Hebden Bridge Mill

PH/25. The sketch and description are from The Calderdale Sketch Book by JL Berbiers, published in 1973 by The Halifax Courier Ltd. Strange how quickly attitudes change…not long ago mills and their chimneys were regarded as blotches on the landscape and when they became empty they were cleared away as rapidly as possible. Now people are looking at factories with the eyes of industrial archaeologists and particularly in Hebden Bridge, where this mill stands, interest in industrial history has flourished of late. Here in the tributary valleys of the Upper Calder evidence of the early stages of the Industrial revolution can still be found. Hand-loom weaving declined as the power of fast flowing water was harnessed, individual workrooms were replaced by factory floors and Hebden Bridge grew as a town. Today the ruined remains of many of the early mills can still be found in the valleys of the Hebden, Colden and Elphin waters. Mills have come and gone and the prosperity of Hebden Bridge may well have declined but there are still many places where the wheels of industry turn rapidly.