Recognition in new book for Huddersfield’s first suburb
HISTORIAN TRACES THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS ARCHITECTURALLY SIGNIFICANT AREA
THE story behind the development of Huddersfield’s first suburb, Highfields, goes on sale today (Friday) in a new book by one of the town’s best-known historians.
David Griffiths’ tome, ‘Highfields - a Most Handsome Suburb’ is published by Huddersfield Civic Society and has been written as a companion to The Villas of Edgerton, which was published to much acclaim.
Again he paints a picture of a distinctive and architecturally significant area, acknowledged today by its Conservation Area designation.
However, it has gone downhill in recent years and has become a rather insalubrious area though the launch of the top-notch restaurant The Scullery last year has gone a little way to redress the balance. It is one of the town’s least recognisable areas being squeezed in between the town centre and its more illustrious rival, Edgerton. The text has, once more, been complemented by the photography of Andrew Caveney of Creative Digital Photography, and a variety of images, maps and photographs, sourced from local and national archives.
The book traces Highfields’ development which, in the early nineteenth century, became the favoured residential location for Huddersfield’s business and professional class.
Their handsome Georgian houses were followed by the architectural showcase of New North Road where, amid a wealth of Victorian residences, significant educational and religious establishments, some by distinguished architects, were constructed.
The architectural quality of the area was recognised nationally by the 1860’s and poet laureate, John Betjeman was, similarly, impressed when he visited the town in 1964.
IYA home delivery David rightly says: “Highfields is a stone’s throw from the town centre and deserves greater recognition.
“Its streets and lanes offer up rich rewards, and the book includes numbered maps from which individual buildings can be discovered on foot.”
The book, which will be published on December 11, costs £9.95 and will be available from local bookshops or through the Civic Society website: huddersfieldcivicsociety.org.uk.