In bohemian Hebden Bridge, “Happy Valley” means more than an award-winning crime drama…
Happy Valley New Year’s Day 9.00pm BBC1
Ed Grenby - 14 December 2022
After two gruelling series of Happy Valley, police officer Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire, right) may be looking a little careworn, but the pretty little Calderdale town of Hebden Bridge, where the series is filmed, doesn’t look a day worse. The same is true of the BBC drama’s other shooting locations across West Yorkshire: for the new season, which starts on New Year’s Day, Elland, Huddersfield and Halifax’s Boothtown have all joined the “cast”, while Sowerby Bridge – writer Sally Wainwright’s home town, and a location for the first two series – returns, too.
Step off the train at Hebden Bridge’s Grade II-listed railway station (it has services to Manchester and Leeds) and you’ll think it’s still the 1850s. And despite the area’s issues – “Happy Valley” is the real-life police nickname for the area, due to its perceived drug problems – much of the town is biscuit-tin picturesque. Tall Victorian terraces, solid canal-side warehouses and cosy coaching inns have all stood the twin tests of time and gentrification, with many of the old buildings home to independent shops, characterful cafés and oneof-a-kind artisans. Meanwhile, honeyhued stone cottages tumble down the hillside between ancient trees to the River Calder – and the packhorse bridge, half a millennium old, that gives the town its name, still arches impressively across the waters.
Hebden Bridge also has an unexpected “alternative” side. Lovers of modern poetry make pilgrimages to the grave of Sylvia Plath in the tranquil churchyard of St Thomas the Apostle in Heptonstall, a little up the valley. Back in town, bohemian types will fit right in with the microbrewery, the independent Picture House, Mexican cantina, vegan joints and regular outthere events (including, obviously, the annual Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival). Beyond town, the Pennines rear up invitingly. There’s a great network of walks and bus routes that will get you to them, while cyclists can brave the route of the Tour de Yorkshire. Perhaps the best spot of all for outdoors folk is Hardcastle Crags, a 400-acre chunk of National Trust woodland valley where you might see deer, herons or (if you’re out late enough) bats. Stop off for fortification at either the Weaving Shed Café (nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/ yorkshire/hardcastle-crags) or the Packhorse Inn (thepackhorseinn.co.uk). And if you see Sgt Cawood, be sure to buy her a drink – given what’s coming up in series three, she could probably do with one…
After two gruelling series of Happy Valley, police officer Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire, right) may be looking a little careworn, but the pretty little Calderdale town of Hebden Bridge, where the series is filmed, doesn’t look a day worse. The same is true of the BBC drama’s other shooting locations across West Yorkshire: for the new season, which starts on New Year’s Day, Elland, Huddersfield and Halifax’s Boothtown have all joined the “cast”, while Sowerby Bridge – writer Sally Wainwright’s home town, and a location for the first two series – returns, too.
Step off the train at Hebden Bridge’s Grade II-listed railway station (it has services to Manchester and Leeds) and you’ll think it’s still the 1850s. And despite the area’s issues – “Happy Valley” is the real-life police nickname for the area, due to its perceived drug problems – much of the town is biscuit-tin picturesque. Tall Victorian terraces, solid canal-side warehouses and cosy coaching inns have all stood the twin tests of time and gentrification, with many of the old buildings home to independent shops, characterful cafés and oneof-a-kind artisans. Meanwhile, honeyhued stone cottages tumble down the hillside between ancient trees to the River Calder – and the packhorse bridge, half a millennium old, that gives the town its name, still arches impressively across the waters.
Hebden Bridge also has an unexpected “alternative” side. Lovers of modern poetry make pilgrimages to the grave of Sylvia Plath in the tranquil churchyard of St Thomas the Apostle in Heptonstall, a little up the valley. Back in town, bohemian types will fit right in with the microbrewery, the independent Picture House, Mexican cantina, vegan joints and regular outthere events (including, obviously, the annual Hebden Bridge Burlesque Festival). Beyond town, the Pennines rear up invitingly. There’s a great network of walks and bus routes that will get you to them, while cyclists can brave the route of the Tour de Yorkshire. Perhaps the best spot of all for outdoors folk is Hardcastle Crags, a 400-acre chunk of National Trust woodland valley where you might see deer, herons or (if you’re out late enough) bats. Stop off for fortification at either the Weaving Shed Café (nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/ yorkshire/hardcastle-crags) or the Packhorse Inn (thepackhorseinn.co.uk). And if you see Sgt Cawood, be sure to buy her a drink – given what’s coming up in series three, she could probably do with one…