Huddersfield Trivia Page 3
By the Local Government Act of 1888, Huddersfield was created a
County Borough from April 1st, 1889, the status of the town being
thereby raised to a position commensurate with its municipal progress
and enterprise.
The Huddersfield Corporation Electrical Undertaking company commenced
electricity supplies to 83 consumers (including the Town Hall and
the Market Hall) in July 1893. The Brush Electrical Company supplied
four Babcock & Wilcox's boilers, one 30kw and two 100kw generators
which supplied 4 sub-stations in the town centre at 2,000 volts.
Low tension mains distributed the supply to individual customers
at a pressure of 100 volts. At the time the supply was used for
lighting only and cost sixpence per unit.
The Northern Rugby Football Union (now called rugby league) was
formed in the George Hotel, Huddersfield in 1895. Huddersfield was
one of the twenty clubs to break away from the English Rugby Union
organisation.
Lockwood cemetery was acquired by the Corporation in 1898.
The police station in Peel Street was opened by the Mayor, Alderman
W. H. Jessop in 1898. Prior to this the police station was situated
on Bull and Mouth Street which was built over when the new market
hall was constructed.
At this time the police also ran the fire brigade with the Chief
Constable as captain.
The corner-stone of the Victoria Tower, Castle Hill, was laid on
June 25th, 1898 by Mr John Frechville Ramsden and was officially
opened by the Earl of Scarborough on June 24, 1899.
The walls of the tower are four feet thick at the bottom tapering
to two feet at the top.
The tower was renovated in 1960 when the top seven feet were removed.
It reaches the height of 996.7 feet above sea level.
In 1900 the water supply to Huddersfield was first filtered, using
sand filters at Deer Hill, to improve quality. As sand filters were
expensive to build and maintain future filters were of the mechanical
type and were installed at Longwood, Scapegoat Hill, Blackmoorfoot
and Cowlersley.
John W. Leitch & Co of Milnsbridge were the first manufacturers
of Trinitrotoluol (TNT) in the UK having commenced making it in
1902. TNT is a derivative of coal tar.
Ernest Brook started producing single-phase electric motors in
1904 under the company name of E. Brook Ltd. As Brooke Motors the
1 millionth electric motor was produced in November 1950.
In 1906 the system of medical inspection of school children was
adopted. This was later extended to include the medical treatment
of children, and in 1912 the School Clinic was opened in Ramsden
Street.
Holmfirth-born Harold Wagstaff joined the Huddersfield Rugby League
Club and made his debut in 1906 at the age of 15. He went on to
captain England in their tours of Australia in 1914 and 1920. He
was known as the Prince of Centres.
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club was formed in 1907
but 1908, when it started playing, is
always the date quoted. The centenary celebrations will take
place
in 2008. A match has been arranged between Huddersfield Town and
Arsenal (both managed by the great Herbert Chapman) which will
take place sometime in the summer. For further details of this
and other centenary events visit the official Huddersfield Town
website at http://www.htafc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/DiaryOfEvents/0,,10312,00.html
 David
Brown Gears of Lockwood produced the Valveless Car between 1908
and 1915. It had a two-stroke, two cylinder engine that produced
19.9 horsepower and had a top speed of approximately 45 miles per
hour.
It was a luxury car, called the Valveless due to the fact that the
engine was indeed valveless as a means of reducing the number of
moving parts.
The example on show at the Tolson Museum, Ravensknowle Park, Huddersfield
was rescued from a scrap heap in Australia and is the only fully-restored
example of the Valveless in the country.
The new Municipal High School for Girls was opened at Greenhead
in 1909. Also a new higher grade school was built at Hillhouse in
the same year.
In 1912 a Huddersfield tram became one of the very first totally
enclosed vehicles in the world. Prior to this innovation the vehicles'
drivers were exposed to the elements and/or the upper deck was not
covered.
Royds Hall mansion was used for the reception of Belgian war refugees
from October 1914. It had been acquired by Huddersfield Council
for housing purposes.
In 1915 an old Huddersfield chemical firm, Reid Holliday, merged
with Levensteins of Manchester under the name British Dyes Ltd (later
to become ICI and, latterly, Zeneca) and manufactured 11 million
tons of TNT at their site twixt Dalton and Leeds Road without loss
of life.
(Read
more about Hollidays here)
Also in 1915 L. B. Hollidays (founded by Lionel B. Holliday, grandson
of Reid Holliday) was established to produce picric acid, a constituent
part of the munitions of the time, at a rate of 100 tons per week.
This was enough to make a million shells. After the First World
War ended Hollidays produced dyestuffs.
(Read
more about Hollidays here)
An emergency hospital for the treatment of First World War wounded
soldiers was built on the Royds Hall Estate in 1915. The accommodation
provided represented 600 beds with quarters for medical and nursing
staff, operating theatre, gymnasium, recreation room and R.A.M.C.
quarters. It was built in 3 months
In 1917 the Corporation completed the erection of a hospital for
the treatment of tuberculosis patients at Bradley Gate.
 The
3-wheeled L.S.D. car was manufactured in Huddersfield between 1919
and 1924. A rare example can be seen in the Tolson Museum. It was
originally made by Sykes and Sugden Ltd from 1919 to 1923 and then
by the L.S.D. Motor Co Ltd in Mirfield from 1923 to 1924.
The name of the car was derived from the initials of the designer
(Longbottom), the manufacturer (Sykes) and their accountant (Dyson).
There were three models, the Family, the Popular and the Standard
plus there was a 3-hundredweight and 4-hundredweight van versions.
The engine was an 8 horsepower v-twin Jap or Mag and was air cooled.
It had 2 forward and 1 reverse gears.
An example of the car is exhibited at Tolson Museum, Ravensknowle
Park, Huddersfield.
In 1919 Legh Tolson presented Ravensknowle Hall and six acres of
land to the Borough in memory of his two sons who had died in the
First World War. It re-opened as Tolson Memorial Museum on May 14,
1921.
Huddersfield Corporation purchased the Huddersfield Estate from
Sir John Ramsden for the sum of £1,300,000 in 1920. Thus the
Corporation became its own Lord of the Manor and the Ramsden connection
with Huddersfield, was finally severed.
 Longwood
Grammar School closed its doors in 1921 whilst Royds Hall opened
as a co-educational grammar school (Future Prime Minister Harold
Wilson was a pupil there).
St Peters Parish Church Gardens was opened in July 1927 after the
land was presented by Sir John Ramsden.
The Cloth Hall was demolished in 1930, the site being replaced
by a cinema. The cupola, bell and clock were re-erected at Ravensknowle
Park.
The great Yorkshire Agricultural Show was held at Huddersfield
in July 1931.
 The
first David Brown tractor was shown to the public in July 1939.
Sir David Brown (grandson of the founder) acquired Aston Martin
and Lagonda during the course of his tenure of the company.
During the Second World War (1939-45) Huddersfield had anti-aircraft
gun sites at Selandine Nook, Almondbury, Bradley Road and Castle
Hill. Also David Brown's at Meltham Mills made gears for Spitfire
aircraft.
The first trolley bus entered service on the the 4th of December
1933 and by 1940 there were 140 trolley buses on Huddersfield's
roads. The last tram was the 11.00pm service from Brighouse to
Huddersfield on June 29, 1940.
Leslie Grundy was interned for a few months in 1940. He was a leading
member of the British Union of Fascists in Huddersfield.
 The
new Central Library building in Ramsden Street was completed although
it wasn't fully used until 1945. It built on the site of the old
Ramsden Street Congregational Chapel
Huddersfield was bombed on a number of occasions in the Second
World War including August 1940 when several bombs were dropped
near Castle Hill, December 1940 when Wellington Mills at Oakes was
bombed, March 1941 when Berry Brow was bombed and June 1941 when
a wide area from Colne Road to Newsome and Almondbury was bombed.
There was no loss of life.
An allied aircraft crashed in Central Avenue, Fartown in July 1944
resulting in crew being killed.
In 1954 there were 21 cinemas in Huddersfield and the surrounding
districts. These were;
| Carlton
at Birkby |
Cosy
Nook at Selandine Nook |
| Curzon
in the town centre |
Empire
in the town centre |
| Excelda
on Lockwood Road |
Grand
on Manchester Road |
| Lounge
on Newsome Road |
Lyceum
at Moldgreen |
| Majestic
on Viaduct Street |
Milnsbridge
Palace |
| Picture
House on Ramsden St |
Plaza
at Thornton Lodge |
| Premier
at Paddock Head |
Princess
on Northumberland St |
| Regal
at Moldgreen |
Regent
on Bradford Road |
| Rialto
on Sheepridge Road |
Ritz
on Market Street |
| Savoy
at Marsh |
Tudor
on Ramsden Street |
|
Waterloo
at Waterloo
|
Huddersfield's Derek Ibbotson broke the world record for running
a mile in July 1957 at the White City with a time of 3 minutes and
57.2 seconds. He was also the first man to run a 4 minute mile.
It was Roger Bannister who ran the first sub 4 minute mile.
Huddersfield New College was opened in 1958 when Huddersfield College
was merged with Hillhouse Technical School and moved to the new
Selandine Nook Campus. In 1959 the girls of Longley Hall Technical
School were moved to a new building on the campus which was called
Huddersfield High School.
Anita Lonsborough became Huddersfield's first and only Olympic
gold medal winner when she won the 200m breast stoke in August 1960
at Rome in a time of 2 minutes and 51.8 seconds.
The Theatre Royal in Ramsden Street was demolished in 1961 to make
way for the new market hall development.
On January 27th, 1967, the new Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on
Acre Street, Lindley, was opened by the then Prime Minister, The
Right Hon. Harold Wilson.
Huddersfield saw the first commercial manufacture of nylon but
the process was discontinued in 1967.
The Alfred McAlpine Stadium, home to Huddersfield Town Association
Football Club and Huddersfield Giants Rugby League Club won the
RIBA Building of the Year award in 1995. It was originally called
the Kirklees Stadium and is now known as the Galpharm Stadium (named
after a local pharmaceutical company)
SOURCES
- Huddersfield and Its Vicinity by D. F. E. Sykes LL.B
- History of Huddersfield and District by Taylor Dyson
- Huddersfield Official Guide - 1932
- Old Huddersfield 1500-1800 by George Redmonds
- Official Handbook of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee,
June 22 1897
- The Story of Huddersfield by Roy Brook - First Published 1968
- The Chronology of Huddersfield by Enid and Gordon
Minter
- A Scrapbook of Huddersfield by Noel Spence
- Reminisces of Huddersfield 1891 by Joseph Broughton
- Jubilee History of the Corporation of Huddersfield
by Owen Balmforth
- Tolson Museum, Ravensknowle Park, Huddersfield
- The Public Records Office, Kew
- Mr David Muxworthy
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