Grand after life of grind
It played a key role in the Industrial Revolution and has given us prime ministers and acting greats. Phil Penfold
delves into Huddersfield.
We shall never ever know who Huder was, but way back in the mists of time, he owned a Yorkshire field. In the 1086 Domesday Book, Huder achieved immortality, because his property was noted down as Oderesfelt. A few years later, in another charter, it turned into Hudresfelt and in 1297 it was Huderesfeld. A subtle change, but a significant one.
What the Iron Age settlers called their encampment at the top of Castle Hill is a mystery, but they knew a strategic site when they found it. Then came the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. William I’s cronies, the de Lacy clan, owned the town for a century or so, and then it reverted to the crown. In 1599, with Elizabeth I still on the throne, the Ramsdens rode into town, and they acquired the manor. The Ramsdens dug their heels in and tenaciously held on to what became known as “The Ramsden Estate” (in other words, the bulk of the town) until 1920.
It was then that they sold their land to Huddersfield Council, for the tidy sum of
£1.3m. For a while, Huddersfield became
known as “the town that bought itself ”. Much of the freehold of the town centre, even today, belongs to what is now Kirklees Council. The Ramsdens, it has to be said, were far from absentee landlords and it was Sir John Ramsden, the third baronet, who built the Cloth Hall, and his son (another John) championed the digging of the canal. In turn, another descendent was hugely influential in getting the rail tracks laid in 1840.
Huddersfield was also at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. For it was here where the latest manufacturing processes started to appear that helped transform industry. It was a genuine Northern powerhouse in its day.
However, such changes also caused explosions of civic unrest, with factories and mills being ransacked. There was also at least one death – a mill owner called William Horsfall, who was murdered in 1812. The situation became so bad that the Army was called in with around 1,000 soldiers to “protect” the town’s 10,000 civilians.
Huddersfield can boast of having been home to two Prime Ministers – Herbert Asquith, the last Liberal PM, and Harold Wilson. Herbert was given