Weddings and civil partnerships
at Town Hall
Hebden Bridge couples will no longer need to make the journey to the Registry Office in Halifax in order to tie the knot.
Hebden Bridge Community Association, the member-led group which will be taking over control of the Town Hall, has announced that it is arranging a licence for weddings and civil partnerships in the building. It will be the first time for many years that civil ceremonies will be able to be held in the town.
Transfer of the Town Hall from Calderdale is scheduled to take place at the start of April this year, and the first weddings and civil partnerships will, all being well, be able to take place very shortly afterwards. The panelled and grade-II listed Debating Chamber will be available for the ceremonies, as will the newly opening hall at the rear of the building.
Hebden Bridge Community Association trustee Sue Fenton says: This is the first of many steps which we are planning to take, to bring new services into Hebden Bridge. Under community control, we’re determined that the Town Hall will the place to go for a wide range of civic and community services.
She adds that a longer-term ambition is to persuade the local authority to bring back services which have left the town. “It would be good, for example, to see the Births and Deaths Registry service reopening in the Town Hall, but unfortunately this decision isn’t ours to take,” she says.
With the green light given by Calderdale last December for the transfer of the Town Hall into community control, Hebden Bridge Community Association is relaunching its campaign to encourage local residents and organisations to become Friends of the Town Hall. Trustees and friends ran stalls for three evenings recently at the Picture House, and are also arranging for a mailshot to be delivered to every house in the town. Enrolment is possible at the Book Case in Market Street, at the Town Council offices in the Town Hall itself, by post and even via the group’s website.
We already have 490 Friends of the Town Hall, so are tantalisingly close to the 500 mark. But a lot more people have told us that they plan to sign up but haven’t yet done it. We’d like to encourage them to look our for our new leaflet, and to get it signed and returned,
Cllr Janet Battye, another trustee, says. All Friends will receive one of the commemorative Town Hall mugs.
Couples interested in using the Town Hall for a wedding or civil partnership should in the first instance contact Sue Fenton on 01422 845261. Full details about the Town Hall project continue to be posted regularly on the website.
See also: HebWeb Forum with this thread initiated by Marcus Bull of the Baptist Church
Previously
Town Hall Future Secure - (Dec 2009)
Open Doors at Town Hall attracts hundreds
Two major grants boost Town Hall Project
Hebden Bridge Town Hall project
Town Hall Group seeks ‘Friends’ (April 2009)
Hebden Bridge Town Hall project: Transfer of Town Hall to community ownership one step closer (March 2009)
HebWeb News: New Charity created to manage Town Hall (Jan 2009)
HebWeb News: Government gives thumbs up to Hebden Bridge Town Hall plans (July 2008)
HebWeb News: Plans to putTown Hall once again at the heart of local life (October 2007)