Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district, in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into the similar-sized Colne is to the south of the town centre, which then flows into the Calder in the north-eastern outskirts of the town.
The rivers around the town provided soft water required for textile treatment in large weaving sheds; this made it a prominent mill town with an economic boom in the early part of the Victorian era Industrial Revolution. The town centre has much neoclassical Victorian architecture; an example is, which is a Grade I listed building described by John Betjeman as "the most splendid station façade in England." It won the Europa Nostra award for architecture.
The town hosts the University of Huddersfield and three colleges: Greenhead College, Kirklees College and Huddersfield New College. It is the birthplace of rugby league with the local team, Huddersfield Giants, playing in the Super League. It also has a professional football team, Huddersfield Town, that currently competes in the, as well as two Rugby Union clubs Huddersfield R.U.F.C. and Huddersfield YM RUFC. Notable people include Labour former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and film star James Mason.
The town has been classed under Yorkshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and West Yorkshire for statistics throughout its history. The town's population in 1961 was 130,652 with an increase to 162,949 at the 2011 census; it is in the West Yorkshire Built-up Area. The town is south-west of Leeds, west of Wakefield, north-west of Sheffield and north-east of Manchester.
History
Iron age and Roman
Local settlement dates back over 4,000 years. Castle Hill, a major landmark, was the site of an Iron Age hill fort. The remains of a Roman fort were unearthed in the mid 18th century at Slack near Outlane, west of the town.Toponymy
The earliest surviving record of the place name is in the Domesday Book of 1086, Oderesfelt. It appears as Hudresfeld in a Yorkshire charter from 1121 to 1127, and as Huderesfeld in subsidy rolls in 1297. The name meaning has not complicated with the shifts of English, remaining 'Huder's field'.The modern name is pronounced without a word-initial /h/ in the local dialect, a trait independently shared by many Norman scribes' dialects of the Domesday Book era.
Market town and manor
Huddersfield has been a market town since Anglo-Saxon times. The market cross is on Market Place.The manor of Huddersfield was owned by long lease by the de Lacy family until its 1322 takeback by the Crown. In 1599, William Ramsden bought it, and the Ramsden family continued to own the manor, which was known as the Ramsden Estate, until 1920. During their ownership they supported the development of the town. Sir John Ramsden, 3rd Baronet built the Huddersfield Cloth Hall in 1766 and his son the fourth baronet was responsible for Huddersfield Broad Canal in 1780. The Ramsdens endorsed the railway in the first wave of national railway building, in the 1840s.
Industrial Revolution
Huddersfield was a centre of civil unrest during the Industrial Revolution. Europe saw frequent wars during and after which, as to those most acutely affecting Britain, cloth trade slumped which could be compounded by local crops failure. Many local weavers faced starvation and losing their livelihood due to the new, mechanised weaving sheds. Luddites began destroying the mills, sheds and machinery at such times; one of the most notorious attacks was on Cartwright – a Huddersfield mill-owner who had a reputation for cruelty – and his Rawfolds Mill. Kirkpatrick Sale describes how an army platoon was stationed at Huddersfield to deal with these; at its peak, having about a thousand soldiers and ten thousand civilians. Luddites thus began to focus criminal damage on nearby towns and villages ; their most damaging act was to destroy Foster's Mill at Horbury – a village about east. The government campaign that crushed the movement was provoked by a murder that took place in Huddersfield. William Horsfall, a mill-owner and a passionate prosecutor of Luddites, was killed in 1812. Although the movement faded out, Parliament began to increase welfare provision for those out of work, and introduce regulations to improve conditions in the mills.H. H. Asquith and H. Wilson
Two Prime Ministers spent part of their childhood in Huddersfield: the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who was born locally and attended Royds Hall School, and the Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. Wilson is commemorated by a statue on the forecourt to the town's station.Aristocratic interest discharged
In 1920, the corporation bought the Ramsden Estate from that family that had owned much of the town at least as to the reversion of long leases since 1599, for £1.3 million. The town became "the town that bought itself." Most of the keynote central building freeholds belong to the local authority, as in a few towns in Britain such as Basingstoke.Governance
Huddersfield was incorporated as a municipal borough in the ancient West Riding of Yorkshire in 1868. The borough comprised the thus sidelined civil parishes of Almondbury, Dalton, Huddersfield, Lindley-cum-Quarmby and Lockwood, later dissolved. When the West Riding County Council was formed in 1889, Huddersfield became a county borough, exempt from its control.A more confined Huddersfield seat than the early 20th century scope has been represented by Labour since its creation in 1983 and is, by size of majority and length of tenure, a strongly-Labour leaning seat.
Kirklees was the first part of the country to have a Green or other environmentalist party councillor – Nicholas Harvey – he was instrumental in protesting against the intended closure of the Settle and Carlisle Railway line. The council has councillors of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties; these retained the deposit, reaching more than 5% of the vote in the last general election for an MP who serves in the House of Commons.
Huddersfield expanded in 1937, assimilating parts of the Golcar, Linthwaite, and South Crosland urban districts. The county borough was abolished in 1974 and its former area was combined with that of other districts to form the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire.
Council bids to gain support for city status were rejected by the people in a poll held by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner; the council did not apply for that status in the 2000 or 2002 competitions.
Huddersfield had a strong Liberal tradition up to the 1950s, reflected in several Liberal social clubs. The current Member of Parliament for the Huddersfield constituency is Harpreet Uppal of the Labour Party.
Demographic change
The town's population in 1961 had reached 130,652.The United Kingdom Census 2001 stated that the population of the town's urban sub-area of the West Yorkshire Urban Area was 146,234 and that of the former extent of the county borough was 121,620. The wider South Kirklees had a population of 216,011.
Geography
Huddersfield has the merger of the shallow valley floors of the River Colne and the Holme south of the town centre. This is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines which blend into the moorlands of the South Pennines west of the town.Climate
As with all of West Yorkshire, a temperate oceanic climate exists, wetter than the low plains rain shadow proper towards East Yorkshire but drier than Cumbria. It is mild for the latitude – overnight frosts are quite frequent in winter yet daytime tends to exceed such temperatures due to onshore breezes from around Britain and as the Gulf Stream moderates temperatures. Summers are usually warm, punctuated by frequent rainy and hot spells. Winters are usually cool and damp, punctuated by frequent cold spells where snow is possible, especially on higher ground. According to the Köppen climate classification, Huddersfield is certified as Cfb.Divisions and suburbs
After boundary changes in 2004, Huddersfield now covers eight of the twenty-three electoral wards for Kirklees Council. Neighbouring wards in the Colne Valley, Holme Valley, and Kirkburton are often considered to be part of Huddersfield though they are predominantly semi-rural. The very centre of town forms the Newsome ward of councillors. Eight wards make up Huddersfield proper; these with populations, extent and constituent suburbs are:| Ward | Population | Area | Population density | Places covered |
| Almondbury | 16,610 | Almondbury, Fenay Bridge, Lascelles Hall, Lepton | ||
| Ashbrow | 17,470 | Ashbrow, Brackenhall, Bradley, Deighton, Fixby, Netheroyd Hill, Sheepridge | ||
| Crosland Moor & Netherton | 17,400 | Beaumont Park, Crosland Moor, Lockwood, Longroyd Bridge, Netherton, South Crosland, Thornton Lodge | ||
| Dalton | 17,520 | Colne Bridge, Dalton, Kirkheaton, Moldgreen, Rawthorpe, Upper Heaton, Waterloo | ||
| Golcar | 17,370 | Cowlersley, Golcar, Longwood, Linthwaite, Milnsbridge, Salendine Nook | ||
| Greenhead | 17,620 | Birkby, Edgerton, Fartown, Hillhouse, Marsh, Paddock | ||
| Lindley | 17,020 | Ainley Top, Birchencliffe, Lindley, Mount, Oakes | ||
| Newsome | 17,110 | Armitage Bridge, Berry Brow, Hall Bower, Lowerhouses, Newsome, Primrose Hill, Springwood, Taylor Hill |
Green belt
Huddersfield is within a green belt region that extends into the Kirklees borough and wider surrounding counties. It is in place to reduce urban sprawl, prevent the towns in the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation from further convergence, protect the identity of outlying communities, encourage brownfield reuse, and preserve nearby countryside. This is achieved by restricting inappropriate development within the designated areas, and imposing stricter conditions on permitted building.The green belt surrounds the Huddersfield built-up area, a much-wooded buffer zone. Larger outlying communities, such as Upper Hopton, Grange Moor, Highburton, Farnley Tyas, Netherton, Honley, Outlane, Slaithwaite and Wellhouse, are exempt from this. Nearby smaller villages, hamlets and rural areas such as Thurgory, Gawthorpe Green, Bog Green, Upper Heaton, Wilberlee, South Crosland, Rushfield Bridge and Bank End see their unbuilt land included in the designation. Much semi-rural land on the fringes forms the rest. It was chiefly defined in the 1960s, and across Kirklees covers about 70%, i.e. .
A subsidiary aim is to encourage play, sport and leisure, through woodland, moor, streams, green meadows, fields, small bogs. Features are:
- Castle Hill with Victoria Tower
- Coal Pit Scrog and Hall Wood in Lepton
- Blackmoorfoot Reservoir
- Longwood reservoir
- Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Colne
- The Holme
- Storthes Hall
- Kirkheaton cricket ground
- Beaumont Park: The town's first public park laid out in the early 1880s on land donated by H. F. Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont, a local landowner. The park is listed at Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.