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Huddersfield (About this sound pronunciation - hudders-feeld (help·info)) is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, 190 miles (310 km) north of London, and 10.3 miles (16.6 km) south of Bradford, the nearest city.

Huddersfield is near the confluence of the River Colne and the River Holme. Located within the historic county boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, according to the 2001 Census it was the 10th largest town in the UK and with a total resident population of 146,234. It is the largest urban area in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees and the administrative centre of the borough. The town is well known for its important role in the Industrial Revolution, the birthplace of rugby league and for being the birthplace of the late British Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Huddersfield today is a town of higher education, the media and sports, being home to the rugby league team, Huddersfield Giants, founded in 1895, who currently play in the European Super League and Football League One football team Huddersfield Town F.C., founded in 1908. The town is home to the University of Huddersfield and sixth form Greenhead College.

Huddersfield is a town of Victorian architecture. Huddersfield railway station is a Grade I listed building and was described by John Betjeman as 'the most splendid station facade in England' second only to St Pancras, London. The station stands in St George's Square, and has been given a £1 million make over and subsequently won the Europa Nostra award for European architecture.

History
Early history

There has been a settlement in the vicinity for over 4,000 years. The remains of a Roman fort were unearthed in the middle of the 18th century at Slack near Outlane, just west of the town. Castle Hill, a major landmark of the town, was also the site of an Iron Age hill fort. Huddersfield itself was noted in the 1086 Domesday Book as a village known as Oderesfelt also as Odresfeld.

Huddersfield from Castle Hill

Huddersfield has been known as a market town since Saxon times. The market cross is on Market Place.

Industrial Revolution

Huddersfield was a centre of civil unrest during the Industrial Revolution. In a period where Europe was experiencing frequent wars, where trade had slumped and the crops had failed, many local weavers faced losing their means of livelihood due to the introduction of new machinery, which would have condemned them to poverty or even starvation. The Luddites began destroying mills and machinery in response; one of the most notorious attacks was on Cartwright — a Huddersfield mill-owner, who had a reputation for cruelty — and his Rawfords Mill. In his book Rebels Against the Future, Kirkpatrick Sale describes how a large army platoon was stationed at Huddersfield to deal with Luddites; at its peak, there were around a thousand soldiers in Huddersfield and only ten thousand civilians. In response, the Luddites began to focus their attacks on nearby towns and villages, which were less well-protected; the largest act of damage that they ever did was the complete destruction of Foster's Mill at Horbury — a village, which is about 10 miles (16 km) east of Huddersfield. The government campaign that eventually 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 afterwards, Parliament began to increase welfare provision for those out of work, and to introduce regulations to improve conditions in the mills.

Political history

Huddersfield had a strong liberal tradition up to the 1950s and this is still reflected in the large number of liberal social clubs in the town. The current Member of Parliament (MP) for the Huddersfield constituency is Barry Sheerman, a Labour Co-operative member. Kirklees Council was the first in the UK to have a Green Party councillor: Nicholas Harvey who lived in Taylor Hill and represented the Newsome Ward. Nick, a former employee at Huddersfield railway station, was instrumental in the creation of the protest train against the intended closure of the Settle to Carlisle rail line. He declined to stand for a second term and no longer lives in Huddersfield. He is now a resident of Filey where he operates his own 'Green' railway train.

The far-left is well represented in Huddersfield (considering its size), with Revolution, Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Party of England and Wales all having active groups which are involved in campaigns such as Stop the War, Save Huddersfield NHS, Huddersfield Anti-Academies Alliance and Unique Care Workers Support Group, as well as individual members of Workers Power (involved in Revolution and their group in Leeds), Socialist Appeal and Communist Party of Britain. The Town also has a well represented Conservative Party presence, with various other Center-Right, Rightist and UKIP groups.

Two Prime ministers have spent part of their childhood in Huddersfield, Harold Wilson and Herbert Asquith. Wilson is commemorated by a statue in front of the railway station. There is no memorial to Asquith's briefer connection with the town.

Governance
Civic history

Coat of arms of the former County Borough

Huddersfield was incorporated as a municipal borough within the ancient West Riding of Yorkshire in 1868. The borough comprised the parishes of Almondbury, Dalton, Huddersfield, Lindley-cum-Quarmby and Lockwood. When the West Riding County Council was formed in 1889, Huddersfield became a county borough, exempt from county council control. Huddersfield expanded in 1937, including 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.

Attempts by the local council to gain support for city status were rejected by the town's population in an unofficial referendum held by the local newspaper, the Huddersfield Daily Examiner. The council did not apply for that status in either the 2000 or 2002 competitions. City status is given to districts, so it would have been Kirklees rather than Huddersfield that would have been declared a city.

According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the population of the Huddersfield urban sub-area of the West Yorkshire Urban Area was 146,234, and the population of the former area of the county borough was 121,620. The wider South Kirklees area had a population of 216,011.

Industry

Huddersfield is still a manufacturing town, despite the fact that the university is the largest employer. Historically the town produced textiles. The number of people who work in textiles has declined, but those companies which survive produce large quantities of woollen products with little labour. The town is home to textile, chemical and engineering companies; including Cummins Turbo Technologies (turbocharger manufacturers), C & J Antich (textiles), Syngenta AG (agro-chemicals), James Crowther (textiles), Sellers (Textile Machinery), Pennine Radio Limited (electronics transformers and sheet metalworking) as well as a large number of niche manufacturers. Huddersfield is home to 'Andrew Jones Pies' a regional award winning pie-maker, where a worker was killed in a gas explosion on 10 April 2009.

Landmarks and architecture

Victoria Tower at 'Castle Hill'

Huddersfield is notable for its abundance of fine Victorian architecture. It has the third highest number of listed buildings of any town or city in the UK. The most conspicuous landmark in the Huddersfield area is Victoria Tower on Castle Hill. Overlooking the town, the tower was constructed to mark Queen Victoria's 60th Jubilee Year. A picture of the Victoria Tower features on the New Zealand wine Castle Hill.

The colonnaded Huddersfield railway station in St George's Square was once described as 'a stately home with trains in it', and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as 'one of the best early railway stations in England'. A bronze statue of Huddersfield-born Sir Harold Wilson, Prime Minister 1964–1970 and 1974–1976 stands before the entrance in St George's Square.

The Huddersfield parish church (St. Peters Church) was constructed in 1838 and is adjacent to the town centre, on Byram Street, near the Pack Horse Centre.

The Pack Horse Centre is a covered pedestrianised shopping area constructed over the former cobblestoned street known as the Pack Horse Walk, named in memory of the beasts of burden, Pack horses which ferried merchandise over the Pennines before the Standedge Tunnels were built. This pedestrian-only link passes from Kirkgate, across King Street and along Victoria Lane, by the Shambles, to the Piazza and the distinctive Market Hall at Queensgate, which was built to replace the old Shambles Market Hall in the early 1970s. Next to the Piazza is the Victorian Town Hall and the 1930s Public Library.

Transport
Road

A map of Huddersfield from 1954

Huddersfield is well connected to the national motorway network via the M1 and M62 motorways. The M1 passes near the eastern fringes of the town about 10 miles (16 km) away. The M62 comes much nearer (about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) away) and Huddersfield is served by three junctions: Mount (A640, J23 – limited access), Ainley Top (A629, J24) and between Brighouse and Cooper Bridge (A644, J25).

The Huddersfield Corporation built an inner ring road (part of the A62) in the 1970s. The area within this ring road has come to define the central business district of the town. The ring road is effective in relieving traffic congestion in the town centre where many roads are now pedestrianised.

Main routes into Huddersfield include the A62 Leeds Road, A641 Bradford Road, A629 Halifax Road, A640 New Hey Road and the A62 Manchester Road.

Rail

Huddersfield railway station enjoys a comprehensive local and regional rail service. However, there is no direct service to London, with passengers having to change at either Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds or Wakefield Westgate. Many services are subsidised by the local-government public transport coordinator, Metro. A frequent express service operates to the nearby principal cities of Leeds and Manchester and a regular service to Darlington, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester Airport, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Scarborough and York. This is operated by First TransPennine Express. There are also local stopping services operated by Northern Rail which link Huddersfield with Barnsley, Bradford, Brighouse, Dewsbury, Halifax, Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield.

Huddersfield Railway Station in St. George's Square

Bus

The Huddersfield Free Town Bus

Huddersfield bus station was opened by the Mayor, Councillor Mernagh on 26 March 1974, despite the fact that it had not actually been completed. It is the busiest bus station in West Yorkshire with a daily footfall of almost 35,000. The majority of bus services pass through the bus station. Many services are subsidised by Metro, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.

Huddersfield's bus operators reflect the national situation; local subsidiaries of three dominant national operators provide most of the services in the area: First Calderdale & Huddersfield who provide most local services across Huddersfield with some services running outside the Kirklees area with destinations including Bradford, Brighouse, Halifax, Manchester and Oldham. Arriva Yorkshire, who provide frequent services along Leeds Road to Dewsbury and Leeds, and Centrebus Holdings (Huddersfield Bus Company), through its recently-acquired subsidiary, Yorkshire Traction, who provide almost all services in the south east of the town. Other smaller operators include locally based operators Teamdeck, trading under the name of K-Line' and Stotts Coaches. Centrebus Holdings purchased Teamdeck in May 2008, along with Stagecoach Yorkshire's Huddersfield depot.

In November 2006, a zero-fare town centre bus service, known as Free Town Bus, was launched. Buses run every ten minutes from 7.30 a.m. (from the railway station) to 7.00 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. on Saturday. Stops on the route include the bus station, University of Huddersfield, Kingsgate, and the indoor market. The service is run by K-Line in partnership with Kirklees Council and Metro.

Canal

The Huddersfield Broad Canal, originally the Sir John Ramsden Canal, and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal (both navigable by narrowboat and the former by wider craft also) wind around the south side of the town. To the rear of the YMCA in the Turnbridge section there is an electrically operated road bridge, which is still in use, to raise the road and allow boat traffic to pass. This bridge was originally opened by use of a windlass system.

Sports

The Galpharm Stadium

Football and rugby league are the two main sports in Huddersfield. The town has a professional football team Huddersfield Town F.C who currently play in League One. In 1926, they became the first English team to win three successive league titles a feat which only three other clubs have been able to match.

The town is known as being the birth place of rugby league and the town is home to the Huddersfield Giants who currently play in the Super League the top division in Europe. The town is also home to Huddersfield Underbank Rangers rugby league club who currently play in the Rugby league conference.

The town is also home to a number of other sports clubs including Huddersfield Rugby Union Football Club who playing the National Division Three North and Huddersfield Rams Aussie Rules club. The main sporting arena in the town is the Galpharm Stadium which is home to both the football team and rugby league side.