Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

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Hebden Bridge itself is a fascinating centre of quiet social revolution, rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the most cosmopolitan centres in the north. While curious tourists wander through the network of gift shops, studios, florists and alternative practitioners, they are unaware that behind the cobbles and curtains lies an extraordinary community which has been inspired by the town's colourful history.

It was here that the notorious Cragg Vale Coiners, led by "King" David Hartley who is buried in Heptonstall churchyard, supplemented their meagre incomes from cloth-making and farming by making new coins from "old". Their lives were laced with intrigue and murder and their legend lives on in the town to this day.

Hebden Bridge and Heptonstall thrived during the Industrial Revolution when the mills and their familiar chimneys became the symbols of prosperity, specialising in the production of corduroy and worsted. Bridge Mill became known as the site where Royalist forces camped during their fight against the Roundheads in the battle of Heptonstall, while Nutclough Mill - now home to a modern business - earned a national reputation as the most famous producer co-operative in the country.

It was around this time that one of the town's most famous landmarks developed - the double decker houses clinging to the hillside which once housed mill workers. Were these curious stilted homes the fore-runners of modern apartment blocks?

Today the area is still famous, though more for its social and artistic revival than for its history. Visitors still flock to see the Pace Egg play, the World Dock Pudding Championships and the annual Arts Festival which draws people from all over the world and reminds them of one of its most famous sons - the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes who was born just along the road at Mytholmroyd.

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