Hebden Bridge Poem by C Richard Miles

Festoons of flagstone, tiered like wedding cake,
Crawl slowly up steep steps in Hebden Bridge,
Those terraces of solid, millstone grit
Toil tiredly up the hillsides to the ridge
Where once millworkers dwelt and eked their lot
By labouring long in sheds to earn a crust.
Their close-stacked cottages remain there still
Dark shrouded, cloaked in soot and smoke and dust.

But streets no longer ring with sparking clogs
And reeking chimneys fail to spout their fumes.
As modern ways bring greener thoughts to bear,
Environmentalists sing sweeter tunes
Than ever clattering shuttle rattled out
As back and forth it swept across the loom
Whose strings of cotton matched no heavenly harp
As dismal drudgery delivered gloom.

Where temperance, Victorian-style once ruled
And filled the chapel pews with pious prayer
Alternative philosophies hold sway
As new-age lifestyle options bring to bear
Their brighter visions, far from darker days
When prudence and sobriety said “No! ”
And gaiety, imprisoned in glum grey
No more is trapped and wakens, free to go.