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A Taste Of Huddersfield History

Huddersfield sits at the confluence ofold, Iron Age hill fort, itself probably
the rivers Colne and Holme, whose watersbuilt on even earlier settlements, and
and valleys have drawn people to theit is this rather than the more
area for thousands of years. In commonconspicuous 19th century addition that
with much of Northern England it haslends the site its status as Scheduled
been inhabited or settled at one time orAncient Monument as well as its true
another by Mesolithic, Neolithic andhistoric value.
Bronze Age man, Ancient Britons, Romans,Although Huddersfield and its
Angles, Jutes and Saxons as well as bysurrounding area is thought to have been
conquering Norsemen and Normans.continuously settled for at least the
Set out in any direction from the townlast 4,000 years, the expansion and
centre and you can be sure that you willprosperity of the town is owed
be treading on ground traversed by ourprincipally to its proto-industrial and
earliest forbears, Roman Legions,industrial past. Huddersfield was above
Pictish raiders, Viking invaders, andall a Georgian and Victorian construct
Saxon kings - there was once a Saxonand this legacy is visible wherever you
court at Almondbury.go, evidenced by canals, converted
Castle Hill near Huddersfield togethertextile mills, Victorian shopping
with its Victoria Tower isarcades and the fine architecture of St
unquestionably the town's mostGeorge's Square and beyond.
recognizable landmark. The castle inBefore the arrival of the industrialists
question was the one built on the hillhowever, the district of Huddersfield
near Almondbury in the reign of Kingwas variously a patchwork of linked
Stephen (1135-1154) but demolished twosettlements, a baronial manor ruled over
centuries later. Construction work onby the King's Tenant-in-Chief, a centre
Victoria Tower, built to commemorate thefor the wool trade and a market town by
60th year of the reign of QueenRoyal Charter. When the machine age was
Victoria, was completed in 1899 (in theborn, the area became a focus for the
62nd year of her reign). However, theseLuddite rebellion spreading up from
facts are not what makes Castle Hill soNottinghamshire and became infamous
valuable.through the murder of a local
The true importance of Castle Hill ismanufacturer.
found in the remains of its 2,500 year



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