Overlooking Sowerby Bridge’s canal basin is a striking statue called Jack O The Locks, depicting a canal worker in cloth cap and boots pushing against a lock gate arm, with a little boy beside him.

This is where the Calder and Hebble Navigation meets the Rochdale Canal, the first canal built across the Pennines to connect Yorkshire with Lancashire. Over recent years the canal and its series of locks have been restored and The Wharf, a pretty cobbled area, is now a Grade II-listed cluster of restaurants, bars and narrowboat moorings.

Sowerby Bridge developed when domestic weaving in hilltop villages gave way to water-powered mills on the Calder river. The town was later dominated by carpet mills, where much of my family worked.

I paid a recent visit to Sowerby Bridge with my dad, who grew up there. Walking along Wharf Street, we came across the old Roxy cinema where he spent his youth. Today it’s the Roxy Bistro, one of many eateries in the town. With cafes, bistros and restaurants jostling for space with takeaways, there’s no shortage of places to eat in Sowerby Bridge.

It’s a bustling town with independent shops and businesses including the Sweet Emporium, a traditional sweet shop where shelves are lined with glass jars full of old favourites. The town has retained its fine old buildings, from the ornate town hall to stone-built cottages and mills converted into waterfront apartments.

We browsed around the covered market, as Dad recalled the trams that used to snake along the street, and walked by the river which was busy with canoeists. During the winter of 1947, townsfolk were greeted by a rather gruesome sight on the water. When the heavy snow thawed the river carried dead cows and sheep, which had drowned in the floods, through the town!

Turning left by the old railway bridge, Dad recalled a pub called The Stirk where regulars included a very thin man who used to bet drinkers he could stand on the pub mantlepiece. Another man claimed he could beat the horse-drawn tram from Triangle to Halifax – he did so by walking right in front of the two horses all the way!

We passed the old police station near Allan Park. Up the hill is Allan Woods where my great-grandmother’s brood lived. “If they wanted to know the time they’d look over at the town hall clock,” said Dad.

As a boy, he and his pals used hand-made bogey carts to pull luggage when returning holiday-makers filled the platforms at the end of Wakes Week.

Sowerby Bridge’s original station opened in 1840 and the assistant clerk was Branwell Bronte, brother of Emily, Charlotte and Anne. A new station was built on the current site in 1876, but following a fire in 1978 most of the original buildings were demolished.

In 2008 the former ticket office was re-opened as the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, where we enjoyed a pot of tea and a slice of fruit cake. Run by two brothers, it’s a charming venue with walls covered in railway prints, posters and memorabilia, including a framed umbrella found beneath the building in the mid-1850s.

A pile of old suitcases in the corner, and a cosy stove, create a nostalgic ambience, perfect for railway-themed events held here. The bar stocks real ale, European bottled beers, lunches and snacks.

Walking back into town, we passed Sowerby Street, where Dad lived. His old house is now pulled down, and his school is a row of houses, but nearby post-war prefabs remain, overlooking a row of pretty gardens.

Sowerby Bridge nestles in the lovely Calder Valley, where rolling hills are peppered with cottages and farmhouses. Wainhouse Tower is Calderdale’s tallest structure. Built in 1875 as a dyeworks chimney, it’s now a landmark where visitors can climb 403 stairs to an observation platform.

Neighbouring villages include Triangle, where you can spend a summer’s afternoon watching cricket, and Norland, which has a presence in America.

When 400-year-old Norland Hall, one of the timber-framed buildings dotted around the hillside, was struck by lightning and dismantled in 1914, American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst bought the stones, planning to rebuild the hall in the US. His plan failed and the stones were built into a chapel in San Simeon, California.

Above the village is Norland Moor, a dramatic heather moorland where evidence of ancient use, including Druid sacrifice and witchcraft, was uncovered with the identifcation of standing stones, ditches and banks.

“For a young boy, it was a wonderful place to live,” said Dad, recalling happy days heading up from Sowerby Bridge to the moorland, to play cowboys and pick bilberries until the sun went down.

FACTFILE:

  • Sowerby Bridge is on the A58, about three miles south-west of Halifax
  • For more about the town, visit sowerby-bridge.org.uk.
  • For more about the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, ring (01422) 648285 or visit jubileerefreshmentrooms.co.uk.