The Upper Calder Valley has five principle settlements; Walsden, Todmorden, Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge. In the second half of the twentieth century, a decline in the textile industry resulted in these market towns suffering from neglect and failing local economies.
The Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward, launched a Renaissance Market Towns programme to transform the region’s ‘rural capitals’ into sustainable places where people want and are able to live, work, invest and visit. The Upper Calder Valley was selected as the first Renaissance Market Towns project, presenting the complex challenge of generating a strategy for the transformation of an entire valley.