Editing Heptonstall (section)

===Parish church===
{{multiple image
|direction=vertical
|image1=Heptonstall bells 1912.jpg
|caption1=New tower bells before being installed in the tower in 1912
|image2=Heptonstall bells 2012.jpg
|caption2=Heptonstall bells on their return with new bearings to the tower in 2012
}}
Heptonstall's original church was dedicated to [[St Thomas Becket]]. It was founded c.1260, and was altered and added to over several centuries. The church was damaged by a gale in 1847, and is now only a shell. A new church, [[Thomas the Apostle|St Thomas the Apostle]], was built in the same churchyard. This suffered a lightning strike in 1875.<ref name=BBC/>

The church is used for the annual Pennine Spring Music Festival, held every Spring Bank Holiday week. This includes workshops, masterclasses and performances.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.penninespringmusic.co.uk/Whatis.html |title=What is Pennine Spring Music?  |access-date=9 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127071352/http://www.penninespringmusic.co.uk/Whatis.html |archive-date=27 November 2011  }} Pennine Spring Music</ref> The old church ruin is occasionally used for open-air services.

The tower of the new church contains eight bells, cast in 1912 by [[John Taylor & Co]]. These were removed to a bell foundry for refurbishment on 31 August 2012 and were returned, with new bearings, in October 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heptonstall.org/2012/07/09/refurbishment-of-the-bells-of-st-thomas-church/ |title=Refurbishment of the bells of St Thomas' church |last=Pask |first=Reverend Howard |date=9 July 2012 |work=Heptonstall Parish Website |access-date=3 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111071448/http://heptonstall.org/2012/07/09/refurbishment-of-the-bells-of-st-thomas-church/ |archive-date=11 January 2014  }}</ref>

The American poet [[Sylvia Plath]], who was married to Poet Laureate [[Ted Hughes]] from nearby [[Mytholmroyd]], is buried in the graveyard extension, to the south-west of St Thomas Becket's churchyard.<ref name=RD/><ref>{{cite book|last=Kirk|first=Connie Ann|author-link=Connie Ann Kirk|title=Sylvia Plath: A Biography|year=2004|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CN|isbn=0-313-33214-2|page=104}}</ref> Plath's headstone has been several times vandalised by removing Hughes's surname from the memorial.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-08-ca-1304-story.html|title=Plath's Grave Now Quiet After Years of Desecration|first=JESSICA|last=BALDWIN|date=8 February 1993|via=LA Times}}</ref>

Another poet buried here is the American [[expatriate]] [[Asa Benveniste]], a co-founder in London of the publisher Trigram Press.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heptonstall.org/loocal-history/|title=Local History|publisher=Heptonstall Parish Council|access-date=11 January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/trigram/trigram.html|title=Trigram Press Archive<!-- Bot generated title -->|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207200125/http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/trigram/trigram.html|archive-date=7 February 2012}}</ref> In the 1980s Benveniste and his partner Agnetha Falk ran a second-hand bookshop in Hebden Bridge.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Wt_xvTDcof0C&dq=%22asa+benveniste%22&pg=PT18 Iain Sinclair, ''London: City of Disappearances'', London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006.]</ref> His gravestone reads: "Foolish Enough to Have Been a Poet".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gabrielgudding.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/asa-benveniste-poet-and-printer-in.html|title=Gabriel Gudding blog, 10 October 2006.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111130103/http://gabrielgudding.blogspot.co.uk/2006/10/asa-benveniste-poet-and-printer-in.html|archive-date=11 January 2014}}</ref>