Property Spotlight: Calderdale

We moved from Todmorden to Wales back in the summer of 2019. We lived in Calderdale for almost 20 years, so we know the borough quite well. We’ve chosen our old stomping ground as this week’s Property Spotlight area.

We’ve selected three very different homes; the budget example is a surprisingly spacious barge that sits on the Rochdale Canal in Hebden Bridge – the waterway that runs directly behind our old house. The middle home is a property that we ourselves seriously considered buying over a decade ago. It’s in Lumbutts, a small settlement located up above Todmorden town. The premium, million pound property is a 17th century Yeoman‘s house that exudes history and character.

‘Oddy’ – located near Mayroyd Lock Number 8, Rochdale Canal, Hebden Bridge
£90,000 (cash buyers only)
Oddy measures 55ft long, width 12 foot and weighing 30 ton. The boat was an hold vessel used to maintain the canals on the Leeds / Liverpool This is a true low maintenance boat in fair condition.

Fees:

Boat licence – £94.48 per month, (£1,33.71 per annum)
Mooring licence – (awaiting charges)
Mooring fees – £128.00 per month (£1,536.00 per annum)
Third party insurance on basic boats is around £100.00 per annum but you can shop around and get one a lot cheaper

23 Lumbutts, Todmorden
£400,000

Idyllic location
Spacious 4 double bedroom with 3 1/2 bathrooms
Nearby trans Pennine railway station to Leeds/Manchester
Rural yet close to amenities
Large integral garage/workshop
Moorland walking trails only moments away, in fact a walker’s paradise
Served with full fibre broadband
Near to Todmorden and Hebden Bridge and close to excellent country pubs

Wadsworth Banks Farm, Raw Lane, Mytholmroyd
£1.2 million

With elements of the property thought to date back to medieval times, the majority of Wadsworth Banks Farm was built in the 17^th Century, with large mullion windows, exposed beams and fireplaces found in many of the rooms.

Four bedroom Yeoman’s house
Grade II* Listed
Full of characterful features
Established south facing gardens
Ample parking for several vehicles, trailers & horse boxes
Barn with four stables
In excess of three acres
Far reaching views

A new adventure for H is for Home

A new venture/adventure has begun for H is for Home this week. We’ve spent the last couple of days moving into the recently-opened Valley Antiques Centre in Hebden Bridge.

We’ve long-fancied having a retail space in Hebden. It’s a lovely little town full of small independent shops; cafés & coffee shops, pubs & bars and art galleries. It’s a great place to spend the day mooching around. We actually lived here when we first moved to Yorkshire from Brighton back in 2000.

Despite recently moving to Wales, it will be nice to maintain an ongoing relationship with the town, Todmorden and the Calder Valley, in general.

We’ve secured a decent-sized space, big enough for furniture and smaller vintage items such as fabric, lighting, artwork and kitchenalia – and all manner of decorative things for the home.

Valley Antiques Centre has only been open a couple of months, it’s looking great and is packed full of interesting and quirky stuff from a number of dealers. It’s well run, and you’ll receive a warm welcome from Jan, who has launched the centre – or one of the other dealers on hand.

We’ve included these photos to show you how we’re getting on – and to showcase the kind of stock you’ll find on our pitch. In future posts, we’ll highlight other dealers and their wares.

Valley Antiques Centre is situated at the end of Valley Road – just past the Doctors’ Surgery, on the opposite side of the road. It’s open 10am-4pm, Monday to Sunday.

We hope that you can pay us a visit sometime soon!

Todmorden Antique Centre has opened!

**UPDATE: Todmorden Antique Centre is unfortunately now closed**

Todmorden Antique Centre has just opened – and we’ve moved into our new space on the first floor.

It’s situated at Hollins Mill, Rochdale Road, Walsden, Todmorden (OL14 6SA if you’re Sat-naving).

The fabulous listed building always had great antique centre potential. It boasts large, open spaces that are full of character – with exposed stone walls, fabulous beams and big windows. Lots of time and hard work have gone into making it more habitable.

Along with other dealers, we started moving our stuff in last week. It’s quite a big job transporting all the items, arranging, hanging, pricing up etc.

It’s quite enjoyable, though, so we’ve all been doing it steadily to avoid any unnecessary stress.

We’re upstairs, at the far end of one of the rooms. We have plenty of floor and wall space which is gradually being filled… and there are two big windows that allow plenty of daylight to pour in.

We have our usual mix of mid 20^th century loveliness, along with much older country antiques and vintage industrial style pieces.

The space seems to lend itself well to the various styles.

Online shops have their place, of course – ours is in its 12^th year. However, it’s also great to have a physical space where people can have a mooch round, handling and assessing pieces on offer. (Almost everyone that we’ve seen enter our area has stroked or patted this lovely old baker’s table!).

Things are ever-changing with items coming and going, but here are a few more images that capture the feel of the place as we continue to add more stock.

The centre opens Wednesday to Sunday. They don’t currently have a website.

A Piece of history

It was a gloriously sunny day a couple of weeks ago when we took a trip to nearby Halifax. It’s a long time since we’ve been and we wanted to pay a visit to the recently restored, historic Piece Hall.

It’s incredible to think that when the Hall was first opened, trading within was only allowed for 2 hours per week – and just on a Saturday. In his book, A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis writes:

The Piece Hall was erected by the manufacturers and is a large quadrangular building of freestone occupying an area of ten thousand square yards with a rustic basement storey and two upper storeys fronted with two interior colonnades which are spacious walks leading to arched rooms where goods in an unfinished state were deposited and exhibited for sale to the merchants every Saturday from ten to twelve ‘clock. This structure which was completed at an expense of £12,000 and opened on 1 January 1779 unites elegance convenience and security. It contains three hundred and fifteen separate rooms, and is proof against fire.

The Hall is on 3 floors, now housing a range of little independent shops located along the long, beautiful colonnades. Shops such as Yorkshire Soap Company, Loafers Vinyl & Coffee – there’s even a gin bar in a corner on the ground level. The large central square is being used for concerts, gigs, markets, workshops and so on. The Antiques Roadshow takes place there this summer.

We couldn’t leave without taking a couple of photos of the impressive, restored cast iron south gates manufactured in 1871.

The white rose of Yorkshire is one of the prominent symbols. The gates are inscribed with the Latin, “Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem” from Psalm 127 meaning, “Except the Lord keep the city”. They bear a figure of a lamb, a nod to the fact that Halifax was an important centre of the woollen trade in England. The head of John the Baptist is also present, he’s the patron saint of wool weavers’ guilds.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Calderdale

Property Spotlight: Calderdale

A new adventure for H is for Home

Todmorden Antique Centre has opened!

A Piece of history