Kirklees: Textile Towns Between the Moors and the Motorway
Kirklees is a borough that most people outside West Yorkshire could not locate on a map, yet it contains two substantial towns — Huddersfield and Dewsbury — and a population of around 440,000. The name comes from Kirklees Priory, a ruined Cistercian nunnery near Brighouse where Robin Hood is legendarily buried. The borough was created in 1974 by merging several urban districts, and the constituent parts have never entirely agreed that they belong together.
Huddersfield, the larger town, sits in a bowl of hills where the Colne and Holme valleys converge. The railway station, designed by James Pigott Pritchett and opened in 1850, has a neoclassical facade that John Betjeman called "the most splendid station facade in England." The textile industry built Huddersfield's wealth — the town specialised in fine woollen cloth, and firms like Taylor and Lodge and Huddersfield Fine Worsteds still produce fabric for high-end tailoring. The University of Huddersfield, Harold Wilson's alma mater (he was born in the Milnsbridge district), has expanded significantly.
Dewsbury, to the northeast, has a different character: a market town with a large South Asian community, a rag trade that recycles textiles from across the world, and a weekly open market that draws traders and buyers from across the north. Holmfirth, in the Holme Valley to the south, is known as the filming location for Last of the Summer Wine, but it is also a genuine stone-built Pennine village with galleries, independent shops, and a food and drink festival. The Pennine moorland above — Marsden Moor, Black Hill, Wessenden — is wild, boggy, and beautiful on the right day.
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Kirklees is a borough that most people outside West Yorkshire could not locate on a map, yet it contains two substantial towns — Huddersfield and Dewsbury — and a population of around 440,000. The name comes from Kirklees Priory, a ruined Cistercian nunnery near Brighouse where Robin Hood is legendarily buried. The borough was created in 1974 by merging several urban districts, and the constituent parts have never entirely agreed that they belong together.
Huddersfield, the larger town, sits in a bowl of hills where the Colne and Holme valleys converge. The railway station, designed by James Pigott Pritchett and opened in 1850, has a neoclassical facade that John Betjeman called "the most splendid station facade in England." The textile industry built Huddersfield's wealth — the town specialised in fine woollen cloth, and firms like Taylor and Lodge and Huddersfield Fine Worsteds still produce fabric for high-end tailoring. The University of Huddersfield, Harold Wilson's alma mater (he was born in the Milnsbridge district), has expanded significantly.
Dewsbury, to the northeast, has a different character: a market town with a large South Asian community, a rag trade that recycles textiles from across the world, and a weekly open market that draws traders and buyers from across the north. Holmfirth, in the Holme Valley to the south, is known as the filming location for Last of the Summer Wine, but it is also a genuine stone-built Pennine village with galleries, independent shops, and a food and drink festival. The Pennine moorland above — Marsden Moor, Black Hill, Wessenden — is wild, boggy, and beautiful on the right day.
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