Scammonden
Scammonden or Dean Head was a village close to Huddersfield, in the Dean Head Valley, England, before the valley was flooded to create Scammonden Reservoir in the 1960s. The M62 motorway crosses the dam wall and then passes through a cutting to the west over which Scammonden Bridge carries the B6114. The Chapel of St Bartholomew still exists, as does the old vicarage, which is now home to Scammonden Sailing Club.
History
in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Scammonden or Dean Head was a township and chapelry in Huddersfield parish covering more than 2,000 acres. In the 1870s it had a church, a Baptist chapel, a national school, a post office and 190 houses. Industry in the village included cotton-spinning and woollen manufacture and there were freestone quarries. In 1866 Scammonden became a separate civil parish, on 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished to form Colne Valley. In 1931 the parish had a population of 394. The area is now in the Kirklees district, in the county of West Yorkshire.A motorway and dam across the Dean Head Valley was proposed in the early 1960s and work began in 1964. Most buildings in the village were demolished or submerged in the reservoir when it was filled in 1969. Geologists considered the church and school would become unsafe once the dam was full. The church school closed in 1970 and is now a private residence.
Below Scammonden Road is an archaeological site of a late prehistoric settlement known as Meg Dyke.