Mytholmroyd Tourist Information

Situated in the beautiful Calder Valley, equidistant from the towns of Halifax to the east and Todmorden, to the west, Mytholmroyd (Norse:- a level place where two rivers meet Mitholm - Roid) is now a dormitory town for Leeds some 3' miles east, and Manchester, 4' plus miles west. The main road through the town is the A646 (occasionaly the only road open between Lancashire and Yorkshire, when the M62 is closed due to either accident,or snow).

Running through the valley, alongside the River Calder and the A646 is the Trans-Pennine rail route Leeds-Manchester and the recently re furbished, Rochdale Canal, via which one can access the British Waterways Network (If you are a member of "Eye Spy", you can get to lots of points in the Calder Valley)

On an Historical note, the "Cragg Coiners" used to meet in the "Dusty Miller Inn" the leader of which is buried in nearby Heptonstall Church yard). The late Poet Lauriate, Ted Hughes, was born in Mytholmroyd, attending "Burnley Road Infants School" You can have a guided tour of the town with an old friend of Ted`s, Donald Crossley. During the Civil War, Mytholmroyd suffered from skirmishes and attacks from both Royalists and Parliamentarians.

Educationally the whole of the Calder Valley is served by the comprehensive "Calder High School", which is situated on the south facing hillside,continuing up the road past the school one would eventually arrive at the hill top village of Midgley, from which a pack-horse route (Heights Road) will take you to Hebden Bridge and Old Town with stunning panorama of the whole valley and the distant "Stoodley Pike".

Facing the school on the opposite side of the valley is the near vertical scar of "Scout Rocks" above another old pack-horse route to Sowerby Village.

There are two large housing estates in Mytholmroyd, "Banksfield" on the south facing hillside and "Nest Estate" on the north facing hillside slightly west of the town centre. Both of which were originally "council houses" but now mainly privately owned.

Just to the west of Nest Estate one can find one of the oldest buildings in the valley "Stubbings", a group of farm buildings which have been owned by the Murty family, for as long as anyone can remember, and then some!

Another Mytholmroyd "claim to fame" is the first ever, pre-stressed, pre-fabricated concrete bridge to span a river:- County Bridge(the cost of construction was covered by the then "W.R.C.C.") at the west end of the town, provides access to Caldene avenue and Nest Estate, before it`s construction, the bridge was erected, there was a circutous route over New road, under the railway, half a mile then turn right at the (then) Fire Station, and back under the railway at "Thrush Hill Tunnel"

Spend some time in Mytholmroyd, I am sure you will enjoy your visit.

Description by David Woodhead