Southowram History 18 -
Brookfoot Village

When Brookfoot Was Thriving

A Look Back at a Lost Community

By Harry Facks

If you drive through Brookfoot today, you might never guess it was once a lively little community, buzzing with its own spirit. These days, the name usually pops up in the news for another accident at the bottom of that notorious hill—but Brookfoot’s past is anything but quiet.

A Landscape of Water and Industry

Picture this: it’s 1910. The River Calder and the canal meet at a spot where they almost merge—an area folks once called “The Island.” In the winter, the flat valley floor is a wild mix of water and shadow, the scene set by the town’s two watercourses and the dark outlines of old mill buildings.

At the heart of it all stood the mill—originally Camms’s cotton mill—looming over Brookfoot until the late 1800s. But for many, the real memory is the sweet smell drifting from Turner and Wainwright’s toffee factory. Even though Turnwright’s shut its doors in the 1930s, the building still stands as a monument to Brookfoot’s industrious days.

A Community of Its Own

Brookfoot wasn’t just about work. It had its own school, St Peter’s Mission Church for spiritual needs, and a handful of classic pubs. The Woodman Inn was a Christmas favourite until it closed in 1938, and the old Neptune Inn at the bottom of Southowram Bank served both sailors and locals. The Red Rooster—known in earlier days as “The Wharf Inn”—was a haunt for canal men with a thirst to quench.

This picture shows the Woodman pub on Elland Road and St.Peters church

Canal Life and Busy Wharves

The Calder and Hebble Navigation Canal was finished in 1757, opening up the valley to industry and trade. Soon, factories and wharves lined the water, and barges loaded up with goods bound for all corners of the globe. If you look at old photos, you’ll spot a barge making its way along the canal, passing the many loading wharves and the stone scouring mill, flags flying as it brings stone from Southowram quarries down to the canal.

Fading into Memory

Time moves on. The crowds and schoolyard laughter have faded, and many of Brookfoot’s old buildings have vanished. But if you stand by the canal and listen, you might still catch an echo of those busy days—a barge’s horn, the chatter from the mill, or the clink of glasses in a long-lost pub.

Brookfoot may have changed, but its story is woven into the fabric of Calderdale. Next time you pass through, give a nod to the ghosts of The Island and remember the days when Brookfoot was truly thriving.