Having got hooked on the show in the 80's, we had several holidays in and around Holmfirth, in those days Holmfirth was a much quieter market town, I was a lot fitter and could walk the hills and dales,we were never lucky enough to catch them filming.
In the mid 90's we moved to the moors above Haworth, so a 40 minute drive to Holmfirth, my job as a telecommunication engineer took me far and wide, in July 1999 I was working in Stainland near Halifax, while having to wait for a outside contractor to complete his work and given an estimate of 3 or more hours, I took an extended lunch break and drove over to Holmfirth, then Jackson Bridge.
I parked up by the White Horse pub only to spot a lot of activity at Cleggy and Howards houses and could see they were filming, so I watched from a distance, then some of the cast and crew appeared outside the pub, sitting outside at the tables, then most of the Ladies walked down from Cleggy's it was great to see so many of the cast.
My time to get back to work was getting close, there seemed to be a lot of hugging with the cast and crew, then a passing car stopped and made cheerful lively comments towards the group, at this time I had got of of my vehicle to see if I could get a mobile signal, I was hoping to call the contractor for an update on how long he was going to be and see if I had more time to watch, I was shocked to hear what was said to the motorist making comments to the cast, a crew member walked over to him and asked could he move on, the cast had heard sad news that Bill Owen had died.
With that and the lack of phone signal, I got back into my car and headed back to work,still finding it hard to believe what I had heard, I think it was confirmed on the radio news later that day on my drive home, a very sad introduction to what ended up my mission to see the cast again in the future.
In the mid 90's we moved to the moors above Haworth, so a 40 minute drive to Holmfirth, my job as a telecommunication engineer took me far and wide, in July 1999 I was working in Stainland near Halifax, while having to wait for a outside contractor to complete his work and given an estimate of 3 or more hours, I took an extended lunch break and drove over to Holmfirth, then Jackson Bridge.
I parked up by the White Horse pub only to spot a lot of activity at Cleggy and Howards houses and could see they were filming, so I watched from a distance, then some of the cast and crew appeared outside the pub, sitting outside at the tables, then most of the Ladies walked down from Cleggy's it was great to see so many of the cast.
My time to get back to work was getting close, there seemed to be a lot of hugging with the cast and crew, then a passing car stopped and made cheerful lively comments towards the group, at this time I had got of of my vehicle to see if I could get a mobile signal, I was hoping to call the contractor for an update on how long he was going to be and see if I had more time to watch, I was shocked to hear what was said to the motorist making comments to the cast, a crew member walked over to him and asked could he move on, the cast had heard sad news that Bill Owen had died.
With that and the lack of phone signal, I got back into my car and headed back to work,still finding it hard to believe what I had heard, I think it was confirmed on the radio news later that day on my drive home, a very sad introduction to what ended up my mission to see the cast again in the future.
