Huddersfield

Huddersfield, a 'clothing town' in the West Riding of Yorkshire, a municipal and county borough, 26 miles NE. of Manchester, 15 S. of Bradford, 17 SW. of Leeds, and 189 NNW. of London. Well built of stone and regular, it occupies a considerable extent of high ground, sloping down to the left bank of the Colne, which here receives the Holme; and it owes its rapid extension to its situation in a rich coal-district, to its abundant water-power, and to its transit facilities by rail and canal. Among the chief edifices are the circular cloth-hall (1768-80); the railway station (1848), with a marble statue of Peel (1875) before it; the classical town-hall (1880); the market-hall (1880); and the infirmary (1831-74). The Mechanics' Hall (1848) developed into the Technical School (1883). The first parish church of Huddersfield was built before 1110, rebuilt in Tudor times, and again (unhappily before the revival of architecture) in 1835. St John's (1853) was designed by Butterfield, and St Thomas' (1859) by Sir G. G. Scott. The Beaumont Park, 21 acres in area, was opened by the Duke of Albany in 1883, and there also is Greenhead Park of 26 acres. Huddersfield is the chief seat in the north of England of what is called the 'fancy trade,' and every description of plain woollen goods is also manufactured; whilst other industries are cotton and silk spinning, iron-founding, machine-making, &c. Roman remains have been found here; but Huddersfield has no history to speak of. In 1750 Bishop Pococke described it as 'a little town.' It was enfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832, and made a municipal borough in 1868, the boundary having been greatly extended the year before. Pop. (1861) 34,877; (1871) 74,358; (1881) 86,502; (1891) 95,422.