Walsden

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Walsden
Lancashire
Walsden - Travis Mill Lock and Church.jpg
Travis Mill Lock and St Peter's church, Walsden
Location
Grid reference: SD934220
Location: 53°41’41"N, 2°6’1"W
Data
Post town: Todmorden
Postcode: OL14
Dialling code: 01706
Local Government
Council: Calderdale
Parliamentary
constituency:
Calder Valley

Walsden is a large village in eastern Lancashire, close to the border with the West Riding of Yorkshire. It lies along the A6033 Keighley to Littleborough road in the Walsden Valley, a branch of the Upper Calder Valley, and is just under two miles south of Todmorden and four miles north of Littleborough.

Walsden railway station, on the Leeds-Todmorden-Manchester line, originally opened in 1841 and re-opened 10 September 1990, having been closed for almost 30 years. It was also the only place to be bombed in the Todmorden area during the Second World War Blitz, probably because the German plane had a leftover bomb after a raid and so dropped it on what appeared to be an important site, a railway station.

Etymology

Walsden's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin meaning "Valley of Foreigner" or "Valley of he who is Foreign". Foreign refers to the Celtic Britons who lived in the area at the time of the Anglo Saxon Petty Kingdoms.[1] Thus, it has the same root as Wales and as Wallonia in Belgium. It has been said in the past that it comes from "Wolves' Den", this is dismissed as a folk etymology.

Sport

Walsden has a cricket club playing in the major Lancashire Leagues.

References

  1. Watts, Victor, ed. (2010), "Walsden", The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Cambridge University Press 
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