Tag: Hebden Bridge

  • After the flood

    The Book Case in Hebden Bridge has news.

    As most people reading this will know, The Book Case in Hebden Bridge was destroyed by the major flooding in the Calder Valley on Boxing Day. Despite flood resilience measures taken after the last flood in 2012 we were completely wiped out as the water came through at over 5ft, nearly 2ft over the highest we had planned for. Like nearly all businesses in the town we were uninsurable against flooding.

    We have just had the fantastic news that we will be receiving a £5000 grant from the James Patterson fund. Our enormous thanks to Meryl Halls at the Booksellers Association for organising this for us, and to the grant fund who are arranging this to be paid speedily and with minimal paperwork. And of course to the great man, James Patterson himself!

    We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received since Boxing Day from all sections of the book trade. In the first few days after the flood much of Hebden Bridge was left without phone signal, power or internet. While we felt cut off from the outside world, Kevin Duffy from independent publisher Bluemoose Books together with Calder Valley based writers, Stephen May, Ben Myers and Melvin Burgess (who also spent hours shovelling wet books for us on the first day) began to rally the book trade to our support.

    Meanwhile Sarah Corbett (another wet book shoveller) who organised our Poetry Nights, contacted poets who head read at the shop for donations.

    When Sam Missingham from Harper Collins and crime writing duo R C Bridgestock (Carol and Bob to their friends) heard about what had happened it made a huge difference. Despite not ever having had direct contact with them they turned their awe inspiring organisational talents to our rescue and used their contacts and position in the industry to get big name authors involved in a signed book auction to raise money for us.

    And we have had so many wonderful personal messages of support from readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, in fact book lovers of all kinds! Here’s one lovely example – yesterday we received an anonymous package from Amazon containing 6 rolls of commercial absorbent paper towel, just addressed to ‘the people saving books at The Book Case’.

    The fact that so many people, from all areas of the book trade, have rallied round to help us means so much. I admit that in the past, reading some of the articles in the Bookseller for example, I’ve not really felt connected to the more corporate world of publishing. In fact as a small northern bookseller I’ve sometimes felt invisible in the industry.

    The last week it has felt genuinely felt that we are part of a real community, that publishers do care about independent bookshops and understand their value. We are important; to the book trade, to authors, readers and to the wider communities we exist in. The amazing support we have had is a huge reminder of this and made us even more determined to survive this.

    Finally a list of publishers who have come to our support, apologies to anyone we have left off this list, there are still boxes to open and messages that may not have got through. Just remind me so I can add you x

    Literary Gift Company
    Harper Collins
    Thames and Hudson
    Rough Trade
    Tangerine Press
    Galley Beggar
    Faber
    Phaidon
    Bluemoose
    Bloomsbury
    Quercus
    David Fickling Books
    Amberley
    Country Publications
    Dean Street Press
    Carcanet
    Chicken House
    Anderson Press
    Longbarrow Press
    Canongate
    Independent Alliance
    River Ocean
    Summersdale
    Yale
    Head of Zeus
    Wrecking Ball Press
    Macmillan
    4th Estate

    With our most heartfelt thanks
    Kate Claughan and all at The Book Case

    H/t Maureen Brian.

  • Guest post: Tales from the Hebden Bridge Food Hub

    Kirsty Vincent Hall on Facebook.

    After even a few hours in the food hub, you can spot the actual flood victims.

    You can see it in the eyes. They are the ones with the hundred-yard stare.

    Sometimes we need to lead them around gently. So much has happened to them in such a short time that when faced with a mountain of food – and very quickly and amazingly it is a mountain – they are overwhelmed.

    We learn to question. And to keep it very simple and matter of fact.

    ‘Do you have something to eat for tonight? Do you have power? OK, no power. Right, let’s find things that don’t need to be heated. Do you have any way to make tea? No, well, please come back and get teabags once your power is on. Have you had a free cup of tea in the Town Hall café?

    Now, how about bread? Brown? White? Great, now let’s get you something to put on it. Jam, peanut butter, sandwich spread? What about breakfast? Yes, you do need something for breakfast. You’ve got your milk, so how about some cereal to go with it?

    Understandably, they are completely focused on their most pressing and immediate needs. Many of them cannot think beyond their next meal, which is why we ask about breakfast.

    And that’s if they can manage a meal at all. We speak to many who haven’t been able to eat properly for days. ‘I have a knot in my stomach’, they say.

    So we asked for donations of crisps. It sounds so frivolous and we know it’s empty calories, but it seems to be something that many of our flood-struck people can face eating. And even empty calories are better than no calories.

    We encourage them to go and get the free hot food that is being made in the few remaining venues with working kitchens or being so generously donated by curry houses in Bradford and Halifax. Someone who’s taking food out to the older people reports back that they often don’t like things like curry and pizza; they want comforting and familiar food like sausage and mash. We don’t know how to fix that this time around but we make a note to report it for the flood plan and try to send things like tinned corned beef out in their emergency packs.

    Other people come in. They are desperately apologetic. They have not been flooded, so they are sure the food is not meant for them.

    Then it turns out they’ve had no electricity for days and all the perishable food in the freezer and fridge has gone bad and they have eaten everything that can be eaten cold.

    But they are still sure the food is not meant for them.

    Still others come in. They are even more apologetic. They have not been flooded and they haven’t lost power. Often they have been busy shovelling shit-filled mud from our ruined streets all day and they’ve just realised they’ve run out of bread. Or they have no milk for their children and all the shops are closed and no one knows when they will reopen. Or they have no transport to the nearest town.

    We reassure. The food is meant for everyone. The whole town has been affected. In the beginning, there are no open food shops and very few of us can get to the shops outside the valley. Even once pop-up shops start appearing, the cash machines are still full of mud. No one knows when the roads will be fully open and safe. In the first few days getting out of the valley can take hours and even if you have a car, it’s not a good idea to get in the way of the emergency vehicles. I read on Facebook, ‘please stay off the roads, every car is slowing the emergency road repairs’.

    And besides, we are all incredibly busy. Until you’ve experienced a massive flood, you can’t quite imagine quite how much there is to do and how urgent it all is. Who has the time to even think about shopping?

    ‘The food is here for everyone. Please don’t feel bad. Just take what you need.’

    We have a few who take advantage of course. Someone sagely points out that to some in Hebden Bridge – where we do not yet have a food bank – the flood has bought a welcome bonanza of free food. And in any situation, you will always get the odd anti-social person who is selfishly looking out for the main chance. We use our best judgement and gently question one or two who come back just that little bit too often or seem to be concentrating on higher value items that might have a resale value.

    But hearteningly, they are such a tiny fraction.

    Mostly it is surprisingly hard to get people to take free food.

    The vast majority of people take the absolute bare minimum. They are desperately anxious to leave enough for others, even when we have so much food that we have to stack it under the tables to stop cascades of biscuits, teabags and baked beans.

    So they only take that one thing that they have run out off. Or they take just enough for that night. We have one person who has been flooded who apologetically returns the next day, embarrassed that she needs more food…but who has brought back the stuff that she’s decided she doesn’t immediately need, to make sure there is enough for other flood victims!

    A few days in, as our food mountain grows, we switch tactics.

    ‘We don’t want to be left with this massive pile of food at the end’ we say, ‘there’s so much that it will be a real logistical problem if it doesn’t go, please take some.’

    ‘What about the food bank? You could send it there,’ they almost always reply.

    ‘I’m sure we will send some there, but Todmorden and Mytholmroyd have as much food as we do and the Todmorden foodbank only has so much storage space. Besides, the fresh food will go off if it’s not used soon. Honestly, we’d much rather you took it instead of us having to throw it out. It feels so wrong to have to throw away this food that people have so kindly given. Please take some food.’

    The one phrase we hear over and over again is, ‘I’m sure there are people worse off than me.’

    We hear it from people in ground floor flats and boats who’ve lost absolutely everything. We hear it from people who’ve had to throw out shit-soaked furniture, carpets and their children’s toys. We hear it from pensioners who’ve lost a lifetime of memories. We hear it from people whose businesses have been ruined and who might go bankrupt. We hear it from people whose kitchens have just been ripped out by sympathetic strangers. We hear it from people who don’t feel like real flood victims because ‘only’ their basement flooded. We hear it from people who have had to be evacuated from their homes. We hear it from people who have lived in cold dark houses for days.

    Somewhere in the Calder valley, there is that one person who objectively has it worse than everyone else. I do not know who that person is but if they came into the Hebden Bridge food hub, I can practically guarantee that person would say it too!

    ‘No, lass, I won’t take more than my fair share. I’m sure there are people far worse off than me.’

    Feel free to share… but if you want to publish it in a news outlet, you can damn well give a large contribution to the relief fund.

    P.S. PLEASE don’t send any more food; you’ve all been very generous and we have more than enough.

  • Guest post: Maureen’s adventures in the flood

    Maureen Brian wrote up her adventures in the Hebden Bridge flood on Facebook and I got her permission to post it here too. She notes that she’s too decrepit to join in the scrubbing but she makes damn sure to give credit to the people who do. Here’s Calderdale Flood Relief in case you want to make a donation. I’ll add some photos from the Calder Valley Flood Support group on Facebook.

    To set the scene, I was in London when the flood hit on the afternoon of 26 Dec, having lured V. here to commune with the cats on the promise that this place was warm, cosy and full of books and other things to play with. Yes, I ended up feeling guilty.

    The house was above the flood line – higher than ever recorded before – and was not harmed at all. We had already had several scares and one actual flood in the month. The electric power failed. The gas stayed on (so coffee) as did the landline but your bog standard phone is not as much fun as the internet. The house at the back of mine, though, is built into the hillside and had water pouring in at the back and out at the front several times. At least that was ground water and clean but still a mammoth task to get rid of!

    Meanwhile, the whole of the centre of town was destroyed. The buildings are almost all of solid stone and will survive but the mess was horrendous. Most of the damage was to homes and businesses which had been gradually and painfully rebuilt after the 2012 floods – yes, that’s 2, one in June and one in July!

    Credit

    The majority of the buildings in the centre of town were built or had a major refurbishment from 1850 onwards when it was entirely reasonable to have cellars. Now they filled up again. We lost the use of, in no particular order, all the food shops, all 6 of the cash machines which were under water at the height, all the cigarette shops (4), our bookshops and a famous comic shop and the roads to the adjacent towns of Mytholmroyd and Todmorden were impassable. So, total boredom, cold and discomfort for poor V. The available candles and torch batteries just about held out but not the fags!

    Credit

    Christmas is the time for major engineering works on the railway so I arrived back on my planned date of 27 Dec, early evening, to find that the railway station had no lighting at all and exit involves use of a subway which is dim and creepy at the best of times. But there was V. wrapped in several scarves and bearing a torch. Back home in 5 minutes where we could sit in the dark and watch the lights in the houses across the valley, but gritting our teeth a little at their good fortune.

    Mytholmroyd had it worse than HB and up on the top of the hill people were advised not to try to get anywhere unless they knew the route very well as wet bogs were exploding across the roads with the sheer volume of water, something which happens on unlit roads with no notice at all.

    So that’s the summary of the bad bits. You will have seen the pics of shops dumping their entire ruined stock out into the streets.

    Bookcase

    Mashable

    The good bits are really good. After 2012 a group had got together – we do that in HB at the slightest excuse – to set up stores of basic equipment, sandbags, things to start the cleanup. Those were soon exhausted but by then the place had leapt into action. Marco at the pizza shop – just beyond the edge of the flood, still with power, was handing out free pizza and vast quantities of strong coffee to volunteers before the water had receded.

    We also had the Town Hall, the 1890’s council offices recently extended to provide meeting rooms and space for small businesses plus a cafe and even more importantly working loos. It seems that supplies of cleaning materials and basic necessities – food, loo paper – poured in along with the volunteers. It was up and running as the 24 hour hub for HB in no time at all, coordinating requests for help with available muscle and liaising with police, fire brigade. It also offered specialist help and advice, all for free. All this is why I’m convinced we’ll get the town back on its feet though that may not be finished within a year. Most of the goods on offer were gifts from businesses and individuals.

    We just cope. Helen at the wool shop is busy knitting up what remains of her stock and offering jumpers to friends and customers to retain her sanity until she can open as a business again in her volunteer-scrubbed shop in Market Street. Pics you may have seen taken from a balcony there are hers though any number of people are claiming credit for them! It’s become a running joke.

    We went down to the Town Hall on Wednesday to charge my phone and were amazed not just by how efficient it all was but also how jolly. While we were there we bumped into members of a Muslim community group up from London to supply both muscle and curries – one of many such groups – also young soldiers coming in for their baked potato and baked beans, along with locals happy to just talk to other people. Floods and similar events isolate people terribly.

    Credit

    We also saw the visit of Rory Stewart, junior minister at Environment and now officially Minister for Floods. I understand that he later got a short lecture from a FoE person on retaining water in the hills rather than relying upon massive and expensive civil engineering works in the valley bottom once the flood is happening. He seems brighter than the average Tory but will he be able to convince Cameron, the very man who appointed a climate change denier as his first Secretary of State in that department?

    We are fortunate not to be blessed – yet – by a visit from Cameron himself who might not have been well received, shall we say?

    So where are we now? Bright sunshine and the odd shower. The Dusty Miller pub in Mytholmroyd, badly affected, is opening tonight with an impromptu party but very likely no furniture. The Picture House in HB, scrubbed clean and with the carpet and seats removed from the stalls, starts its intended programme on New Years Day, using only its rather hard 1920s seats in the balcony with no heating so the ads say “bring a blanket.” There is a crack along the length of the A646 of perhaps a kilometre where it overhangs the canal and would fall into it should we get that sort of rain again. Looks like it will be a rebuild costing the government more than it might have done to start managing the catchment area of the benefit for the ordinary mortals below. Meanwhile traffic is slow and single file.

    We are still here and will remain. We could just do with a more scientifically literate government.