Todmorden Town Hall: The magnificent ballroom which was half in Yorkshire and half in Lancashire

In the magnificent ballroom upstairs, couples that danced from one end to the other would cross the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

It was commissioned in the 1860s at a time when the Calderdale town was rapidly expanding thanks to the booming cotton industry.

A plot of land on Halifax Road was acquired, but early work in 1866 was abandoned when local textile mills hit hard times as a result of the so-called Cotton Panic.

Financial difficulties meant the work had to be abandoned.

Five years late the site was acquired by the philanthropic Fielden family, which owned several large mills in the town, and a new architect, John Gibson, was tasked with the design.

He had assisted Sir Charles Barry during work on Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

Four years later the town hall was officially opened by the then prime minister Benjamin Disraeli’s postmaster general, Lord Manners.

One of the most attractive external features is a splendid pediment with a finely carved tympanium depicting two female figure on a pedestal, one representing the cotton and weaving industries of Lancashire and the other representing Yorkshire woollen mills, engineering and agriculture.

Underneath are friezes which show the industries coming together on the border and bringing prosperity to the town.

When the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary was changed by the Local Government Act of 1888 it was no longer possible to dance between the two counties, Todmorden having been placed wholly in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Much later, in 1943 the ballroom saw a performance by the English contralto singer, Kathleen Ferrier.

The building also contains a disused magistrates court, which now serves as the chamber for Todmorden Town Council meetings and a wedding venue.