A Cultural Landscape

A story which changed the world unfolds across this landscape: textiles and the birth of industrialisation… from domestic manufacture in hillside hamlets to early mills in the valleys below to the mighty Victorian towns whose wealth funded the British Empire.

All of this is set in a dramatic landscape of surprising contrasts, the sweep of the moors steeply cut by wooded valleys and softened by a subtle patchwork of hamlets and fields.

Walk the packhorse tracks, marvel at: the world’s finest Victorian civic architecture and remember the parellel revolution in ideas … the birth of the unions, the building society; the co-operative movement – ideas which made the world a fairer place.

For locals and visitors alike, here is a precious legacy to protect and enjoy: a marvellous mix of natural and built heritage in this, our landscape for the future.

Pre-industrial Sites And Museums

Skipton Castle; packhorse bridges: Hebden Bridge and Wycoller; Heptonstall – weaving village; the Georgian Piece Hall Halifax; Towneley Hall, Burnley; Oakwell Hall, Birstall; NT East Riddlesden Hall, Keighley; Shibden Hall Halifax.

Littleborough Coach House Heritage Centre; Pendle Heritage Centre, Barrowford; Saddleworth Museum Uppermill; Colne Valley Museum, Golcar; Craven Museum Skipton

Early water power: National Trust Gibson Mill, Hardcastle Crags; Pendle Water Power Trail, Barrowford; Cheesden Valley, Rochdale.

Industrial Heritage Sites

Historic buildings and museums Helmshore Textile Museums; The Weavers’ Cottage, Rawtenstall; Rochdale Pioneers’ Toad Lane Co-op; National Coal Mining Museum Wakefield; Dean Clough, Halifax; Touchstones Rochdale; Bradford Colour Museum; Oldham Going Up Town; Burnley Heritage Centre.

Craft sites and working museums Queen Street Mill and Rourkes Forge, Burnley; Bradford Industrial Museum; Walkley Clogs, Mytholmroyd; Ellenroad Mill, Milnrow, Rochdale; Bancroft Mill Barnoldswick, Pendle.

Mill owners’ mansions Bankfield Museum, Halifax; Rossendale Museum, Rawtenstall; Cliffe Castle Keighley; National Trust Gawthorpe Hall Padiham

Model workers’ community Saltaire Bradford, a World Heritage Site

Classic South Pennine townscapes: Hebden Bridge; Slaithwaite; Colne

Victorian civic architecture: Bradford, Halifax, Rochdale and Todmorden town halls; Huddersfield Railway Station, Halifax Market; Wool Exchange, Little Germany quarter and Undercliffe Cemetery , Bradford