The Holme Valley to the south is the most immediately rewarding excursion. Holmfirth, the main town, is a handsome stone settlement that became improbably famous as the filming location for the long-running BBC series Last of the Summer Wine. The surrounding valley — narrow lanes, millstone grit farmhouses, steep fields — is quintessential West Yorkshire. Meltham and Hepworth are quieter alternatives for walkers.
Marsden, eight miles west on the edge of Saddleworth Moor, is the starting point for walks across the Dark Peak into Derbyshire and for the Standedge Tunnel boat trips. The Transpennine Trail passes through here. On the other side of the Pennines, Saddleworth itself — a cluster of villages just over the border in Greater Manchester — makes a pleasant half-day outing, with good pubs and moorland walking.
Halifax is twenty minutes by train: the Piece Hall, a remarkable eighteenth-century cloth trading hall built around an open courtyard, is one of the most handsome industrial-era buildings in England, now used for markets and events. Saltaire, a UNESCO World Heritage Site just outside Bradford, is another textile-era monument worth the short journey — a complete Victorian model village built by industrialist Titus Salt, with the great Salt's Mill now housing the world's largest collection of David Hockney paintings.