The Houses of Parliament are reported to be slowly turning into an uninhabitable ruin; an option under consideration is moving MPs and peers out for five years.
A news article about a possible move sees it as something positive:
“…with both MPs and peers in Parliament and the Queen in Buckingham Palace facing the possibility of decamping while renovations are made to their historic homes, is it now the time for power to shift in the UK?”
LSE Professor Tony Travers makes a bizarre suggestion:
“…perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to move power out of London. There are compelling arguments to decentralise the UK by moving Parliament...why don’t we move it to...” he trails off, reaching for Google Maps “... now, where’s sort of in-the-middle? Hebden Bridge! We could put it there.”
Hebden Bridge is just about in the middle of the British Isles, although it is not one of the official geographical centres and is considered to be far up north to people who live in the south of England. Even so, it is a very strange place to select almost at random from a map when there are other, better known places in the area, big cities such as Leeds or Manchester for example.
Professor Travers may have been joking about moving Parliament to such a small market town, but Hebden Bridge has associations and connections that make a place of interest for several other reasons.
There are some coincidences involving Parliament too.
The Savile connection
Hebden Bridge is featured in the Jimmy Savile thread on the old David Icke forum, which is why I recognised the name and was surprised to see it mentioned in such a context.
Jimmy Savile appeared as an extra in a movie filmed there as a young man, and later used to visit the area. He is even suspected of murdering a young girl there.
There is a Savile House in Savile Road in Hebden Bridge, named after landed gentry whose association with the area goes back to the 1370s. The Savile family owned much land and property in and around the town.
Literary connections
Not only does the town have Savile connections, there are also associations with people and books featured in various articles on here:
Ted Hughes was born nearby; Sylvia Plath is buried nearby.
Haworth, where the Brontës lived, is just a few miles away.
Occult connections
The nearby Stoodley Pike Monument, a stone obelisk, is reported as being a Masonic construct, a beacon for UFOs and a magnet for black magic rituals. It contains a spiral staircase of – 39 steps.
John Buchan’s thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps features the Black Stone. By coincidence, Blackstone Edge is not far away to the south of the monument and there is a Blackstone House in the town.
Deaths and flooding at Hebden Bridge
There are some sinister real world associations too:
Hebden Bridge has been called the suicide capital of Yorkshire.
Around 750 people are estimated to have died as a result of working at a former asbestos plant in the town; by coincidence, the Parliament building is riddled with asbestos too, putting the occupants at risk.
Hebden Bridge has experienced severe floods in the past; by coincidence, faulty guttering and broken pipes cause regular flooding in the Parliament building too. The Big Ben belfry – Parliament has a stone obelisk of its own – is badly affected by water penetration.
The place to be?
Hebden Bridge has become home to many former outsiders since the decline of the local wool industry:
“During the 1970s and 1980s the town saw an influx of artists, writers, photographers, musicians, alternative practitioners, teachers, Green and New Age activists and more recently, wealthier ‘yuppie' types. This in turn saw a boom in tourism to the area.”
From Wiki.
The final words come from a community website:
“It’s a criticism often levelled at the place that the inhabitants are…without an idea of what goes on in the ‘real world’, often too blinded by their own ideals to actually make a difference to anything.”
Perhaps Hebden Bridge would make a suitable place for a relocated Parliament after all!
A news article about a possible move sees it as something positive:
“…with both MPs and peers in Parliament and the Queen in Buckingham Palace facing the possibility of decamping while renovations are made to their historic homes, is it now the time for power to shift in the UK?”
LSE Professor Tony Travers makes a bizarre suggestion:
“…perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to move power out of London. There are compelling arguments to decentralise the UK by moving Parliament...why don’t we move it to...” he trails off, reaching for Google Maps “... now, where’s sort of in-the-middle? Hebden Bridge! We could put it there.”
Hebden Bridge is just about in the middle of the British Isles, although it is not one of the official geographical centres and is considered to be far up north to people who live in the south of England. Even so, it is a very strange place to select almost at random from a map when there are other, better known places in the area, big cities such as Leeds or Manchester for example.
Professor Travers may have been joking about moving Parliament to such a small market town, but Hebden Bridge has associations and connections that make a place of interest for several other reasons.
There are some coincidences involving Parliament too.
The Savile connection
Hebden Bridge is featured in the Jimmy Savile thread on the old David Icke forum, which is why I recognised the name and was surprised to see it mentioned in such a context.
Jimmy Savile appeared as an extra in a movie filmed there as a young man, and later used to visit the area. He is even suspected of murdering a young girl there.
There is a Savile House in Savile Road in Hebden Bridge, named after landed gentry whose association with the area goes back to the 1370s. The Savile family owned much land and property in and around the town.
Literary connections
Not only does the town have Savile connections, there are also associations with people and books featured in various articles on here:
Ted Hughes was born nearby; Sylvia Plath is buried nearby.
Haworth, where the Brontës lived, is just a few miles away.
Occult connections
The nearby Stoodley Pike Monument, a stone obelisk, is reported as being a Masonic construct, a beacon for UFOs and a magnet for black magic rituals. It contains a spiral staircase of – 39 steps.
John Buchan’s thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps features the Black Stone. By coincidence, Blackstone Edge is not far away to the south of the monument and there is a Blackstone House in the town.
Deaths and flooding at Hebden Bridge
There are some sinister real world associations too:
Hebden Bridge has been called the suicide capital of Yorkshire.
Around 750 people are estimated to have died as a result of working at a former asbestos plant in the town; by coincidence, the Parliament building is riddled with asbestos too, putting the occupants at risk.
Hebden Bridge has experienced severe floods in the past; by coincidence, faulty guttering and broken pipes cause regular flooding in the Parliament building too. The Big Ben belfry – Parliament has a stone obelisk of its own – is badly affected by water penetration.
The place to be?
Hebden Bridge has become home to many former outsiders since the decline of the local wool industry:
“During the 1970s and 1980s the town saw an influx of artists, writers, photographers, musicians, alternative practitioners, teachers, Green and New Age activists and more recently, wealthier ‘yuppie' types. This in turn saw a boom in tourism to the area.”
From Wiki.
The final words come from a community website:
“It’s a criticism often levelled at the place that the inhabitants are…without an idea of what goes on in the ‘real world’, often too blinded by their own ideals to actually make a difference to anything.”
Perhaps Hebden Bridge would make a suitable place for a relocated Parliament after all!
