I've been doing a lot of walking around the Marsden area quite a bit recently and I felt like I fancied going somewhere different for a change of scenery and to have a change of location for my photography. Louise, a good friend of mine suggested Hardcastle Crags and I must admit that I had to 'Google' it to see where it was and found it was in nearby Hebden Bridge, about three bus rides away so I thought I was up for that. I knew another friend of mine was on leave from work so I txt her to see if she fancied it and she replied almost straight away and that was that....
I met my friend the morning after and we boarded the 503 bus to Halifax, changing onto the 592 Todmorden bus. We got off the bus in Hebden Bridge just after passing the towns beautiful cinema, as a building, the Hebden Bridge Picture House is absolutely stunning to look at as is most of the buildings in this beautiful Pennine town. Walking through Hebden Bridge I couldn't help but get out my camera and start snapping away, and with every turn of every corner I found something that I wanted to capture on my camera.
After we made our way through Hebden Bridge, we crossed over Hebden Beck on a stunning little packhorse bridge, when I turned around to take some photographs, I noticed people were just crossing over it and not taking much notice of the bridge. I know they could have been locals or they could have crossed the bridge an hundred times before, but I still enjoy staring and admiring old packhorse bridges whenever I'm lucky enough to see one, I must have crossed Marsden's Eastergate Bridge half a dozen times but I still spend quite a time there to admire and photograph it, maybe it's just me being odd??
I met my friend the morning after and we boarded the 503 bus to Halifax, changing onto the 592 Todmorden bus. We got off the bus in Hebden Bridge just after passing the towns beautiful cinema, as a building, the Hebden Bridge Picture House is absolutely stunning to look at as is most of the buildings in this beautiful Pennine town. Walking through Hebden Bridge I couldn't help but get out my camera and start snapping away, and with every turn of every corner I found something that I wanted to capture on my camera.
After we made our way through Hebden Bridge, we crossed over Hebden Beck on a stunning little packhorse bridge, when I turned around to take some photographs, I noticed people were just crossing over it and not taking much notice of the bridge. I know they could have been locals or they could have crossed the bridge an hundred times before, but I still enjoy staring and admiring old packhorse bridges whenever I'm lucky enough to see one, I must have crossed Marsden's Eastergate Bridge half a dozen times but I still spend quite a time there to admire and photograph it, maybe it's just me being odd??
We joined the riverside path along Hebden Beck, coming across a green grass bowling club which had no road leading to it so it just seemed so out of place. Well there was a little dirt track that came close to it but it still seemed a bit of an odd place to house a bowling club. Just round there bend of the Beck we found a sign, a sign that read 'Christmas Tree Retirement Home', I just shrugged and said “yeah not something you see every day, but this is Hebden Bridge”, I think I was meaning it wouldn't be right if you didn't experience how quirky this town is. After about half a mile, we turned off the riverside path and started to climb up into the woods, which took a bit of breath from me but it was worth it, once we were up in the woods, looking down into the valley and Hebden Beck. It was so quiet, all we could hear was the beck, and the birds in the trees, we would occasionally get a car pass us by but the road was so bendy, once they passed us we didn't hear them and it was silent apart from the beautiful sound of nature. After a mile on this road, we walked past Hebden Hey Scout Camp back down to a track next to the beck, and here we found the stepping stones. We crossed over the beck here, a couple of the stepping stones were under the water but we only got a few wet toes, and when we got to the other side, I once again had to stop and just admire where I was, the beck rushing past the stones, the huge trees rustling in the breeze and the birds singing.
After roughly half a mile on this side of the beck I suddenly saw an old building on the other side, then my friend who had been here before said that it was the eco toilet and the excitement just showed on my face...
Don't laugh, I wasn't excited at the sight of the toilet, no, I was excited because of the sight beyond the eco toilet that caught my eye, Gibson Mill, I have to say I was speechless when it first came into view, it has to be the most beautiful mill I have ever been lucky enough to visit and I have seen some nice mills in the past. But this mill wins hands down, surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife it was seriously stunning and I could have just spent hours sitting there and admiring it. I had seen photos of it in the past but seeing it in person was amazing. I know I sound weird now but if you haven't been before I highly recommend you do, you wont regret it and I'm sure you'll understand why I'm getting over excited about an old mill. I took quite a few photographs here but promised myself that I would be back, probably in the summer so I have photos of the mill in different seasons.
Don't laugh, I wasn't excited at the sight of the toilet, no, I was excited because of the sight beyond the eco toilet that caught my eye, Gibson Mill, I have to say I was speechless when it first came into view, it has to be the most beautiful mill I have ever been lucky enough to visit and I have seen some nice mills in the past. But this mill wins hands down, surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife it was seriously stunning and I could have just spent hours sitting there and admiring it. I had seen photos of it in the past but seeing it in person was amazing. I know I sound weird now but if you haven't been before I highly recommend you do, you wont regret it and I'm sure you'll understand why I'm getting over excited about an old mill. I took quite a few photographs here but promised myself that I would be back, probably in the summer so I have photos of the mill in different seasons.
We made our way up and out of the valley and to Clough Hole car park where we found a stunning view, there was also one of the Frames from 'Framing the Landscape' a project between the Holmfirth based artist, Ashley Jackson and the National Trust, admiring the view through my eyes and the lens of my camera, I couldn't think but understand what Ashley Jackson wrote and what is inscribed on the frames “Many people look but only a few see”, that is very true.
After a bit of time admiring the views, we were again hiking off, we were now on Widdop Road, making our way towards Slack Top but I think we slowed down our pace a little as surprise surprise I was stopping every two seconds to snap away. We eventually reached Slack Top and I think we both loved the 17th century architecture and the old Methodist chapel, although I am not religious I still find myself admiring old churches and chapels. We carried on walking along Smithwell Lane towards Heptonstall and from here you could see for miles, the view was stunning with Stoodley Pike (Todmorden) in the far distance, the sun was in and out of the clouds with sunrays coming out of the clouds in all directions, something I love to capture in my photography and hopefully something that came out in the photographs from this walk.
After a bit of time admiring the views, we were again hiking off, we were now on Widdop Road, making our way towards Slack Top but I think we slowed down our pace a little as surprise surprise I was stopping every two seconds to snap away. We eventually reached Slack Top and I think we both loved the 17th century architecture and the old Methodist chapel, although I am not religious I still find myself admiring old churches and chapels. We carried on walking along Smithwell Lane towards Heptonstall and from here you could see for miles, the view was stunning with Stoodley Pike (Todmorden) in the far distance, the sun was in and out of the clouds with sunrays coming out of the clouds in all directions, something I love to capture in my photography and hopefully something that came out in the photographs from this walk.
Smithwell Lane then started to descend down into Heptonstall and the smoothness of the tarmac gave way to an old pebbled street and old buildings, if it wasn't for the cars in the street, it would have felt like we had walked through a wormhole into another time. I could just imagine the horse drawn carriages rattling along the pebbles, the rich finely dressed mill owners walking in the street with soot covered working class kids running in and out of the alleyways. Heptonstall is I am afraid to say, another of Yorkshire's great hidden gems that I have never ever visited before, but, it is somewhere that I will visit more than once again and somewhere I would love to explore more with my camera. We were very tempted to pop into the White Lion pub for a pint, but we both decided against it, we knew that once we were in there, we would find it hard to get back out into the cold and finish the walk back into Hebden Bridge, but we promised ourselves that we would, on our next visit pop in, it did look a nice pub to enjoy a nice post walk pint!
We made our final descent down into Hebden Bridge along Heptonstall Road before turning left onto Market Street at the bottom and made our way back into civilization. We were both hungry by now and decided to go get some chips instead of a pint, I'm glad we did, they were the best chips from a Fish n Chip shop I have had in a long time.
I enjoyed this walk, it was roughly 6.8miles and I took 437 photographs and it has inspired me to explore more of my beloved Yorkshire!
I enjoyed this walk, it was roughly 6.8miles and I took 437 photographs and it has inspired me to explore more of my beloved Yorkshire!