HelpHound

Cleckheaton is a town of about 15,000 people, 4 miles or so south of Bradford. It is a more pleasant town than some of it''s neighbours, such as Heckmondwike. However, it isn''t exactly the most beautiful or charming town in the world. The town has a permanent indoor market area and has an outdoor market on Saturdays, although this seems to be struggling. It is still nice to buy bread and fruit & veg from independent traders though. The town has a few nice pubs, and an uninteresting Wetherspoon''s. There are several charity shops including an Oxfam that has a pretty good book section. The town also has a great independent health food shop. The town also has the sort of shops you''d expect to find in any town: there is an independent chemist, an independent baker (and a Gregg''s), a post office, two independent butchers, a bridalwear shop and a few interesting independent clothes shops. In fact, the retained spirit of independence is one of the nice things about this town. Two good recruitment agencies are based in Cleckheaton - Elite Personnel and The Agency.

In terms of food, there are at least two fish & chip shops & two Italian restaurants, a few Indian/South Asian restaurants and a Chinese takeaway and fast-food takeaways. One place definitely worth a visit is the Aakash restaurant, housed in an imposing Victorian building that was a congregational church. The restaurant was at first the biggest Indian restaurant in the world - I''m not sure if this is still the case but it''s huge and the food is excellent.

I lived in a small village just on the out skirts of Cleckheaton called Scoles, i had to go to Cleckheaton as there where no real shops in Scoles. It is an avarage size town with all the shops you would expect, there is a Tessco for the family shoping and a few restarunts Eastern Spice and the Shibden Mill Inn. Because it is near Bradford the choice of shops for the younger people are limited and if this is what you are looking for then may be a trip into Braford is what you should be doing, however if you are looking for a nice walk around to see some local shops and just to take in the atmosphere this is a lovely place. The people are nice to chat to and they are helpfull when you get lost!!! the pub food is nice and great value for money, like the Malt Shovel and the Bulls Head. The old stone buildings and the querky shops are really good fun, the night life is nice for the visitors but not for the younger locals, the atmospher in the pubs is really nice.