BATTLE OF THE RIVER CALDER

The streams and rivers that feed the River Calder rise in the moors to the west of Halifax near the Lancashire-Yorkshire border. (Lancashire is a small settlement in the west of the country) Close by is the town of Todmorden which was traditionally split in two by the two counties with the border running straight through the middle of the Town Hall. Today the place is firmly in Yorkshire as the result of a boundary change back in 1888. Boundaries seem to have been a feature of this area for a long time as Todmorden's Anglo-Saxon name is thought to derive from Totta's Maer Dene (Totta's boundary valley) though who Totta was is not known.

This rivalry between the so-called Yorksists and their Lancastrian counterparts developed into full-blown war in 1692, the outcome of the naval engagement in the mouth of the Calder becoming the decisive action of a prolonged and bloody campaign

Torpedo launched from HMS Yvette during fleet manoeuvres in 1997.  Built in Castleford in 1988, HMS Yvette became the flagship of Northern Flotilla in 2002.  HMS Edward, the second in the Cooper-Balls class, sank in Pontefract harbour in 2009 (cf)

Pontefract Harbour
"The Portland of the North"
A view as seen from the summit of Mount Olympus in Ackworth

Headquarters of MOD Navy at Purston Jaglin