Marsden, West Yorkshire

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Marsden

Coordinates: 53.6011° N 1.9267° W
Population	3,499 (2001 census)
OS grid reference	SE048116
Metropolitan borough	Kirklees
Metropolitan county	West Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Huddersfield
Postcode district	HD7
Dial code	01484
Police	West Yorkshire
Fire	West Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
UK Parliament	Colne Valley
European Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Peel Street, the main street of Marsden, with the Mechanics Institute.

Tunnel End in Marsden, the eastern entrance to Standedge Tunnel.

Mellor Bridge, one of Marsden's two packhorse bridges, with St Bartholomews Church in the background.

Marsden is a small town in the county of West Yorkshire, England, 7 miles west of Huddersfield and located at the confluence of the River Colne and the Wessenden Brook. The town has a population of 3,499 (2001 census) and is administered as part of Kirklees Metropolitan Borough.

1 Geography
2 Institutions
3 Culture
4 Use as a media location
5 Notable residents
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Geography

Marsden is the last significant settlement on the West Yorkshire side of Standedge crossing of the Pennines into Lancashire. The town is surrounded on three sides by the high moors, with low level access only from the east up the Colne Valley.

Several generations of tracks and roads have crossed the moors at this point. There are two distinctive packhorse bridges in the town (Mellor Bridge by the church, and Close Gate Bridge at the edge of the moor to the east of the town), whilst the current A62 main road crosses through the Standedge cutting some 2.5 miles (4 km) to the west. Both the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Huddersfield to Manchester railway also pass through Marsden, entering the parallel rail and canal Standedge Tunnels about half a mile (0.8 km) to the west of the town. Marsden station is located in the town on the railway line.^[1]

Marsden Moor Estate, which surrounds Marsden to the west and south, is in the care of the National Trust (NT). The estate, and the reservoir also to be found on the moors, form an area of beautiful scenery ideal for walking and cycling. Moor management is not an established science/craft, so the NT are breaking new ground in developing new techniques to rehabilitate the moor.

[edit] Institutions

The present Church of St Bartholomews was completed in 1899, although the nave and aisle had been in use from 1895, when the previous chapel was demolished. The tower was built in 1911, and the Parochial Hall in 1924 (with an extension in 1978). The church has a peel of ten bells.^[2]

The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team has it's headquarters in Marsden. Operating from two bays of Marsden Fire Station, the volunteer team provides rescue cover for surrounding moorland areas, and also assists West Yorkshire Police with searches for missing people. The team was founded in 1965 and was originally based in Meltham before relocating to Marsden in 2005.

[edit] Culture

Marsden is the home of the Marsden Silver Prize Band, a top level brass band. The town is host to several festivals and cultural events throughout the year. Perhaps the most unique of these is Marsden Cuckoo Day, day-long festival each Spring with clog dancing, a duck race, music, a procession and a famous "cuckoo walk". There is also the annual Marsden Jazz Festival each October and the Imbolc festival each winter, in which the triumph of the Green Man (who represents the coming spring), over Jack Frost (the winter) is celebrated with fire juggling and giant puppets.

Marsden is also the home, or perhaps the butt, of the famous local legend of the Marsden Cuckoo, after which the Cuckoo Day festival is named:

"Many years ago the people of Marsden were aware that when the cuckoo arrived, so did the Spring and sunshine. They tried to keep Spring forever, by building a tower around the Cuckoo. Unfortunately, as the last stones were about to be laid, away flew the cuckoo. If only they'd built the tower one layer higher. As the legend says, it "were nobbut just wun course too low."