Colne Valley Beagles and other things of interest.: September 2017

Hebden Bridge is one of those places where you can feel comfortable wearing whatever you fancy, and some certainly do. But you can feel comfortable in your old kit. On this visit an event was taking place over the weekend that involved participants dressing up. Photos of these will appear in the next post as I took too may to put them on here.

Hebden Bridge is on the Rochdale Canal and a lovely section of the canal network.

Generally you see a streak of turquoise but sometimes you get lucky.

It dived in front of the boat and has something in it's beak from this dive that I can't make out. But it is hard to steer and try to take photos at the same time.

When I first wandered in to Hebden Bridge on a Saturday morning and was looking at this bike, this couple appeared. I know the dress code there is different from many places but not quite so far out. The man behind the mask did explain a bit but I got a better handle on it later and so I will illustrate this on the next post.

Ageing rocker with his Saturday bike. Sunday he came on his 'trike' Wait for it.

This is someone's home.

In fact it's their backyard too! The fencing on the right is adorned with stuff for some distance

Bit of boat decor that took my eye.

Hebden Bridge, has been badly flooded as have other places in this valley. Part of the flood prevention scheme was underway with a caterpillar truck in the river bed and the excavators were handing rocks to each other to load it.

An early morning cloud rising out above Hebden Bridge.

And a bit of mist on the water.

Stuff on a rather rusty boat. Call it patination maybe. When people live on them and they never seem to go anywhere, I can never understand why they are not immaculate.

The moorings are bit limited in Hebden Bridge. The pound, the section here of water between locks, can drop quite significantly as boats depart down stream or come up intending to moor here. Moor outside the short length of the 24 hour mooring notices and boats can find themselves lying on rocks with a steep list.

Looking the other way to the west. There is a building up on the right with 'workshops' in and a small bike place.

And I think that is where this lovely chap bought his battery powered trike a month or so ago, 'It's got seven gears', of which he is inordinately proud. In his day he was a Mod. For those who don't remember or are too young to, Mods and Rockers were basically gangs of scooterists and motorcyclists respectively, who used to sometimes descend unwanted at seaside towns and fight each other. Mods tended to wear long khaki anorak things with a sort of tail on them like a long shirt lap that came to a bit of a divided point and perhaps had eyelets at the end, maybe to tuck up under you when you sat. Never had one so I don't know the functionality.

The scooters of choice in those days were the Lambretta like this one, or the Vespa. (I was never a Mod but had a Vespa for commuting) The Mods encrusted their scooters with extra mirrors and lamps and other bling. For the record the chap with the trike was a Vespa man. The Rockers were like the biker chap earlier, all grubby leathers and gear and noisy bikes and tended to seem bigger blokes than Mods.

Living in an area like Hebden Bridge where all the fields have stone walls, the tops of which get stolen, I tend to have a suspicious mind when first thing in a morning I see a chap with a hatchback car unload a ton of much sought after rounded topping stones at a stone yard. I am sure he would not have done anything illegal nor would the stone yard have accepted them without being confident they were legitimate.

These stones, maybe 40 or so, are clearly very recently off a wall as one can see from the sides. They weren't just lying unused somewhere. Some of our walls at home are supposedly marked with smart water though how much good that is I don't know.

Forget the stones, enjoy the sunbeams.

And the wild flowers growing on a bank by the edge of the wonderful recreation area with excellent facilities for children and for the benefit of all and sundry.

There were a couple of VW camper vans there, one well renovated and this highly decorated one.

They gave rise to a certain nostalgia.

I presume they are called Morris men doing their thing in St George's Square.

I believe many of the locals were dead against the erection of the sundial in St Georges Square in Hebden Bridge, which represents a fustian knife. The manufacture of fustian or corduroy is part of the heritage of the area, now gone forever. The cloth was woven with small weft loops running in rows down the length of the fabric and to get the cut tufted lines of corduroy, specialist 'finishers' ran fustian knives through the loops to produce tufted rows. Personally, I think it is great.

Some other folk dancers and I neglected to get their name.

I recognise this chap from the time they performed at Holmfirth Festival of Folk a year or so ago and he hasn't changed a bit although I wonder if that mark on his neck suggests a night of passion.

A lady had a young pet skunk, which seem to be a fashionable pet of choice although this is the first I have seen. Absolutely great and unlike ferrets and polecats it does not seem to exude that warm musty body odour that strikes terror into rabbits. It took a particular liking to this chap's beard.

The Millenium Clock. It faces the Town Hall but is not obviously apparent to the masses unless they go up onto the river bridge and there is not a lot of inducement to stray that way. It looks fine but I have never actually seen it in motion as this YouTube video shows - LINK

I thought this was very cleverly done although I have no idea what it was about.

Looking along Bridge Street towards Hebden Bridge Mill, of which more later.

St Georges Square. Seats are a must and there are never enough anywhere.

The ageing rocker, (maybe he is only thirty?) has pulled an admirer with his 'Trike' on which he arrived on Sunday.

Unsurprisingly it received a lot of attention. When I think of the nit picking MOT test that has to be undergone to keep a vehicle on the road I wonder how such as this managed to pass. Obviously all the relevant bits work well enough.

I never saw it in motion, more's the pity.

Girl with a whippet

On the Monday after all the fancy dress of the weekend, which is going to be on the next post, I met this chap finely attired striding along the street. I asked him if he was going to some event I did not know about. He responded that he liked dressing like this. It is what he does, and proudly posed for me in his fine uniform. Looks rather French to me.

One of the girls that works at Innovation did this. It is our favourite eatery.

Innovation is in Hebden Bridge Mill and is worth a mention, not just for the excellent cafe. I was told that the chap who has it now, bought is as a wreck for a penny to avoid demolition and transformed it. The screen relates to the Archimedes screw turbine which has sufficient output for the building and returns about 75% of the output to the grid. In addition they extract heat from the water of the river which also supplies all their water heating needs except for the boiled water. Inside the cafe is a large replica of the original water wheel running behind a glass screen. And to think it was saved from demolition!

The official site here - LINK

Wednesday 27 September 2017

A TRIP TO HEBDEN BRIDGE