Todmorden is a town in the county of West Yorkshire, England, southwest of Hebden Bridge, It is part of Calderdale local council. Before the 1974 reorganisation of local government, the town had originally been in Lancashire.

Location and history

The town centre occupies at the confluence of three steep sided valleys in the Pennines. The main valley is that of the River Calder; the valleys constrict the shape of the town. Streams from the surrounding hills provided water for corn and fulling mills, and, later, power for cotton spinning and weaving. Communications were provided in their turn by the building of roads, the Rochdale Canal, and then the main line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway between Manchester and Leeds; now the Calder Valley Railway line. Each occupy the gap through the hills via Hebden Bridge and Halifax.

Todmorden today

Although its industrial base is much reduced (at one time Todmorden had the largest weaving shed in the world), it is now more of a commuter town for people working in Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, and other large cities. It also attracts visitors in connection with its locality: heritage and the countryside being its selling points.

Its present population is about 15,000

Famous people from Todmorden

• John Fielden (1784-1849), local landowner and national leader of the Ten Hours Campaign for factory reform
• John Cockcroft who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951
• Geoffrey Wilkinson, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973
• Harold Shipman, the serial killer had his first medical practice in Todmorden
• John A Helliwell of the band Supertramp
• Wilfred Judson (1902-1980), former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

Music

Music has always played an important part in the life of Todmordians. John A Helliwell of Supertramp was born and raised here, as was Geoff Love a generation earlier. There have also been three groups formed by local constituency:

• Logger and the Lumberjacks
• Peter Daye and the Knights
• The Keys

There has also been wide enjoyment of more traditional musical forms:

• the Todmorden Brass Band
• the Todmorden Orchestra
• the Belvedere Dance Band

There is also a thriving amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society and various other cultural Societies.

Sports

Todmordians have enjoyed cricket, football, tennis, and golf.

External links

• Todmorden town guide
• Sir John Fielden
• Location Map