Hebden Bridge Web Forum 2009: Hebden 500

Hebden 500

From Justin P
Saturday, 10 October 2009

As we have a rather interesting birthday about to kick off in town very soon, i'd like to start a dedicated thread to promote this and also get people genuinely coming to me with suggestions that I will make happen - care of our Pub - The Hole in t'Wall and anywhere else we can over the year.

We have already got a number of events in planning...but would love to work with anyone that has a corker of an idea.. My criteria are:

It has to be interesting to Hebden Bridge and the tourist community
It has to be exciting
It needs to be dynamic and forward thinking..
Does it have a return on investment... ie' can it cover its own costs..and if not how can it be funded.

Examples of what we are planning...

Vote for a Poet Laureate for the year - this will ba residency for a year, all being well, we will offer the same for future tenures....suggestions please, then we'll offer a vote-off...poet-off
50's weekender, this will coincide with the Classic car weekend and will involve dancing, jive, lindey hop, bands, rockabilly, hot rods and owt' 50's ish
Music and plenty of it, if you can help us bring a good band to hebden -and we could host this in hebden--think park, or cinema, lets talk about it...
A comedy festival..
A literary festival...
Fighting...(wait and see)
Community...how can we remember the 500th year???

Please no-one suggest a victorian market...that is dull and a bit predictable. Get yer thinkin caps on..and get this party started. I can make stuff happen - lets get stuck in.

I really want good, dynamic ideas that can be promoted outside Hebden Bridge as well as good local initiatives...

I'll even fund the best ideas,

Lets look at the future 500 years rather than past 500 years.

From Andy M
Monday, 12 October 2009

How about, in recognition of the town's recreational importance, a series of brithday walks totalling 500k?

From Joanna Beacroft-Mitchell
Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Can see why a Victorian Fayre (sic) isn't appropriate (and horribly twee) but surely some medieval shennanigans would be acceptable and appropriate. Perhaps we could look at reintroducing the village stocks ? I'm sure we could find no shortage of village idiots willing to be pelted with produce (organic of course) in return for some sort of sponsorship ????

From Andy M
Tuesday, 13 October 2009

1510 was Henry VIII's first full year as king so something Tudorish rather than medieval perhaps?

Blackadder comes to Hebden anyone?

From Joanna Beacroft-Mitchell
Thursday, 15 October 2009

I can only apologise for my shameful historical ignorance - I clearly should have watched the BBC2 period docudrama soap mini series!

I shall offer myself up to be first in the stocks as penance if someone will put in a reasonable donation to an appropriate charity (perhaps the Royal Society for the Historically illiterate ?).

From Andy M
Monday, 19 October 2009

Hmm, I'm not sure Joanna.

The use of stocks was on the way out by 1510 and Henry the VIII's preferred method of dealing with miscreants is now illegal ;-)

From Janice S
Wednesday, 21 October 2009

I like the idea of the 500k (total) walks, and are there 500k of cycling routes locally too?

As Justin suggested looking to the future 500 years, could an environmental event be part of the celebration? On a small scale, how about a sort of Recycled "Great Egg Race" where each competitor is given some plastic bottles and other recyclable items to build a small boat to race from the Packhorse Bridge to the next bridge? (or would this cause the river to become polluted with bits of plastic and wet competitors?).

From Sara R
Monday, 14 December 2009

Lets set or break some kind of world record by doing something with 500 people... not sure what but a chain of people over the bridge and way beyond - are we passing something, ore threading, or...?