Ask not what your country can do for you...

This is a tricky topic to write about - not because I can't think of any, but whittling it down to one is a challenge. I have plenty of soap box topics. Disibility rights, Equalities in general, the importance of libraries, living in a socially and ecologically responsible manner. In our discussion at the last meet up, we started out thinking about whether there was something we felt Hebden lacked - something which would improve it. We talked about the Hairy Bikers Meals on Wheels programme, and care for the elderly in general. I think my cause to champion is relevant both locally and also from a wider perspective. What shall I call it, what snappy brand - Considerate Communities? Something like that.
I'd like us all to look at ourselves, and our place in our communities. Do we do enough? Do we take more than we give? Do we enjoy the benefits and feel no obligation to make any input - just assuming the things we like will carry on being there indefinitely, arranged or protected by someone else. Once upon a time communities were smaller and more interlinked through family. Not to say no one ever went without, but if things were as they should be, people shared responsibility for caring for children, the elderly or infirm. They got together to celebrate and commiserate, and commemorate. How many times do we see some such bridge, building or statue - with a plaque telling us that they were erected through public subscription. These days all we ever hear is people moaning about whatever use our councils or governments see fit to put our tax money to. If we look around and see what our community needs to remain, or become, the community we want it to be, then I would like us each to do what we can to help. If we want beautiful countryside, full of wildlife, then amend our behaviours and buying habits to protect it. Go out and volunteer to pick up litter, or improve habitats. If we want a vibrant town full of local independent shops - do as much of your shopping and present buying in those shops as you can - even open one up yourself. If we want people to be looked after and part of the community - reach out to those who might be lonely or insecure, and see if you can do anything to help. And then step it up - Regionally, Nationally, Internationally. What do you want to see, and what can you do to help?
I want everyone to have equal and good qualtiy access to information, education, and healthcare. Therefore I support libraries, state schools and the NHS. What can I do to make that support clear? Be a member of the library, get books out, use the internet, hire DVDs or CDs, use their online information resources. Go to events and evangelise for them, so that other people can know what they can do if they are not already aware. Write in protest at any plans to change services in a way that I believe would reduce the quality of the service, contribute to consultations on how it may be improved. Join in in any action which seeks to challenge the loss of these vital community resources.
Libraries, Education and the NHS are all examples of things that this country's community got together and thought - people need this, lets get together and provide it. Ditto once long ago to the armed forces, roads, postal services. When thinking about how these things should be provided, I always ask, can we afford to lose it. Because to put things in private hands, you have to be prepared for the company running it to say - this isn't profitable, I'm not going to bother any more. Or else change it so that it is no longer the service you want it to be. Philanthropic benefactors are wonderful - but we shouldn't have to rely on the goodness of some wealthy person's heart for essential services. The people who got together to build a bridge in Hebden knew that. They needed a bridge, they got together and built one. They knew not everyone who would use the bridge could afford to contribute. They didn't make it a private bridge.
Internationally - the possible causes are endless, and in many cases it feels like there's little any one person can do to change things. But we each have a voice, and a brain - we can go and learn as much about why things are the way they are, and try and think how they might be better. And then talk about it. I agree with Robert on this one - don't just bemoan how bad things are, think positive, and try and think about how they can be better.
Imagine if we all put 10% of our free time, and 10% of our expendable income into trying to make the world a better place. I wonder if it would work.

TIbetan Martyrs: a cause to champion.

Whilst we're all reflecting on the overthrow of another middle eastern tyrant and the imminent meltdown of the Greek euro into the drachma, on the roof of the world events of equal significance are passing by largely unreported. Tibet has been occupied by China since 1950 and whilst complaints have been made in diplomatic circles from time to time little has been done. There was some unrest during the build up to the Olympics that curtailed the BBC's documentary series but little solid reporting. Now this is changing, Tibetan monks and others are self immolating as the only form of protest left open to them. I can't imagine the sheer sense of frustration and presence of mind it would take to commit this ultimate act of non-violent direct action, but Tibetans are finding it to be their only course of action. The Chinese response according to reports from the independent UNPO (United Nations Peoples Organisation) has been to place more troops in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in what can be interpreted as an attempt to prevent others from imitating their peers by intimidation. Meanwhile on twitter related postings increase. So is this a cause to Champion?

A cause to champion

I just missed the first man on the moon. I was born in a demographic lull between the baby boom and its echo when the baby boomers themselves had children. 1971 is slap bang in the middle of ‘generation x.’ There was an oil crisis and electricity blackouts. I was educated in the midst of teachers strikes and suffered the first year of GCSEs. I started university at the freeze of the student grant and the creation of the student loans company. I graduated in the midst of the early 90s recession. I closed my own business in the wake of the dot com bust of 2000. And I’m turning forty in a world with global financial crisis.
I was born into a modern age of decimal coinage and metrication. I grew up in a time that saw technology do away with much drudgery. I got more sophisticated toys, the computer and video age came into the home as I grew up. Comprehensive education and change in industry meant I had a choice from manual or dangerous livings. I got a place at university during the explosion in university admissions. I got a job, I changed my mind, I studied for a PhD, I changed my mind, I started my own business, I had mobility. I could live anywhere and so I moved to somewhere nice in 2000. I’m turning forty and there’s as much ahead of me as behind.
Both paragraphs above are accurate and cover similar ground, the second is however more useful to me. The challenge this month for blog club is ‘a cause to champion.’ It is what the second paragraph represents is my choice of cause.
I’m not advocating a Pollyanna glad game finding something to be glad about in every situation. No, I offer this: you can think about a situation in different ways and its the way you *think* about something that affects how you *feel*.
The problem with Pollyanna’s glad game is it supposes you should find happiness all the time, apart from being nauseating it’s also impossible. Sometimes you have to be sad.
The best way to predict the future is to play a part in shaping that future: on a personal scale and maybe at a much larger scale. There is much economic doom and gloom around at the moment, blame and worry abound. The (ahem) experts tell us that thought of dire economic circumstance actually can cause those circumstances to come to fruition. Again I don’t advocate we all think glad thoughts to get ourselves out of a euro banking crisis; I champion the power that what we collectively think changes the course of history.
I blame, or do I give credit? Today people can communicate directly to billions of others. Elites are losing their power; cover-ups are harder to cover up; middle men are losing their purpose and industries are disappearing. I refer to the seismic changes following the widespread adoption of the Internet. It took 200 years for the world to settle after Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. I suspect we’re in for a fair old rattling after the opening of our communications Pandora’s box.
But remember my cause to champion, what we think affects how we feel. If you think all this turmoil is a price worth paying we’ll feel better about it. If we feel good we might get involved and actually make a difference to the outcome. I think we’re going to be sad about some changes but knowing that we could on balance choose the thoughts that help the future turn out well might ease those times we have to be sad.

Is my Hebden Bridge the same as yours?

I've written on my own blog before about Hebden including I think why I came here, why I love it. I suppose now, after three and a half years or so, I look at it with a little more perspective, but love it no less. Times have changed around us, as they are wont to do. The government has changed colour, people have less money to spend, and things seem a little crueler to me. The gap between rich and poor is quite stark in Hebden. Ok, maybe the rich aren't all rolling in it, but there are those who can afford to shop in the nice little shops of hebden, which sell things you might want, but probably don't need - and those that can't. I can't really afford it, sometimes I do anyway - but my not being able to afford it because of debt, and because I spend too much on booze, is quite different from not being able to afford it because you haven't got a job, or all your money from your minimum wage job has gone on rent, food, bills, clothes, travel.

Part of me wonders if that's the reason for random acts of mindless violence - smashed windows of shops full of things you can't afford - clearly aimed at a market which doesn't include you. Or attacking the station, as the place which takes people to their well paid out of town jobs. Another part of me knows that it's just as likely to be mindless violence fuelled by cheap cider and too much testosterone.

I wonder if it's a coincidence that Hebden Bridge's pubs are struggling, with it's higher proportion of worried well middle classes, perhaps more likely to take notice of government campaigns to reduce drinking. How many pubs is it feasible for a small town to sustain, healthily? But Sowerby Bridge and Todmorden, with their slightly different demographics - are opening new pubs, and are busier than ever. Are there any fewer young families there?

There's a tension between some "locals", and those who have settled from elsewhere. I'm not surprised really. Ok, without the influx of new people and money and faith, the town may have rotted on the vine. With no mills, no jobs, no money - people would have scarpered and made of the place a ghost town. But the regeneration of the town is imbalanced - with too many people feeling like they are the cannon fodder in the war of tourism, selling people expensive luxuries, or watching them pay over the odds for things in shops they can't afford on the salary they are paid. If people will pay it, then why should the shop cater to those who can't. And so it is both the shop and the customer who are to blame for the exclusion of those local workers from their own environment. Ditto the so called "right-on-ness" of the town. I love that many people here are liberal minded, accepting, environmentally conscious, a little different. But some people don't want to be different. And I understand why you might resent your home being turned into a by-word for things you aren't comfortable with, or don't believe in.

Still. I'm glad the place is everything that it is. It's what makes it home to me. I love the valley, the architecture, the creativity, the openess, the politics - and I love the tops - which were a wonderful surprise to me really when I moved here. I came for the town, and discovered the country. Great big open skies, and the mists that rise in the mornings. Beauty and seasons like I've never experienced in my life. If I have hopes for the future, it is that things can be more balanced. That people put more back into the town, and start providing a bit more of what people need alongside things they might want. I'd like to see the community association have a strategy for saving older pubs the way it has approached the town hall and the picture house. I'd like to see them try and bring together all aspects of the community and look at how the town can be helped to represent all of them, and dilute some of those perceptions of difference.

Another HB post:

http://thewillowtwisted.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/dont-stop-being-so-hebden-bridge/

Musings on HB pubs from Mark

It seems the obvious thing to write about is first impressions of the place, and I will come to that but to live in the now for a brief period I am a little worried about Hebden Bridge at the moment. I speak from a drinker’s point of view and we currently have three of our taverns under temporary licences and one that has closed after a brief period of opening under the same system. From talking to landlords round and about it doesn’t look like the situation is rosy for most of the ale houses out there due to the toxic mixture of high alcohol taxation, a stagnating (perhaps soon to be stagflating) economy and the dreaded beer tie which strips landlords and ladies of their freedom and independence to run the pubs they wish to run. Hillaire Belloc said “Change your hearts or you will lose your Inns and you will deserve to have lost them. But when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.” Good old Belloc was a bit politically unstable but he knew the value of a good pint! All melodrama aside he is right about this. Think back to your most memorable adult evenings or days, at some stage the majority of them probably contain a pub or two, at very least a drink in some way. Perhaps that says more about us as a nation than it does about the socio-economic factors of alcohol consumption but speak it does and prior to that death rattle of the local pub, one day it will be your local pub, we will have to have tried something. One of the worst things about my hometown of Leeds was the faceless, empty husks of pubs in to which people poured themselves of a weekend to experience “vertical drinking” and listen to similarly faceless music. Everything has its place in a varied cultural landscape, yes, even dubstep! Not every pub can be a wine bar, not every wine bar can be a restaurant and not every drinking establishment can or should be the same and this is the real danger. Homogeneity is a killer. It killed the high street in most towns and cities and now it is doing the same to the pubs, particularly of the rural variety Since 2005 more than 6,000 pubs have closed nationwide, most of them out of town pubs like the ones in and around Hebden. Some of them even have blue plaques on the buildings reminding forlorn regulars that “the legendary Horse and Crown once stood on this site where such and such king received refuge after the battle of wherever”, like some barbaric epitaph to corporate folly. This is what large pub companies want to happen, they want everyone to have to travel to large town centres to drink. The more residences they can close down and sell off the bigger their profits are. A landlord’s first responsibility should be to his drinkers, and probably himself but now, via pub companies these unfortunate souls have a responsibility to shareholders, stakeholders, CEOs, directors, partnerships etc etc ad infinitum.

The reason I open with that is because the pubs were the best attraction for me when I first came here for a lazy weekend back in 2007. I think I slightly missed out on the true glory days when Holmfirth handed over the mantle of “hippie heaven” to the young, vibrant Hebden but in 2007 it was still something special. It was something special to see a pile of Guardian newspapers stacked to chest height in the newsagents instead of the ubiquitous Daily Mail everywhere else. It was special to find Hoegaarden on tap in a number of the bars as well as ales in every single one. It was special to see a small town with two butchers, a few florists, any number of independent clothes shops and fair trade options wherever you looked. It was special to see an inordinate number of people smiling and children being polite (mostly). It was special to hear a row going on late at night and realising it wasn’t about who spilled whose pint but rather whether Trotsky’s ultimate point was correct in his History of the Russian Revolution. It was special to go for a walk and see llama’s, alpaca’s and emu’s without the assistance of any illegal substances. I’ve no need to speak in past tense because most of these things are still there and they’re still special. I still feel my problems fall from me and down the hill as I trudge the well worn lanes in to the town centre. I still feel held and enveloped in arms of the ancient Pennine sisters wherever I am in the valley. The nearer I get to what is now home on the train, the more at ease I feel with myself. I started this entry on a negative note since, as I said I fear for Hebden in the same way it pleases me to see Todmorden and Sowerby Bridge being touched by the “right-on” kinda vibe. There are plenty of vested interested who would love to get a piece of this relatively wealthy area and turn it in to something none of us would want to see, and it’s not just the Lancastrians, no. One of the problems is the wealth in the neighbourhood. Some people who have arrived here have brought their sterilising attitude to the rough, raw edginess of our little society. The “squeezed middle” looking for a place in the country have seen something they like in the Calder Valley but it isn’t perhaps always the things we like and the things we have cultivated. You hear these attitudes every now and then as you go around town “I wish the Tesco was a bit nearer” is one statement I hear frequently that makes me shudder or “look at that, two women holding hands” as though they’d just seen Ken Dodd molesting a traffic warden. Our job, my friends, is to keep what we have, improve it where necessary and pass it on to the next bunch of hopers and no-hopers who rock up and find this oasis of peace and serenity in the middle of industrial England. This place that somehow cleanses with its dirt and inspires dreams in those who long ago lost the will to dream.

HEBDEN BRIDGE - MY KINDA TOWN!!

'Twas circa 1974 when I first heard about Hebden Bridge. "Save up £800 and buy a house in Hebden Bridge" friends said. Well, when you're working class "buying a house" was something we just never thought we'd do, and besides, £800, when you're only earning 10 bob (50p) an hour is completely out of reach!!!! However, we were well-entertained hearing about how people were squatting in these houses that were going to be demolished and taking out all the walls in the attics so that if the drugsquad visited one house, there was a way of letting other houses know. One friend, under the influence of whatever, had the shock of their life when a wall rug moved and someone came out from behind it - a tunnel behind big fire places perhaps!! Any way, suffice to say, we never got to visit or buy.

I do remember coming across Hebden Bridge in the old hippy bible "The Alternative England & Wales" which gave information on 'crash pads', places to hang out and learn where to score etc, and about all things "alternative"

Back in 1990 I received a letter from a friend telling me she'd moved to this "lovely little Pennine Mill town called Hebden Bridge. Memories flooded back of the old friends raving about it so much and I took up the invitation to visit. I drove in via the A1 and M62 arriving at Halifax and thinking "What a dump!" However as I hit the A629 and came through Friendly, Luddendenfoot the vista began to change and I began to change my opinion. I think it was where the Farm Shop now is (used to be a garage) that the valley opened out and my stomach began to 'flip-flop'. I think I knew then that I would live here at some point. And that point was 2 years later (1992), when I left Nottingham, a good salary (working as a Residential Social Worker) to attend the Access Course at Tod College.

Nineteen years later and I'm still here. HB is the longest I've lived anywhere (apart from Doncaster where I was born & bred) and I have no intentions of leaving. It's changed a lot - got cleaned up, became very "tourist" orientated, got 'gentrified' etc. However, it's got the most crazy houses I've ever seen, still has a lot of charm and the valley looks lovely at any time of the year. How lucky are we to have Hardcastle Crags on our doorstep? - in other places I've lived, you've needed a car to get to such a place and have to go for the day! 20 years ago there was a lot of "community" - informal childcare arrangements, people looking out for each other and there's still some of that left. Streets like Broughton Street and Windsor Road will always be "hippy streets" to me - street parties, gatherings on the Delph, rallying around and giving opposition when unscrupulous developers try to get their hands on green spaces.

None of my family live near me, so I'm dependent on my social network for support etc. HB is one of those places where you don't have to be lonely (unless you choose to be). There are numerous cafes and meeting places for socialising!! If you're willing to put yourself out there, you can have a great social network.

Oh, and those friends encouraging us to move here 37 years ago? Well, some of them are still here!!!!!!

Annie's post

“I love living in Hebden.” I said to a new acquaintance, one of the many I've made since I moved here just over 12 months ago, “It's hippy yet zippy and...” “Dippy, aye, it's dippy all right.” he quickly added.

Hippy, zippy and dippy – what more could you want? Something for everyone.

I moved here from south Manchester when I sold my home, as there was no further need to live near my youngest daughter's private school in Altrincham. My work, as a responsible parent was largely done.

Good A levels results had been achieved and Juliet had been waved off to university in Leeds. With the end of a relationship where I had moved briefly to Saddleworth - I could now move wherever I chose. And without any hesitation, deviation or repetition of considered plans I looked to rent in Hebden. And I've never looked back....well, except with occasional glances at the London job market. A girl has to eat.

I didn't arrive 'cold' of course. I had been delightfully acquainted with HB via my friend Jo. I loved my weekend stays at her quaint under dwelling and was deeply envious of her living in such a stimulating and yet countrified setting. She had the best of both worlds and an easy commute to Manchester or Leeds.

One day, I thought to myself, one day...as a wannabe writer I knew instinctively that this was the place I needed to be to encourage my creative juices to come up to a steady rolling boil.

And the day eventually came. And here I am. Work has been produced, a publishing contract is in the post, appearances at local literary festivals have been made with a couple more to come before the season is out.

And in addition, there's the ease of living in Hebden, films at the Picture house to see, gigs at the Trades, a stimulating and fun monthly book group to attend, other creative groups joined like this blog group. The potential to make new friends is a constant. If you are fortunate to have a curious mind you can easily find yourself with a trio of choices about how to spend your leisure time here – especially at the weekend.

And sometimes there is nothing nicer than on a Saturday morning to stroll into town, buy some groceries, run some errands and invariably bump into yet another new friend in the making...

That's why Hart hearts Hebden – potentially anything can happen and invariably in a nice and timely way it does. And it doesn't rain – that much. Not really. I just wished someone had told me about slugs in the kitchen, where do they come from? Where do they go come the dawn?

Oh well, even Eden had a serpent.