth, the American poet, Sylvia Plath is buried at Heptonstall on the hill overlooking Hebden Bridge and the poet laureate, Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, two miles away.


• Hebden Bridge was an obvious destination for those wanting to escape the cities because life here can be a fine mixture of the urban and rural. The water from the hills powered the first mills of the Industrial Revolution. Yet, ten minutes from the town centre and you can be walking alone by the river in one of the many wooded valleys. A half an hour's walk uphill and you can be rambling across heather moorland.


• Gibson Mill - recently renovated with sustainable energy from the Hebden Water, sun and wood - and now with a cafe. See Hebweb feature

MEDIA SNAPSHOTS

Hebden Bridge's "delightfully relaxed vibe"
There's nothing not to like about Hebden Bridge. Once a hippy retreat, this little West Yorkshire town might have shed its dreadlocks and wholemeal image, but it's maintained a delightfully relaxed vibe. Given all the rain we've had of late, it's looking more lush than ever; verdant greenery forms the perfect backdrop to terraces of stone houses that look straight out of a Brontë novel. It's oh-so-bucolic and oh-so-pretty, but, as the locals would no doubt remind you, capable of contemporary cool, with wine bars and traditional boozers mingling on the high street. From the Metro - 20 Aug 2008

"Developers and speculators have a quiet mill town in their sights. Now, its radical community is up in arms", reported Paul Wilkinson in the Daily Telegraph. Read Where there's brown rice, there's brass

"In the upper reaches of the Calder Valley lies Jumble Hole Clough, a steep wooded valley embracing a fast-flowing stream which tumbles off the high moorland. Near the head of the clough stands a mute reminder of the early days of the Industrial Revolution, in the shape of ruins of a small water-powered mill which is slowly being engulfed by the surrounding foliage." from the Guardian's Country Diary

"With its apparent seclusion from the rest of the world, Hebden has a tendency to breed introverts and other colourful personalities. It bucks the trend of other higher populated and trend- setting Yorkshire towns with effortless ease and style". From Deep in the Heart of Yorkshire by Alex Clark in Hackwriters.com

Hebden Bridge is the 4th funkiest town in the world and is also the UK town with most local identity From Hebweb news

"Tantamount to Soddom and Gomorrah (Sir Bernard Ingham), The Hampstead of the North’, or just another tourist trap? Hazel Davis investigates". Hazel Davis investigates in Take it to the Bridge from The Leeds Guide