|
Coordinates: 53°42'49?N 2°05'46?W? / ?53.7135, -2.0962
Todmorden is a town and civil parish,[1] within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 11,826.[2]
Todmorden town centre occupies the confluence of three steep sided valleys in the Pennines. The valleys constrict the shape of the town. Todmorden is surrounded by moorlands with occasional outcrops of gritstone sandblasted by winds.
The historic county boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire was marked by the River Calder which runs through the centre of the town. The border was altered by the Local Government Act 1888, whereby today all of Todmorden lies within West Yorkshire.
The town is served by Todmorden railway station.
[edit] History
[edit] Toponymy
The name Todmorden first appears in 1641. The town had earlier been called Tottemerden, Totmardene, Totmereden or Totmerden. The generally accepted meaning of the name is Totta's boundary-valley, probably a reference to the valley running north-west from the town.[3] Alternative suggestions have been proposed, such as that the name derives from two words for death: tod and mor (as in mort), meaning "death-death-wood" (Birch, R., see below), or that the name meant "marshy home of the fox", from the Old English.
[edit] Early history
The earliest written record of the area is in the Domesday Book (1086). Settlement in Medieval Todmorden was dispersed. Most people living in scattered farms or in isolated hilltop agricultural settlements. Packhorse trails were marked by ancient stones of which many still survive.
For hundreds of years streams from the surrounding hills provided water for corn and fulling mills. Todmorden grew to relative prosperity by combining farming with the production of woollen textiles. Some Yeomen clothiers were able to build fine houses, a few of which still exist today. Increasingly, though, the area turned to cotton. The proximity of Manchester, as a source of material and trade was undoubtedly a strong factor. Another was that the strong Pennine streams and rivers were able to power the machine looms. Improvements in textile machinery (by Kay, Hargreaves and Arkwright), along with the development of turnpike roads (1751 - 1781) helped to develop the new cotton industry and increase the local population.
[edit] 19th century
In 1801 the majority of people still lived in the uplands, Todmorden itself could be considered as a mere village. During the years 1800 - 1845 great changes took place in the communications and transport of the town which were to have a crucial effect on promoting industrial growth. These included the building of: (1) better roads; (2) the Rochdale Canal (1804); and (3) the main line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (1841) between Manchester and Leeds. This railway line incorporated the (then) longest tunnel in the world, the 2,885 yard Summit Tunnel; and is now the Caldervale Railway Line.
The Industrial Revolution caused a concentration of industry and settlement along the valley floor and a switch from woollens to cotton. One family in the area was particularly influential on the town; the Fielden family. They created a "dynasty" that changed the town forever by establishing several large mills, putting up assorted impressive building and bringing about social and educational change.
[edit] 20th century
Like the rest of the Upper Calder Valley, Todmorden's economy experienced a slow decline from around the end of the First World War onwards, accelerating after the Second World War until around the late 1970s. During this period there was a painful restructuring of the local economy with the closure of mills and the demise of heavy industry.
In December 1984 a goods train carrying petrol derailed in the Summit Tunnel between Todmorden and Littleborough causing what is still considered as one of the biggest underground fires in transport history.[citation needed]
Harold Shipman, the G.P. who is believed to have killed over 200 patients in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, claimed some of his victims while working as a doctor in Todmorden, between March 1974 and September 1975.[4]
[edit] Governance
Todmorden has a complex geo-administrative history. Todmorden lay along the historic county boundary of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Todmorden is in the Oldham postcode area and the telephone code (01706) is that of Rochdale (both in Greater Manchester). Also, until the border was moved by the Local Government Act 1888, the Lancashire-Yorkshire boundary used to run through the centre of Todmorden; thereby making it possible to dance in the Town Hall ballroom, forward and back, across two counties of England.[citation needed]
On the 2nd of June 1896, following the Local Government Act 1894, Todmorden became a Municipal Borough. Since the local government reforms of 1974, Todmorden has been administered as part of the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, within the Metropolitan county of West Yorkshire.
[edit] Twin towns
Todmorden's twin towns are:
[edit] Geography
Other villages and towns in the Upper Calder Valley include Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd. The territory of the civil parish of Todmorden also extends to cover Eastwood, Walsden, Cornholme, Mankinholes, Lumbutts, Portsmouth and Cross Stone.
Medieval Todmorden had consisted of the townships of Langfield and Stansfield in Yorkshire, and Todmorden/Walsden section of the greater township of Hundersfeld in Lancashire.
[edit] Economy
Heavy industry is now part of Todmorden's history, not its present. The industrial chimneys have largely gone and the remaining mills have mostly been converted for other purposes. The town's industrial base is much reduced (at one time Todmorden had the largest weaving shed in the world). There has been a great deal of regeneration activity and Todmorden is now increasingly a commuter town for people working in Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and smaller towns. Todmorden also services the local rural area and attracts visitors through its market (indoor and outdoor), various events, heritage and the local Pennine countryside. Changing work patterns may have influenced the fact that the town was the first rural telephone exchange in Britain to be broadband-enabled through public demand. Rising house prices over recent years are a particular problem as there is limited land available in the valley for building affordable housing.
[edit] Landmarks
Todmorden has many attractions. It lies alongside the Pennine Way, Pennine Bridleway, Mary Towneley Loop and Calderdale Way and is popular for outdoor pursuits such as walking, mountain biking and bouldering. It has a canal and locks, Sports Centre, skateboard park, tennis courts, golf course, aquarium, cricket ground, large park and woods and many eating places. Its thriving indoor and outdoor markets sell a wide range of locally produced food. The Hippodrome Theatre shows films as well as putting on live performances. The town also has its Toy and Model Museum, library, second hand bookshops and a Tourist Information Centre. The visual arts are particularly strong in the town. Annual events include a carnival, agricultural show, beer festival, music festival and the traditional Easter Pace Egg plays.
Todmorden has the look of a Victorian mill town and has some notable buildings including Dobroyd Castle (completed in 1869), once a home to a Buddhist community; the Hippodrome Theatre (Edwardian); an imposing Italianate town hall (built 1866 - 1875) that dominates the centre of town; a Grade I listed Unitarian church (built 1865-1869); and the 110 ft Stoodley Pike monument (built 1814 and rebuilt in 1854).
Dobroyd Castle, Todmorden Town Hall and Todmorden Unitarian church were all built at the behest of John Fielden and his sons and designed by John Gibson, who had been a member of Charles Barry's team at the Houses of Parliament.
Older buildings include two 18th century pubs; Todmorden Old Hall, a Grade II listed manor house (Elizabethan) in the centre of town and currently in use as a restaurant; and St. Mary’s Church which dates from 1476.
Todmorden has been used as a filming location for the 1980s BBC TV police drama Juliet Bravo, Territorial Army series Preston Front, parts of The League of Gentlemen, BBC TV mini series Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and the award-winning BBC1 series Life on Mars.
The links to Lancashire are also seen in the media. Todmorden and the nearby towns and villages close to the county borders with Lancashire and Greater Manchester also have BBC North West television from Manchester, whilst ITV regionalisation is from Yorkshire Television at Leeds and not Granada Television from Manchester. However, both transmissions are freely available in some areas of Walsden.
Todmorden's local newspaper is the Todmorden News owned by Johnston Press.
Singletrack Magazine, a national mountain biking magazine is based in Todmorden.
[edit] Notable people
- Dicken Ashworth, (born 1946), actor
- Antony Booth (1931), actor and father of Cherie Blair lives here and is married to Stephanie Booth, a local politician.
- Chipps Chippendale, mountain biking journalist
- John Cockcroft (1897 - 1967), who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951
- Neil Cowie, Rugby League player (Wigan, Wales and Great Britain)
- Keith Emerson, (born 1944), pianist, Founder / member of The Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer
- John Fielden (1784 - 1849), local landowner and national leader of the Ten Hours Campaign for factory reform
- Grimshaw, Vicar of Todmorden (1730s) before moving to Haworth and putting it on the map before the Brontës. Biographies by Faith Cook, Bishop J.C. Ryle & George C Cragg.
- William Healey (leading politician Denis Healey's father). See Edna Healey's book (p.48) 'Part of the pattern'
- John Helliwell, (born 1945), of the band Supertramp
- Ursula Holden-Gill, (born 1974), TV actress (Emmerdale, Holby City, Teachers, The Bill)
- William Holt, (1897 - 1977), writer, painter, political activist, journalist and traveller
- Innes Ireland, (1930 - 1993), Formula 1 racing driver (1960s and 1970s)
- Wilfred Judson (1902 - 1980), former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
- John Kettley, (born 1952), BBC weatherman
- Peter Lever (born 1940), England test cricketer
- Adrian Love, (1944 - 1999), World Service, Capital Radio and Radio 2 DJ
- Geoff Love, (1917 - 1991), big band leader
- Wes Paul, Liverpool singer, musician and compere/stage manager of Sounds of the Sixties Cavern Showcase.
- P. J. Proby, singer who lived in Longfield Road, Todmorden. Now resides in Hebden Bridge The house is now occupied by writers Diane Whitley and Dave Simpson (writer).
- John Ramsbottom, (1814 - 1897), mechanical engineer and inventor
- Derek Shackleton, (born 1924), England test cricketer
- Harold Shipman, (1946 - 2004), the serial killer took up his first GP's position at the Abraham Ormerod Centre in Todmorden
- Grenville Turner, (born 1936), one of the pioneers of cosmochemistry
- Reginald Webster, winner of Brain of Britain in 1959
- Geoffrey Wilkinson, (1921 - 1996), won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1973
- David Wilson, footballer who began his career at Manchester United (1980s)
[edit] Trivia
- On March 2, 1868 an infamous double murder took place at Christ Church, Todmorden (built 1830 - 1832). The victims' graves lie in the churchyard. Miles Weatherhill was forbidden from seeing his housemaid sweetheart, Sarah Bell, by the Reverend Anthony John Plow. Murderously angry, Weatherhill armed himself with four pistols and an axe and took revenge first on the vicar and then on Jane Smith, another maid who had informed Reverend Plow of the secret meetings. He also seriously injured the vicar’s wife. On April 4, 1868 Weatherhill became the last person to be publicly hanged in Manchester.[5][6][7][8]
[edit] References
- , United Kingdom Census 2001. Todmorden CP (Parish). neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- , Profile of Todmorden. URL accessed January 9, 2007.
- , Nicolaisen, Gelling & Richards, The Names of Towns and Cities in Britain, p. 181
- , The Shipman Enquiry. URL accessed September 15 2007
- , Charles Hindley (1871). Execution and Confession of Miles Weatherhill, The Young Weaver, and his Sweetheart, Sarah Bell. University of Virginia Library. Retrieved on 13 Sep 2007.
- , "The Murder At Todmorden Parsonage" (News). The Times. Thursday, March 05, 1868. Issue 26064, col A, pg. 12.
- , "Northern Circuit. Manchester, March 13., The Todmorden Murders" (Law). The Times. Saturday, March 14, 1868. Issue 26072, pg. 11.
- , "Executions. Manchester" (News). The Times. Monday, April 06, 1868. Issue 26091, col D, pg. 10.
[edit] Bibliography
- Nicolaisen W. F. H., Gelling M., & Richards M. (1970). The Names of Towns and Cities in Britain. B. T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0713401133.
[edit] Further reading
- Birch, R. Todmorden Album 4, The Woodlands Press, 2006.
- Cass, E. The Pace-Egg Plays of the Calder Valley, London: FLS Books, 2004.
- Heywood, M., Heywood, F. and Jennings, B. A History of Todmorden, Smith Settle Ltd, 1996.
- Jennings, B. Pennine Valley: History of Upper Calderdale Dalesman Publishing Co Ltd, 1992.
- Law, B. The Fieldens of Todmorden: A Nineteenth Century Business Dynasty, Littleborough: George Kelsall, I995.
- MacDonald, M. The World From Rough Stones, Random House, 1975. (A novel set during the building of the Summit Tunnel).
- Malcolm, F., and Heywood, F. Cloth Caps and Cricket Crazy, Upper Calder Valley Publications, 2004.
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |
|