Todmorden is a market and former industrial town of some 15,000 inhabitants which until 1888 was on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire but after that date was firmly sited in the West Riding of Yorkshire, latterly the county of West Yorkshire. Situated in the valley through which the River Calder runs, it is almost entirely surrounded by moorland, a large part of which takes its name from the town. It was here in January 1997 that a somewhat-smitten Sean Skinner went walking with Samantha Failsworth, insisting that he loved fell-walking and telling Des Barnes that he’d had experience of trekking such high surroundings in Holland.