Town Teams

People came together to create market towns for a combination of spiritual, civic, economic and cultural reasons. These all found their spatial expression close to, or in, the Marketplace or High Street. These iconic spaces established identity and purpose for both the towns and the outlying communities they served. It was flexibly programmed, responding to a variety of needs, appropriate to both time and place.

For many centuries, these Marketplaces supported transition and growth, until such time as external forces removed their reason for being. The towns of the Upper Calder Valley are no exception. If the Renaissance of the Valley is to deliver new purpose and meaning to its natural, urban and human landscapes then a new meaning and purpose must be created for each of its Marketplaces.

The 21st Century Marketplace
To survive, prosper and serve the Valley community as a whole, a 21st Century Marketplace must be created in the heart of each town, a place for exchange and connectivity: cultural, creative, civic, spiritual, virtual, intellectual and economic. Wherever possible, products, processes and ideas will be locally ‘branded’, each playing their part in promoting a 21st century image for the Valley.

Public Realm, Land Uses and Growth
In each of the five towns, a step change in quality of their public realm must be simultaneously delivered, blight must be removed, land uses rationalised and the growth of each town defined and proactively planned for.

Walsden · Todmorden · Hebden Bridge · Mytholmroyd · Sowerby Bridge