holmfirth

Visitors can get a curious sense of déjà vu when they arrive in Holmfirth:  don't those cobbled lanes and flights of stone steps seem somehow familiar? 

There's a simple explanation: this Pennine market town provide the setting for the gentle TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine.  Hop aboard the vintage tour bus which takes you up the little hilltop roads above the valley to some of the stunning Pennine locations used in filming the series.  And there is the Summerwine exhibition, lovingly put together with the aid of Bill Owen, the actor who played Compo. 

It would be wrong to come to Holmfirth just for the nostalgia, however.  This is a lively market town packed with interesting independent shops,  which has a growing reputation also as a centre for artists and craftspeople.  For your guide to galleries, artists, sculptors, potters and photographers download the Holmfirth Art & Music leaflet or experience artists wares first-hand each year in June at the Holmfirth Arts Festival.  Holmfirth's Food and Drink Festival staged each year has a very contemporary feel, combining cookery masterclasses with a superb open air food market.

The nearby Colne Valley has plenty to interest visitors.  The Colne Valley Museum in Golcar, based in a terrace of traditional weavers' cottages, tells the story of how weaving was carried out on these hillsides, home once of the Luddites.  The Standedge Tunnel and Visitor Centre in Marsden is a must for anyone interested in the story of the remarkable trans-Pennine Huddersfield Narrow Canal.