2nd March We make a rare foray into town for a homeschool history project on Lavena Saltonstall, a Hebden Bridge-born suffragette. We visit her birthplace at Rawholme on Midgehole Road, and later residences on Unity Street and the vanished terrace of Buttress Brink, as well as several mills where she might have worked as a … Continue reading March: Renewal →

1st February In the frigid evening air at the end of an intensely bright day, the lingering smell of sun-warmed soil kindles an almost painful hopefulness. Spring is a little way off yet, but today, for the first time, I allow myself to dream of its coming. 2nd February A fresh and heavy snowfall in … Continue reading February: These Shining Days →

1st January For our New Year's Day walk, my son and I choose a route up the first section of the valley of the Hebden Water, labelled on old maps as Hebden Dale, a name which seems to have fallen out of use. We pass through a rather strange atmosphere in the centre of town, … Continue reading January: Frozen Fields →

4th December What little light the day has mustered is ebbing away. The wet snow that has been falling intermittently all day has failed to illuminate the interior of the woods across the valley, which remain resolutely black. But I know it is likely to be a different story higher up. So I push my … Continue reading December: Near Horizons →

1st November On a sodden walk up the Pennine Way with our neighbours and their boys, the hillside rings with rushing water after a week and more of rain, new streams spilling from gritstone cracks onto the woodland floor. We slop through Scammerton Farm's saturated silage meadows and are drawn over Pry Hill by a … Continue reading November: The Failing Light →

2nd October I respond to the closing down of the days, the bearing down of the clouds, by breaking out of the territory I have circled for the past six months. Pre-lockdown, by the use of local bus services, the region of the upper Calder Valley watershed within which I would walk covers roughly forty-five … Continue reading October: Autumn Awakening →

1st September I balance unsteadily on a mound of Molinia grass that forms an island in the ditch, reach back across and haul my son over to the other side. I let him go ahead to have first shot at finding the geocache which, having given him a free choice, was his preferred mission for … Continue reading September: A Hush at Summer’s End →

1st August We labour up the narrow path between the nearly-spent foxgloves, each with the last of their purple flames at their very tips, like phosphoric candles that have burnt their wicks in reverse. We are meeting one of my son's classmates and her parents, who are camping at Old Chamber, for a walk around … Continue reading August: Hay Time →

2nd July Beside the railway line on the way to school this morning I was alarmed to see segmenting fruits taking shape on the bramble. It made me want to put a halt to the year's progress. April and May were a stasis in which everything could be savoured, but now not only the economy … Continue reading July: Our Local Acre →

This post was originally published in October 2019 in issue #2 of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England's West Yorkshire branch Ways of Seeing magazine. In the decade that I have lived here, I have become increasingly immersed in the story of the upper reaches of West Yorkshire’s Calder Valley. The narrative of … Continue reading Weaving Through the Calder Valley →