The ‘oasis in the middle of nowhere’ Yorkshire village with quirky overspill from neighbour
Branwell Bronte was almost as famous for boozing as he was for painting his literary sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
His prolific consumption of gin probably kept the Lord Nelson Inn, at Luddenden, in roaring trade when he worked as a station manager down the hill at Luddenden Foot. Today the pub, housed in a building that pre-dates the legendary admiral’s birth by 124 years, is still very much in business.
The inn doesn’t sell food and like Luddenden village itself, it isn’t on the way to anywhere in particular. In a year when, according to CAMRA, around 29 pubs close every week, how is the Lord Nelson doing so well? Is it the Bronte connection? Is it the crowds of parched walkers and cyclists who stop in the village every weekend?
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Maybe. But the main reason is the community that live around this whitewashed, L-shaped tavern at the heart of their village.
“We’re very lucky that our community loves our pub...” says landlord Daren Wilkinson. "Luddenden is brilliant. It’s got a great community atmosphere.”
“For young people and old people, it’s great,” adds Daren who has run the Lord Nelson for eight years.
Luddenden sits halfway between Halifax and Hebden Bridge. It’s halfway up a relentlessly steep valley formed by Luddenden Brook, a tributary of the River Calder.
The name is Brythonic, the ancestor of modern Welsh, and may mean the ‘valley of a loud stream’. The name still fits today.
The brook cuts through the village tumbling down a small weir opposite the Regency, neo-gothic St Mary’s Church. Looking around at the steep valley sides I wonder if it’s the geology of Luddenden that makes it such a community-focused place.
Flat land is scarce therefore the roads have to be narrow and the houses are packed in tightly. You can’t avoid your neighbours and only a misanthrope would try to.
“Everyone is so friendly,” says Elaine Hustler who retired with her husband to Luddenden six years ago.
The couple were initially worried when they moved from Bradford. Small places can be cliquey and unwelcoming to offcumdens but their fears were soon allayed.
Elaine now calls her adopted village ‘Brigadoon’ after the utopian village from the musical of the same name. Approximately half of Luddenden’s population has been there generations.
The other half are relative newcomers but everyone mingles at events like the mayor making ceremony and the charity events at the Lord Nelson.
Although Luddenden’s population is small, the village has a new mayor each year. This year Luddenden Mayor Sue Shiels has an exclusive parking space next to the entrance to the Lord Nelson.
“It is a little quirky. Hebden Bridge is quirky and we get the overspill,” says Elaine who worked at the equally offbeat Salt’s Mill in Saltaire.
“I absolutely love it,” says Catherine Ingham, who is walking her Labrador-cross by the brook.
“It’s so quiet and beautiful.”
Luddenden is both – except for the brook which is still the latter. The further up the valley you walk the more spectacular the view. It’s lush and timeless thanks to its Conservation Area status.
Indeed, the Lord Nelson doubled up as the Stag’s Head pub in Gentleman Jack, Sally Wainwright’s hit screen adaptation of Anne Lister’s diaries. A few years earlier, Peel House, a late 17th-century hall, played the home of millionaire businessman Nevison Gallagher in Wainwright’s smash crime drama Happy Valley.
It’s obvious why people who live in Luddenden want to stay. Perhaps if Branwell had eased off the gin and opium – he died aged 31 – he would have too.
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