An Afternoon in Todmorden

The main entrance to Todmorden Market

Today I decided to visit Todmorden for a walk around town, to visit the Market and the Good Beer Guide pubs.

Todmorden is a small market town in the Upper Calder Valley. It’s close to the point where Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire meet. It’s up in the Pennine hills, with lots of walking and cycling. And some great views. It’s on the railway line from Manchester to Blackburn, Bradford and Leeds, easy to get to from these places. It’s on the Rochdale Canal.

Todmorden makes for a great day out.

It has a rich industrial past, as you can see in the buildings, especially the Grade 1 listed Town Hall.

With the decline of industry, the town had to adapt. And it has. It’s become a hub for community-led initiatives and sustainable living. The community spirit here is very, very strong.

Incredible Edible Todmorden started life back in 2008 when a group of friends began growing food for the community in public spaces. They have gardening Sundays, which started life back in 2008 with 4 or 5 people and has grown to 40 or 50 people today. On two Sundays every month, people turn up at the community college and go gardening all over the town. There’s a free lunch at midday. Apparently, Todmorden has the greenest police station in the country. Their website is well worth reading.

I’ve covered the pubs and chippy in a separate post. There are three excellent micropubs to visit. The Market Place chippy is superb; £7.80 for fish and chips, which is great value these days.

The market is one of the best in England. It’s open every day of the week except Sundays.

The indoor market is in a Victorian building with a glass roof. It has three butchers, very rare in a market these days. Apparently they sell locally sourced meat. I had an excellent pork pie from one of them. The cheese stall had cheeses for all tastes. At the delicatessen I saw Scillian Sausages, sun-dried tomatoes and specialist pastas. There’s a micropub selling real ale (sadly I didn’t visit it). There’s a cafe selling 50 types of coffee.

The outdoor market is in front of the indoor market; it’s currently being re-developed. It’s being moved to the side of the market building. The area in front of the indoor market will then be re-developed to host small events and street food traders. There’s more information here.

I did intend to walk down the Halifax Road to the River Calder and the Rochdale Canal, walking back along the canal towpath. But first, I decided I needed a drink at the Alehouse micropub. After that, I visited the Market. Then I located and photographed the chippy. It was a hot and sunny day, so I decided to forgo the walk and head to the two other Good Beer Guide pubs. (A reason to come back again, methinks.)

To get there, I caught the train from Marsden (£8, West Yorkshire seniors’ concession), changing at Mirfield and Halifax on the way out and at Mirfield on the way back. On the return, the connection is very tight; it’s quite a walk from the arrival platform (one) to the departure platform (three). If you miss the connection, it’s around an hour’s wait for the next train. To while away the wait, there’s an excellent Good Beer Guide pub nearby (five minutes-ish), the Navigation Tavern. I didn’t get to visit the pub. I made the connection, a shame.