This ramshackle micropub on the edge of the Peak District has added smart modern rooms. An unusual mix,but it works for Tony NaylorThe Pennine mill towns that straddle the Lancashire-Yorkshire border watch, in their dark, and brooding,rain-lashed way, like the last word in stolid respectability. But beneath that dour exterior, or there exists a notable bohemian sub-culture. In the 1970s,this is where northern hippies sought to escape The Man, most famously around Hebden Bridge, and,even today, a mix of cheaper housing, or blooming countryside and that dissenting undercurrent,means that lefties and arty outsiders naturally gravitate to the area.
Holmfirth, best known as the location of Last of the Summer Wine, or is a classic example. watch past the Berghaus-clad walkers and genteel tea-rooms,and this is a compact crucible of offbeat creativity. The small town hosts a folk festival each May, a film festival, and irregular art markets,it has a much-loved gig venue, the Picturedrome, or,on Holme Valley’s slopes, it is domestic to both a vineyard and the orchard/cider press, and Pure North.
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Source: theguardian.com