Find out more about some of Huddersfield’s most magnificent buildings

HUDDERSFIELD Local History Society is to hear about some of Huddersfield’s most magnificent buildings.

Its 2016-2017 lecture programme will end in true architectural style with a talk from architectural historian Joseph Sharples, called The Pevsner Project and the Buildings of Huddersfield.

Art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner began his county-bycounty survey, the Buildings of England, in the 1940s, with 46 volumes being published between 1951 and 1974.

Huddersfield was included in the Yorkshire: West Riding volume, first published in 1959 and revised in 1967.

However, Huddersfield will feature in a new and greatlyexpanded revision, Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South, due to be published in the autumn.

While Ruth Harman has been responsible for most of this volume, the sections on Huddersfield and Dewsbury have been written by Joseph Sharples, who was author of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Liverpool.

He will tell his audience how he spent days walking around the town and evenings researching in Huddersfield Local History Library in order to write about its architecture.

Joseph said: “I think the buildings that impress me most are the solid Victorian office blocks that greet you when you emerge from the magnificent railway station, the work of architects such as JP Pritchett and William Cocking.

“Much has changed since Pevsner first wrote about Huddersfield in 1959. On the minus side, there is the destructive ring road and the loss of the Victorian Market Hall, but on the plus side there are such striking additions as the Queensgate Market and the John Smith’s Stadium. And, of course, when Pevsner visited, the town was still black with soot, but now the warm local stone is one of its glories.”

The talks start at 7.30pm next Monday (May 22) in the Bronte Lecture Theatre (BLG05) at Huddersfield University All welcome (£2 for non-members).