Heptonstall revisited

My family live just down the hill from Heptonstall village, so when I went over to see them we had a mooch around there. There's a very nice café, which supplied copious amounts of tea and cake before we ventured out for a wander. It was really rather cold so we didn't linger long and, compared to my last visit with camera club companions, I was only taking quick snaps rather than considered shots. 

It's a moody and photogenic village, with its narrow streets and cobblestones. It was, historically, a centre for handloom weaving, safely perched on the high plateau above the flood-prone river valley. Hebden Bridge and the other towns and villages down in the valley only really grew when, in the late 18th century, industrialised textile processes in the water-powered mills began to take over from the home-based cottage industry. 

In the photo below, up the street on the right, you can see on the upper floors the serried windows typical of the weavers' cottages. The handlooms would have been up there and needed as much light as they could manage. 

It's an amazing place to wander through, with unexpected sights at every turn.

Our creative response

Layered history. 

River, water meadows, mills

Reclaimed by nature

'Walk and Draw' workshop, Elland (see previous two posts)  - After the guided walk, we went back to the coffee lounge, where there was a wonderful array of mostly natural materials to play with. There was charcoal to draw with and lovely paints made from onion skins (brownish), beetroot (reddish), turmeric (yellow) and red cabbage (blue/purple/pink), some of which changed colour if you added bicarbonate of soda, lemon juice or salt. I found all that rather fascinating. I'm increasingly interested in 'going natural' for cleaning materials so it was an extension of that really.  We were encouraged to make a response to what we'd seen and heard on the walk. 

Mine, above, was intended to be a stone wall overlaid by the course of the river and some of the nature I'd found on the way. The turmeric wash I used turned out too bright a yellow but never mind. I'm not at all 'artistic' or skilled in a drawing/painting way but I really enjoyed playing and wasn't inclined to be too self-critical. My daughter, on the other hand, has always been very artistic (she did Art at A-level) and produced a rather attractive grid, finding some beautiful colours and shapes.  

I'm much more comfortable with photography - and words to some extent - so the top collage (and haiku) is my usual style of response. I'll probably go back again to the photos I took and see what else I can create from them. 

Fighting back and hanging on

'Walk and Draw' workshop, Elland.  Observing nature on our walk, it's plain to see how strongly the green fights back, already repopulating what was, in the last two centuries, an increasingly heavily industrialised area. 

A broken fence tumbles down towards the river below...

A small gateway in a wall, probably well-used at one time, now almost overgrown... 

Some kind of creeper (last year's growth) tightly twisted around the uprights of a wire fence...

Valerian finding enough grip for roots atop an old mill wall...

Then there is the intricacy of nature's patterns to observe. I'm not sure what the plant above is, nestled in the bracken, but I loved its complex leaf structure, like a loosely packed cabbage.  And then of course there are the dandelion clocks (seedheads), ubiquitous but tiny works of art when studied closely. (So artistic that IKEA have a bestselling lampshade closely mirroring the structure!) 

Also ubiquitous, the Canada geese, intent on raising more even though they've effectively taken over many of our waterways at the expense of other waterbirds. 

My eye was also drawn to little vignettes of artistry - the unconscious marriage, in colour and shape, of elderberry (I think) leaves and graffiti.  Then, a graceful arc of decaying leaves caught in a fence, bleached of all colour and yet full of texture and 'story'.

Walk and Draw

My daughter invited me to accompany her on a 'Walk and Draw' workshop, part of a Hebden Bridge Arts project. I've never really done anything like that before and it was good to be pushed a little beyond my comfort zone. We met in a small group at Project Colt in Elland, alongside the River Calder. Project Colt, in a converted mill complex, is a charity that helps people with addictions to change their lives for good. There's a coffee bar there and a furniture and bric a brac store, whose profits support the charity. 

The first part of the workshop was a short guided walk along the River Calder and the adjacent Calder and Hebble Navigation, a waterway built in the 1700s to extend the routes in the area that were navigable by barges, necessary for trade. Our focus was exploring how the area has been shaped over the years by its industrial past and its impact on the environment. We started on Elland Bridge, built in the 1850s. (The pillared building on the far side was once a bank.)

Off then down Gas Works Lane - no explanation needed there, though the gas works have long since disappeared. Former mill buildings and wharf-side warehouses have been repurposed, many by innovative 'green energy' companies. If only stones could talk... those old stone setts that make up the roadway would have many stories to tell. 

Development continues, with the elegant bowed wall and the revealed tiled floor suggesting the former glory of whatever this building once was. 

A former sheep farming area, the success of the wool trade led to turnpike roads being built in the 18th century, followed by the canals and then the railway, both of which opened the way for the surge of industrialisation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Eventually a coal-fired power station was built on nearby water meadows, to support the area's textile mills and other industries: coal mining, brick making, quarrying, engineering, sweet manufacture. These industries gradually declined. The power station was closed and demolished in the 1990s and is now an industrial estate. Factories are smaller, cleaner and much more high tech. The majority of goods are now moved by road (and to some extent rail) and sweeping road bridges carry traffic high over the canal and river.

Mills have been repurposed as residential apartments, as well as for business. There is layer upon layer of history and it was interesting to slow down and reflect, noticing too the way nature holds on and gradually reclaims the land, with or without human help. (An area that was once a quarry and ash tip for the power station is now a thriving and ecologically important nature reserve). 

Old Town and Chiserley

Old Town, on the hillside above Hebden Bridge, is one of those small settlements, typical to the area, that started as a farming community and then grew because of a textile mill that was built there in the mid-1800s. Old Town Hall (above) seems possibly to have been built in the 1700s around an earlier timber-framed house. Since then it has had numerous alterations and additions. It may at one time have been where the owners of Old Town's mill used to live. Anyway, it isn't the civic 'town hall', that's for sure. 

Other buildings in the village seem to be originally agricultural buildings that have been converted for residential use or cottages that were built for millworkers. 

The mill itself is currently being developed, rather imaginatively by the looks of it, into residential accommodation. 

Standing tall on the hillside, apartments there are going to enjoy some spectacular views, over to Heptonstall on the other side of the valley and across to Stoodley Pike to the south-east.  

On the edge of Chiserley, the adjacent village, another chapel has been converted, with balconies at roof level also enjoying the amazing views.  

Calderdale bluebells

The bluebells locally are almost over now, whereas those around my daughter's home in Calderdale still seemed fresh and vibrant. I make no excuses for another 'bluebell post' as I do think them the prettiest of our wildflowers. They look especially attractive when mixed in with other plants like the stitchwort below. 

There were sheets of blue threaded through the woods. 

The bracken is unfurling too, making attractive shadows on the paths. 

A Calderdale ramble

It was a glorious Spring day, warm and sunny, so we took the dog for a long walk along the footpaths of the Calder valley near Hebden Bridge. At first we walked up a deep ravine, known as a clough in these parts, criss-crossing the stream - Colden Water - that runs down through shaded rocks and freshly minted foliage. 

There were plenty of treasures to discover along the way and time for a game of Pooh sticks on the bridge.

After a while we came out above the trees, catching glimpses of far-reaching views across the valley. 

Up here we followed an ancient stone-flagged trackway, worn down by generations of feet going about their business. 

Then down the hillside again to a pretty spot where a clapper bridge crosses the stream near the hamlet of Jack Bridge. 

Here we stopped for a mini-picnic, enjoying the warmth of the sun in this sheltered spot. A peacock butterfly was also basking on a rock. I only had my phone with me so apologies for the grainy photo.

One small girl, truly in her happy place!