Ah, Hebden Bridge. If there’s one town in Calderdale people know, it’s here. It’s one of those places that appears frequently in newspapers, with headlines of either ‘Here’s This Cute Yorkshire Town You Probably Don’t Know About’, or, because that headline is blatantly a lie, ‘Residents Of Yorkshire Town Rail At Tourists’.
But in case you don’t know; Hebden Bridge is an old mill-town in the centre of Calderdale. It’s really easy to get to, being an important stop on both the Rochdale Canal and the Calder Valley Rail Line between Leeds, Manchester, and Preston. It’s also less than a mile from the Calderdale Way, though getting to it is a very steep hike. It’s notorious for being both the Lesbian capital and the UFO capital of the North of England – the moorlands will do that to people – and it has a reputation for being a place noted for hemp, hippies, and homonormativity.
But it is a pretty town. And there’s often events on, from the obvious Queer culture, to an annual Classic Car Rally. And with regard to this blog post, look, the thing with Hebden Bridge is it has a lot of pubs. If I spent my time going around every single one of them, I would probably die. So this is just a selection of the ones I’ve really liked and am happy to spend time in. It is true that a lot of Hebden Bridge pubs are very popular, more because of location than vibe, and remember, I’m a beer snob. I’d like to think my favourite pubs are those lesser-visited, but this is Hebden Bridge and there’s no such thing as a quiet pub. I’d love to say this blog will appeals to both tourists and residents, but let’s be real, if you live in Calderdale, you already know what the best pubs are. And if you want to enjoy your time in pubs around here, you’d hop on a bus four miles to Todmorden. Or, possibly, Halifax.
Anyway, here’s my favourite places to drink in Hebden Bridge. They’re in no particular order, but kind of vibe west to east.
Fox and Goose
It looks a lot plainer on the outside than it ought, but do you notice the fox?
In fact this is a good place to start since, IMHO, this *is* the best pub in Hebden Bridge. The downside is it’s a little to the west of the town centre, up a short but steep incline. You might think the upside of this means it’d be less crowded, but no, almost every time I’ve been here it’s been rammed. Partly this is because it’s on the main road at the junction up to Heptonstall, so this is the first pub you come to if you’ve been there. And partly just because everyone else knows it’s a good pub. It is the first community-owned pub in West Yorkshire, which, tbh, is So Hebden Bridge.
Close-up of the fireplace and the beer-board.
It’s thin but long. None of its rooms are particularly big but it has three of them; they’re all quite similar, with flagstone flooring, small round tables with stools and a couple of wall-side benches, wooden beams in the ceiling, and walls lined with old photos of Hebden and beermats. The room by the bar has a fireplace, and there’s also a dartboard. It vibes, if nothing else, as old and traditional. There is a beer garden upstairs and to the back, but I have to admit I’ve never been to it.
The bar, well, half of it.
The beer selection is pretty good; up to six cask beers, and a few keg and ciders too. They tend towards Yorkshire breweries, and every time I’ve been there they’ve had at least one dark beer on. Of course they do a decent pork pie. I’ve also come across live music here but this is often impromptu rather than being scheduled.
Drink?
You’ll notice the lack of signage, and that it blends in with the other buildings. I don’t know if that’s intentional.
This is a micropub and beer shop, on the main street to the west of the town centre, on the way to the Co-Op supermarket, and yes the question mark is part of the name, not that you’d be able to tell as there’s no sign outside. It’s built on two levels, and both levels are kind of divided in half. The downstairs has an open-plan room in the front with a small amount of seating; this is where the beer for sale is, on shelves and in the fridge. The back half is the bar area, at which it’s very clear this place is Queer-friendly, even down to stickers being available on the bar itself.
It’s quite an eclectic place, and always looks like they just moved in. They haven’t.
There’s not much on tap – generally two cask beers and one cider, with an extra four on keg – but obviously you can buy from the hundreds of cans and bottles available in the front room and sit in drinking those. They also have a range of Yorkshire gins and spirits available.
The open-plan downstairs boom, with beer for sale in evidence.
Upstairs there’s a bit more seating; the back area consisting of a couple of sofas and stools, the front area has a couple of bigger tables, some with seating that looks like it’s just come straight out of a local bus, complete with moquette patterns. This front area also has a DJ desk and sometimes there’s live music playing.
Hidden Hebden
This is a bit Instagram v Reality – this is what you see when you’re outside it; from the road it’s a lot smaller and more distant. Quite, uhm, hidden, in fact! But that makes for a less distinctive image.
The name is quite apt. It’s tucked away down a small passageway off the main street, next to a rather lovely pizza restaurant. There’s a signboard outside on the pavement but it’s easy to miss. Or would be easy to miss if, in peak season, the outdoor seating area wasn’t rammed and standing-room only.
That’s basically half the entire internal seating area!
Even so it is still very small. It’s quite wooden-panelled, and the seating is somewhat minimalistic – there’s one small round table, one long table where you sit on the windowledge, and an l-shaped cushioned wooden block – that’s it. No hidden side rooms, no upstairs, just the bar and enough space for a roller-derby team. Indeed this may be one the few pubs that exist whose outdoor space has more seating than their indoor space.
The bar. The clock does not work; I checked.
There’s a decent beer selection though, so worth a potter in. There’s six casks, with no real pattern to them, so it’s a very selection. The usual keg beers are available but they’re less prominent on the back wall. And, as an added extra, treats are available for the four-legged friends, as befits a bar with its own dog (Mia).
The Albert
I think this is quite a pretty and neat-looking exterior, I don’t know about you.
What makes The Albert notable is that it’s a central Hebden Bridge pub but, possibly because it’s one street away from the centre, doesn’t always have the crowds that fill the pubs on the main street. It’s near a couple of cafés and behind Vocation. It’s a large brick building with blue flourishes, and it looks very in keeping with the rest of the town.
You can definitely tell it’s a pub and not a bar!
Inside there’s two side areas of seats and a separate back room. It feels very much like a traditional pub – albeit one with new touches – in that it has proper pub-like seating and tables, featured walls with floral wallpaper, and fireplaces. There is an upstairs area but I’ve never been to it. It’s a calming place, quite not Hebden Bridge-y.
View across the bar. The entrance is to the right, and the other seating areas are beyond them, also on the right.
Beerwise it offers six casks, mainly from Timothy Taylor and Theakstons. They have open-mic music on a Wednesday, and bands playing chillout vibes on a Sunday afternoon. There’s also a piano, but I don’t know if it’s usable. One final note is that in the area on the left, there’s a plaque on the wall that shows the depth of the 2015 flood; it comes to my chin.
Nightjar
Another of those pubs that’s not easy to photograph, especially with its awning covering its name, and its neighbour being just so much bigger.
On the main street, and a small part of the larger independent theatre complex opposite Vocation (mentioned below), this is a small brewpub with a large heart and a covered outdoor seating area that’s useful to wait under for the bus opposite.
The bar. It’s actually slightly darker in real life.
It’s not terribly large inside. The walls are bare red brick, as is the base of the bar. The seating is a mix of shaped wooden tables with stools, and more traditional long wooden seating by tables. There’s artwork hanging from the ceiling, the passage to the toilet is covered with beermats, and the toilet itself is filled with light-hearted whimsy painted on small mirrors.
It’s not very big, but the ceiling is more notable than another image of the bar but from the opposite direction!
As a brewpub, it offers three casks, usually two of which are their own beers, and at least five kegs on the back wall. You can also buy to takeaway, tho I’ve never done this here. They also offer a selection of beer snacks and nuts. Fun fact; it was the first pub I went to in Hebden Bridge.
Vocation
A grandiose building on the main road, though I don’t know how I feel about the seating being actually on the pavement.
I have to mention Vocation, They’re a local brewery and quite large; they have brewtaps in Manchester and Halifax, and are fairly ubiquitous around Calderdale. They’re in fairly large, if somewhat plain, buildings. Hebden Bridge is their ‘home’ site in a sense – they’re based in the middle of moorland close to Cragg Vale – but if you’ve been to their other outlets, this doesn’t feel much different.
One of the three seating areas; this is the one on the left as you walk in.
It’s located in the main road through the Calder Valley, opposite Nightjar and not far from the railway station. There’s a small seating area outside, at the bottom of the steps from the pavement. Inside is made up of three separate seating areas. One on the right has long tables, one near the bar area that has small tables, and one to the right that’s mostly little snugs. It’s all quite plain and ‘functional’ rather than aesthetic; despite its size it’s clear this is a bar and not a pub. They also do food – burgers, hotdogs, fries, and other sides, along with beer, which aren’t small portions.
All of the beers!!!
In general, their beer selections are huge, and their Hebden site is no exception. They have four beers on cask (generally their own), and up to twenty on keg (many of which are their own but maybe a quarter are from other breweries). If you can’t decide what to have, they offer a ‘4 taster beers’ (third-pints) for a slightly discounted rate where the bar staff choose four random beers for you from their selection. There’s also a small assortment of Vocation cans to drink in or take away.
