| Huddersfield sits at the confluence of the rivers | | | | remains of its 2,500 year old, Iron Age hill fort, |
| Colne and Holme, whose waters and valleys have | | | | itself probably built on even earlier settlements, |
| drawn people to the area for thousands of years. | | | | and it is this rather than the more conspicuous |
| In common with much of Northern England it has | | | | 19th century addition that lends the site its status |
| been inhabited or settled at one time or another | | | | as Scheduled Ancient Monument as well as its |
| by Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age man, | | | | true historic value. |
| Ancient Britons, Romans, Angles, Jutes and | | | | Although Huddersfield and its surrounding area is |
| Saxons as well as by conquering Norsemen and | | | | thought to have been continuously settled for at |
| Normans. | | | | least the last 4,000 years, the expansion and |
| Set out in any direction from the town centre | | | | prosperity of the town is owed principally to its |
| and you can be sure that you will be treading on | | | | proto-industrial and industrial past. Huddersfield was |
| ground traversed by our earliest forbears, Roman | | | | above all a Georgian and Victorian construct and |
| Legions, Pictish raiders, Viking invaders, and Saxon | | | | this legacy is visible wherever you go, evidenced |
| kings - there was once a Saxon court at | | | | by canals, converted textile mills, Victorian |
| Almondbury. | | | | shopping arcades and the fine architecture of St |
| Castle Hill near Huddersfield together with its | | | | George's Square and beyond. |
| Victoria Tower is unquestionably the town's most | | | | Before the arrival of the industrialists however, |
| recognizable landmark. The castle in question was | | | | the district of Huddersfield was variously a |
| the one built on the hill near Almondbury in the | | | | patchwork of linked settlements, a baronial manor |
| reign of King Stephen (1135-1154) but demolished | | | | ruled over by the King's Tenant-in-Chief, a centre |
| two centuries later. Construction work on Victoria | | | | for the wool trade and a market town by Royal |
| Tower, built to commemorate the 60th year of | | | | Charter. When the machine age was born, the |
| the reign of Queen Victoria, was completed in | | | | area became a focus for the Luddite rebellion |
| 1899 (in the 62nd year of her reign). However, | | | | spreading up from Nottinghamshire and became |
| these facts are not what makes Castle Hill so | | | | infamous through the murder of a local |
| valuable. | | | | manufacturer. |
| The true importance of Castle Hill is found in the | | | | |