Nutclough Works, Hebden Bridge

The sketch and description are from The Calderdale Sketch Book by JL Berbiers, published in 1973 by The Halifax Courier Ltd. Looking at the now disused Nutclough Works at Hebden Bridge, it is hard to imagine the grey stone walls once enclosed an intellectual hothouse, a breeding ground of workers’ control. But breeding ground it was, for it was at Nutclough that the Hebden Bridge fustian weavers developed their co-operation movement – a scheme that became an example of Britain. Here workers made their own decisions after democratic debate; here they controlled their own destiny and that of their company. And at the same time many Nutclough workers attended university extension courses to prepare for the Great Ideological Struggle; a fitting place indeed for an industrial museum, a project planned by the Nutclough Museum Trust. PH/25.