Gallery Gallery Strawberry Bank/Liversedge Colliery occupied land next to today’s abattoir in Headlands Road. it was connected into the railway and had ovens for making coke from the coal (seen here). Birdcage Walk goes through this location today. The surviving well and water tower of Springwell Brewery in Beck Lane. Water was pumped beneath Market Street to Brewery Street in Heckmondwike. Now Gallery 172 Card Shop Gomersal Colliery in Nutter Lane was the last local pit to close in 1973. George Balmforth the lamp man can be seen in the lamp room doorway. Site is now Oakwell car park. The Miners’ Memorial here is a Civic Society project. This farm gate sign off Scholes Lane denotes the old brickworks and clay pit. 6 carriage train leaving Heckmondwike station the many chimneys of which can be seen centre left. 1964. Now Nos, 1 & 1a Lower Lane. Self explanatory plaque at the bottom of Tofts Road, Cleckheaton Men attack a mill. The aim was to break machines. “Enoch” was the name of the huge hammers they used, seen in this image (courtesy of Calderdale Museums Service) The plaque in Windybank Lane, Beggarington, Hartshead, denotes the likely location of the Peep Green Chartist gatherings described as a “bowl” in the landscape. A diesel passenger train leaves Cleckheaton Station (middle distance). Sharp’s coal yard is on the right. The big building is Williamson’s Warehouse which stood in Tofts Road. The wooden part extended over the goods loop and had trap doors in the floors for winching goods directly to or from railway wagons. Bulldozers account for the destruction of almost all Spen Valley’s mining legacy. This one is seen flattening Stanley Colliery off Primrose Lane, with Royds Park in the background (1970s) Heckmondwike’s temperance society demonstrating in favour of the Licensing Bill 1908. The bill sought to nationalise pubs via the licensing system, close pubs on Sundays and would shut down one third of them and ban barmaids. 170 trains took protesters to London the following day and the Bill was later defeated. Heckmondwike had a teetotal pub at the time called “The Wise Man” in Greenside selling sarsaparilla and ginger beer. Gomersal Colliery in Nutter Lane was the last local pit to close in 1973. George Balmforth the lamp man can be seen in the lamp room doorway. Site is now Oakwell car park. The Miners’ memorial here is a Civic Society project. Single decker Heckmondwike tram waits at the Miry Lane terminus in Hightown. The six point charter; a national rallying point which the landed gentry occupying parliament resisted, even using spies and the army. From the start (1773) the Shears was named after the shears used by croppers (also called shearmen) Quarrying was widespread in Spen Valley as these street signs suggest. Sign on path between Headlands Road and Ashton Clough Road, Liversedge. Birdcage is a reference to the canaries which were taken down coal mines to detect methane. Presumably they chirruped. Westgate, Cleckheaton – now Spen Velo The topical mural inside the New Pack Horse captures the essence of the old travellers’ route from the upper Calder Valley. This statue of a cropper and his daughter can be seen at Sparrow Park on the corner of Knowler Hill.