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61. In 1968 Lydgate United carried off a terrific treble, including
62. Lydgate, with a history dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, became part of a new era at the start of the 21st century, becoming part of the new Todmorden Borough Football Club, who play in the West Lancashire League, part of football’s “pyramid”.
63. The club’s home ground is Bellholme at Walsden. Eventually pushed through to fruition by the
Bellholme Sports Association, the ground boasts a clubhouse and can be hired out.
64. There aren’t many sports not available to Todmordians, which boasts clubs and societies ranging from angling to archery and from swimming to snooker.
65. Some of these take place in the new Todmorden Sports Centre at
66. Todmorden Golf Club, at Rive Rocks overlooking the town, boasts a record breaker. Helen Gray has won the club’s ladies’ championship 38 times, a feat which has given her a place in the “Guinness Book of Records”.
67. One sportsman deserves to be singled out for mention as in professional terms he is the most successfully of them all. Neil Cowie played for Wigan Rugby League Club in its most successful side of the modern era in the 1980s and 1990s.
68. Neil crowned his career with a string of performances for
69. The rugby club’s
70. Work costing millions of pounds will re-sculpt that section of the park to create a massive holding tank to deal with floodwater to a “one in 25 year” level. Throughout Todmorden’s history nature has waged battle against attempts to channel it away.
71. There are two floods in recent memory which caused millions of pounds worth of damage to homes and businesses, in 1982 and 2000.
72. The 1982 flood particularly devastated the Cornholme valley, where a block culvert was unable to cope with flash flooding and ripped up part of the main
73. In June 2000, torrential downpour into an already saturated river system saw river walls break their banks at Shade and at
74. One of the places badly flooded in
75. As well as being the town’s theatre for a century, it was also one of Todmorden’s three cinemas.
76. The
76. The other cinema was the Gem, in Cornholme, whose name lives on the electrical goods store which is in the village not far from where the cinema once stood, in those pre-television days.
77. One of the town’s biggest gems, and its most obvious landmark, is Stoodley Pike - but the existing monument, visible for miles around, is not the original...
78. According to “History of Todmorden”, by Malcolm and Freda Heywood and Bernard Jennings, an earlier Pike was built to commemorate the surrender of Paris to the allies towards the end of Napoleonic War in 1814, although there was some evidence even then of earlier structures.
79. It collpased and eventually rebuilt in 1854, on a design by the aforementioned James Green. “History of Todmorden” says its obelisk shape may reflect the freemasonary of Samuel Fielden, who not only subscribed £50 towards the project but also cleared the final debt of £212.
80. Local history has long been keenly followed in Todmorden, and the town boasts a thriving Antiquarian Society, whose Millennium publication “Todmorden Cameos” details biographies of several dozen notable Todmorden folk.
81. For example, did you know that a black sheep of the Fielden family, Simeon Lord, was transported to
82. “Cameos” brought recognition to the achievement of many Todmordians including one who has since been properly honoured in the town - railway engineer John Ramsbottom.
83. In July this year a plaque was unveiled to Ramsbottom’s memory at Todmorden Railway Station. John Ramsbottom was one of the 19th century’s leading railway engineers and one of his inventions, the split piston ring, is still in use on petrol and diesel engines 150 years later!
84. The “Cameos” book was beautifully illustrated by Dennis O’Neill, who along with Coun Albert Marshall also produced a special book, “Todmorden Centenary”, to mark a hundred years of borough status in 1996.
85. That year saw Todmorden in high profile across the county. To tie in with its centenary it was an honour for the town when Yorkshire Day was held here, including a parade of red-robed Mayors from all over the county.
86. It was a proud day for Coun Albert Marshall MBE, who as Mayor of Todmorden led the parade. Albert served the town with distinction and is the only person to have been Mayor of both Todmorden’s borough and town councils.
87. The first Mayor of the Borough of Todmorden was Abraham Greenwood Eastwood, from June 2, 1896, to November 9, 1896, but his position was only provisional. the first elected Mayor, in office from November 9, 1896, to November 9, 1899.
88. The first Mayor of Todmorden Town Council, in office from May 11, 1974, to May 3, 1975, was Peter Cockcroft.
89. There are other Todmordens, including a Todmorden Mills in
90. The town may also have links further afield, if the experiences of former policeman Alan Godfrey are anything to go by - under hypnosis (consciously Alan can remember nothing of this incident) and with a senior officer present he was taken aboard a UFO in 1980.
91. As sightings of strange phenomena were reported the same night by police officers from two forces, it has become one of the most documented cases of its kind and was only months after the disapperance of a Polish man, Zygmunt Adamski.
92. Alan’s story and the Adamski case were linked together in a national newspaper and since the incidents have been made into a television film in
93. It also means Alan is likely to be the only Todmordian to appear on the biggest chat show in
94. Locally Alan has honed his television and media experiences to good effect, raising money for a number of charitable causes, including the Walsden Community Fund.
95. The Walsden Community fund is one example of the townspeople’s ability to lend a helping hand. Good contacts can put the icing on the cake - when the fund presented a special electronic wheelchair to youngster Jonathan Knowles in the mid 90s, local comedian Tony Jo was able to get friend and colleague Jeremy Beadle to present it to him.
96. Tony’s own career has gone from strength to strength and to most folk outside Todmorden he is now better known as a key member of the famous comedy group, The Grumbleweeds.
97. Another example of local folk prepared to go the extra mile to raise money for charity came in the form of Todmorden Cancer Research UK’s own Calendar Girls, who bared (almost) all for a special 2003 fundraising calendar.
98. In the past few months the charity has also received television and newspaper headlines thanks to a marathon walker who chalked up many hundreds of miles walking from
99. But Stephen Perry’s trek was a little out of the ordinary and believed to be unique - Stephen climbed more than 300 mountains, and walked every major path along his route, to get there. It took more than seven months and some appalling weather conditions.
100. Some of these were probably predicted by John Kettley. John, who grew up in the Kilnhurst area, has been a television and radio weatherman for 20 years. A pop song, “John Kettley Is A Weatherman”, paid homage to him in the 80s!
101. On one return visit home, John opened Todmorden Tourist Information Centre, on
102. Since then the centre has offered advice and help to more than 400,000 visitors to Todmorden. Unlike most TICs, it is run by a trust. It’s a real success story.
103. Tourism is one area the town should surely make a success of and the complete re-opening last year of the
104. In Todmorden’s industrial heyday the canal was crucial link to get raw materials to the mill manufacturers and then onto the markets. These days Todmorden’s population numbers around 13,500 - about half it was in its heyday, when cotton was king.
105. The First World War marked a watershed. Todmorden not only lost many of its sons in the trenches - it never totally recovered its economic strength afterwards.
106.
107. Another integral part of the park is its bandstand, rebuilt according to the original design after it was destroyed by fire in the late 1990s.
108. The bandstand is no white elephant, forming a focal point for many events over the years, including the town’s Greenpeace support group’s Day on the Green events, which ran for the best part of 20 years until 2002.
109. And some things stay the same - it is used for its original purpose through the series of Brassworks concerts, held throughout the summer and culminating with a major brass band in the spotlight. This year the famous Brighouse and Rastrick band played to the firework finale.
110. Todmorden’s brass band musical tradition continues in the form of the Todmorden Community Brass Band, following disputes which saw Todmorden Old Brass Band drift away from its roots in the town and eventually fold.
111. These cirumstances were a controversial end to a band which had its roots in the 19th century and which had competed at the highest levels.
112. The community brass band offers the chance to play at a number of levels and offers beginners’ and learners’ sections. Other musical groups which form part of the town’s culture include Todmorden Orchestra and Todmorden Choral Society.
113. It has become a pre-Christmas tradition for the Choral Society and Orchestra to link up for a usually sell-out and rousing performance of Handel’s “Messiah”.
114. The big switch-on of Todmorden’s Christmas tree lights by the Mayor fires the starting gun for Christmas...
115. ...And last year the council linked up with local traders and Calderdale to vastly increase the amount of festive lighting, meaning Todmorden had one of its brightest Christmases ever!
116. These days firework displays have become all the rage at New Year too, something which seemed to start on Millennium Eve.
117. Among events to mark the Millennium in Todmorden was a specially-commissioned Millennium Textile, which now hangs in
118. Carefully and pain-stakingly designed and hand stitched by a team of volunteers, in addition to symbolising people, places and achievements it also replicated Todmorden’s geography, building up the land’s contours with layers of fabric.
119. Place names can reveal much about Todmorden’s early history, as the “History of Todmorden” book shows. The River Calder has a British name, meaning “violent stream” - something flood victims through the ages will testify to.
120. The English (Anglo-Saxons) conquered the British