John Billingsley worked at Hebden Bridge library for three decades, now organises Todmorden Folklore Centre’s library. He developed an interest in the folklore of the valley, its icons, its stories and how it holds the communities together whil...

Viv and Dave chat with Rosie Grant and Lisa van der Zanden at Natural Endings, a funeral service which puts the family/friends at the centre of funeral planning. They are both committed to ensuring the family/friends can be involved as much or ...

The u3a is an organisation that brings retired people together to share their interests and skills. People can continue to pursue interests and/or develop new ones. There are people in their 80s able to play badminton and cricket in safe enviro...

Keith Crabtree, born in Cornholme, lived in Todmorden all his life, worked for Environmental Health at Calderdle council and became a flood warden on his retirement. Now a flood volunteer, Keith has views on the lack of maintenance that contrib...

Nicola Warren is a popular as a School Crossing Patrol getting children and parents safety across the road to their school. There is so much more to her life than that as people who cross roads every day of term times realise. Listen to Nicola ...

Madeleine Brooks is a singer songwriter living in Todmorden. She runs an open mic at The Puzzle Hall, Sowerby Bridge and, ‘cut her teeth’ on the stage at Hebden Bridge Trades Club – a real voice of happy valley. After playing gigs, running nigh...

Catherine Shelley, is kept busy by being vicar of St Mary’s Todmorden, St Peter’s, Walsden and St Michael’s, Cornholme. Catherine, originally from Manchester, gave up a career in law to follow her faith. She’s been chaplain at Birmingham Univer...

Episode 54 features Jill Robinson talking about her Berringden Brow books - and the life and adventures of Jess, a single mother in a Pennine town. It’s not quite autobiographical, but everything in the books has happened to someone, including ...

Episode 53 of Real Voices of Happy Valley is a chat with Natalie George of Big Tree which now runs the Oddfellows Hall, next to Todmorden Market. The building has a long history as an entertainment hub and now features a ground floor café Branc...

Claire Convallaria interested Viv with her work on projects encouraging and enabling girls into science education and careers. Like so many we speak to on Real Voices, she does far more than that. Claire also advises on business sustainability ...

Mark Simmonds has advised many communities on saving community assets like shops, pubs, skate parks and much more, generally by creating community co-operatives. This means investing in your community rather than for profit - though dividends c...

Alison Redfern created a scarecrow festival to help raise funds for St Peter's Church. Seven years later Walsden Scarecrow Festival is part of the local calendar, brings the village together with people from further afield, funds local communit...

Keith Wilson is a well known face in the Calder Valley and many have seen the results of his skills in stone walling, treeplanting, coppicing etc without realising. Admire his work in the beer garden at The Fox & Goose in Hebden Bridge for ...

Ashleigh Cooper has been in Calder Valley for 35 years and has retired from his antique dealer job (mostly). He works at the RSPCA shop in Hebden Bridge and is active in sports for the not-so-young, coaching walking cricket, playing walking foo...

Viv and Dave chat with Cath Baker mostly about her work protecting badgers. There are people who deliberately attack badgers but many are inadvertently injured or killed by cars, people digging or building in places badgers live. The Calderdale...

Aid Todd set up Drum Machine to reflect western rhythms and culture. It has grown to be a mainstay of festivals, locally and nationally and many valley residents have been part of it. Meanwhile Aid has been part of several successful bands incl...

Louisa set up Keep Tod Tidy and works closely with community wardens to organise monthly clean up days in the town centre ad around the estates of Todmorden. As ever, she's a lot more than that. Here she chats with Viv and Dave about her commun...

Viv and Dave sit in their garden and chat about their afternoon at Todmorden Country Fair; the animals, charities and displays. Great fun, interesting people.

Viva and Dave chat with Steve Hindle, of the  Bridestones moor community group aiming to restore Bridestones and moorland above Todmorden to its ancient state. This would involve the re introduction of various plant life and the enrichment...

Des Horsfall discusses highlights of his career in music: solo and band work, working with Alexis Korner, collaborating with Pete Townshend of The Who and his Kuschty Rye project inspired by the post Small Faces and Faces work of bass player an...

Viv chats to Mica May of women's plumbing company Stopcocks about the issues women face in skilled trades and the register of tradeswomen they have set up. More information online at Stopcocks.uk and 08008620010

Outside the Ring O' Bells pub in Halifax Dave chats with Elliot and Andy from Andy's Man Club. The club was set up in response to the self inflicted death of Andy Roberts in Halifax in  2016. It exists to get men talking and supporting eac...

Leona Johnson has been involved in a Forest School, Live Wild, a social worker and transformational life coach … among other things. Her mission – her passion - is to connect people with nature and each other. Viv and Dave met up with her in My...

Dave chats with Ash, Newcastle born Calder valley based artist whose current project sees him exploring his family and his heritage. Ash is doing this partly for himself after the loss of his mother and also for his own children who are also ga...

Lucy Illingworth has astonished people all her life with her amazing musicality. She is blind, has serious learning difficulties but took local Facebook pages by storm before appearing on and 'winning' Channel Four TV show The Piano. This has l...