Up the Buttress - and other weird events!

Yes I did put "Up the Buttress" - it's just one of the many weird and wonderful things that happen in Hebden Bridge.  The Buttress is a narrow, cobbled walkway (not really a street) that goes from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall and it's very, very steep (1 in 4) and 400 yards long.

The idea is to cycle up it - I can hardly walk up it, yet more than 40 people turned up to try it, with a very happy and warm crowd helping them along.  You can see some great pictures on the website of the organiser - here: http://singletrackworld.com/2012/09/up-the-buttress-2

A festival I'm looking forward to a lot this year is the Valley of Lights at the end of November.  This is a lovely evening when there's a parade of all the handmade "lanterns" - I use the term loosely as some of them are huge.

This parade coincides with the Christmas Tree being turned on in the Square and there are lots of food stalls and a market so it's a great time for the family.

We've had many such events throughout the year, including the Summer Arts Festival and the Burlesque Show (which caused so much of a rumpus in the town with some of our more rabid feminists that you'd have thought they were dancing naked).  There's also the Handmade Parade which is definitely one for families as the children are encouraged to make their own costumes.

We also have the Vintage Car (and vans, motorcycles et al) Festival over a weekend at the beginning of August.  I went this year as I had a visitor staying and we had a lovely time remembering some of the cars we grew up with - only I got stung by a wasp (ouch!!!).  For some reason wasps came out by the bucketload and kept the St John Ambulance people busy (they were wonderful by the way and took the sting out). 

Anyway folks that's just a taste of some of the things we have going on in the Valley - take a look at http://www.hebdenbridge.org.uk for more information.