About us
The Friends of Todmorden Town Hall are working with Calderdale Council and the CultureDale team to realise our ambitions for a memorable 150th anniversary.
The Friends formed in 2019 at a time when the future of the Town Hall as a community building was unsure. The aim was to encourage more community and external use of the building and foster a sense of civic pride in this Grade 1 listed heritage asset, Todmorden’s ‘jewel in the crown’.
Events such as makers markets were organised by the group prior to covid, with the objective of getting different members of the community to experience the building. Since that time the future of the building was secured with other funding sources, and the Friends of group now mainly serve to run regular tours of the building to the general public, and to promote use of and engagement in events that happen there.
For more information about the activity of Friends of Todmorden Town Hall, see our Facebook page.
Organising for the 150th Anniversary celebrations began in February 2023 with an open community brainstorming session. A wide range of community groups were represented there, and small groups discussed ideas for how they would like to see the anniversary celebrated.
A steering group was formed, who met and digested all the many ideas, explored what was feasible and what would would likely attract funding. It was decided there would be six strands:
1) Projection mapped film
2) Promenade Play
3) Community Banquet
4) An exhibition on the Town Hall history
5) A funding pot so that we could commission existing Todmorden organisations to put on events in which they excel on a 150th theme. Through this we have commissioned Music for the Many, Todmorden Orchestra, Todmorden Hippodrome (TAODS), Todmorden Choral Society, Three Valleys Gospel Choir, Integrate Todmorden, Todmorden Community Brass Band and Lionesses of the Valley
6) Legacy and Heritage - the Town Hall is being revamped inside at present, and where the current kitchen is located will become a heritage centre (subject to funding). We agreed that all of our 150th events would be recorded, the exhibition boards made professionally etc, so that they can be re-used as part of the heritage centre.
The first event we organised was a competition to design our 150th logo. Design students from Todmorden High School, Calder High School and Calderdale College entered. We were pleased to award the £250 prize to Mia Candlin from Todmorden High, and her logo features on our publicity. She was awarded the prize at the Launch of our project. More information on the launch event and the logo competition entries here.
