Sowerby Bridge
Sowerby Bridge (/ˈsɔːrbi/ SOR-bi)[1] is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The Calderdale Council ward population at the 2011 census was 11,703.[2]
Sowerby Bridge
Governance[edit]
The town is part of the Sowerby Bridge ward of the Metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire.[11]
Geography[edit]
Sowerby Bridge is situated about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Halifax town centre. It is at the confluence of the River Calder and River Ryburn, and the name Sowerby Bridge references its situation as a crossing point over the River Calder to the older settlement at Sowerby.
There are two secondary schools in Sowerby Bridge.
Media[edit]
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire. Television signals received from the Emley Moor[12] and one of the three local relay transmitters (Halifax,[13] Luddenden[14] and Ripponden[15]).
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Leeds on 95.3 FM, Pulse 1 on 102.5 FM, Heart Yorkshire on 107.6 FM, Capital Yorkshire on 105.1 FM , Greatest Hits Radio West Yorkshire on 96.3 FM and Phoenix Radio on 96.7 FM, which has its studios in Halifax.[16]
The town is served by the local newspaper the Halifax Courier.[17]
Transport[edit]
The town is served by Sowerby Bridge railway station, which sees a regular service to Manchester, Huddersfield (via Brighouse), Bradford and Leeds on the Caldervale Line. This station has no public toilets although there are many interesting information panels about the local area.
The town is at the junction of the Calder and Hebble Navigation and the Rochdale Canal; Tuel Lane Lock on the Rochdale Canal is the deepest lock in the United Kingdom.[18] The canal basin and warehouses where the canals meet, Sowerby Bridge Wharf, are listed buildings and house the Moorings Bar and Restaurant, 12-04 Restaurant and Temujin Mongolian Restaurant. The basin is the headquarters of the 12th Halifax Sea Scouts (M.o.D. No. 54 Royal Navy recognised) where Prince Charles opened the William Andrew Memorial Headquarters. Shire Cruisers run holiday hire canal barges, build narrow boats and provide mooring facilities.
In popular culture[edit]
Sowerby Bridge features in George Gissing's 1890 novel The Emancipated as the hometown of the protagonist Ross Mallard.[19]
The canal basin was used as a filming location for the ITV comedy-drama Stay Lucky, and the ITV drama Dead Clever was set in the town. The 2014 BBC One drama Happy Valley was set in Sowerby Bridge and parts of the series were filmed in and around the town.[20][21] Catherine's workplace is a former police station. The series writer and director Sally Wainwright grew up in Sowerby Bridge.[22]
Traditions[edit]
Rushbearing, the annual ceremony of (now nominally) taking rushes to churches for covering the floors throughout winter, still takes place in Sowerby Bridge over the first weekend of September.
The Fire & Water Festival is an annual festival to raise awareness for the Fire & Water Buildings in Sowerby Bridge. It showcases all the events that Fire & Water put on throughout the year and the Music Festival showcases local artists on an open and accessible stage.
Boxing Day floods 2015[edit]
Local river monitoring stations recorded a level of 11 feet 8 inches (3.55 m)[23] between 12 pm and 6 pm, surpassing previous recorded highs of 8 feet 0 inches (2.43 m) (23 June 2012). Known flood plains, such as Dixie Woods and Sowerby Bridge Cricket Club, were submerged to an estimated depth of 2 feet (61 cm). The floods were reported as the worst in the area since 1968.[24] The town was flooded again on 9 February 2020 by Storm Ciara, causing a similar amount of damage to the 2015 floods.[25]