Local legend has it that Tom Bell was a hideous looking outlaw of Hebden Hey who roamed the woods in the area, murdering and stealing to survive. It is said that his ghost still roams the woods seeking his next victim to rob and murder and to seek vengeance on the constables who were responsible for his death!

If the stories are to be believed, Tom Bell lived and died in a cave, the entrance of which can still be found 50 yards up into the woods directly in front of Hebden Hey Hostel, formerly in days gone by the ‘Cosy Corner Café’. The cave entrance, at one time walled up, is now accessible, but only to the brave-hearted, and said to go right through the hill, coming out at Choppy Knife Silk Mill, near Mytholm church. So deep into the ground does it go that locals say once inside “you can hear them poke the fires in Heptonstall. “

But, like most outlaw legends, he met an untimely and gruesome end! One night , whilst out on his evil deeds in the woods he was discovered by the local constables and in his haste to escape through the dark he fell, impaling himself on a sharpened pole he carried and used to kill his victims, before crawling back to his cave where he slowly and painfully bled to death in the dark. His body lay undiscovered until the skeleton was found many years later at the turn of the last century!

A local poem recalls of Tom Bell that he:

"Lived alone in grim attire
And loll'd before a charcoal fire,
Which gleamed upon his shaggy locks,
And glitter'd on the sparry rocks.

At night in rifling search again,
He fiercely sallied from his den,
And like some savage beast unbound
Took what he could the country round.

Till rich with booty loaded well,
He bore the plunder to his cell;
And there amidst the rocky maze,
He spent the remnant of his days."

Whether the story is true or not, no-one can be sure, or indeed whether the cave near the Hostel is in fact the last resting place of him. But, what is the case is that none of the locals venture into the woods above the Hebden Hey Hostel after dark. And it’s not just the dark that they are scared of!

 If you are further intrigued by the legend, then look up at the apex of the Hostel, above the door, and you should be able to see Tom Bells head.

The stone carving was rescued when the original cafe building was demolished in 1983 for the Hostel to be built, and placed in the new building in approximately its original position. It is said that he still looks out towards his cave, waiting and watching for people searching for him!