Huddersfield building plans
Huddersfield is lucky to have a comprehensive archive of building plans from 1869 onwards. Many of the originals can be consulted at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Kirklees in Huddersfield Central Library.
The Buildings of Huddersfield project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and based at the University of Huddersfield, has catalogued this rich resource for the town centre area in detail from 1869 to 1886 and selectively from then until the 1960s, adding extra historical information where available.
Searchable notes
Huddersfield’s rich architectural heritage is described, with a wealth of photographs, in The Buildings of Huddersfield by Keith Gibson and Albert Booth (ISBN 9780752436753, 2005 revised 2009, available from local bookshops or The History Press). Available here are the authors’ research notes, which are fully searchable if you are interested in a particular building, place or architect. Keith Gibson would be pleased to hear from anyone finding errors or new information; please contact us and we will pass on any information received.
Mills of the area
A catalogue of the mills of the Huddersfield area, c.1790-1914, created by our member Alan Brooke, can be found on his Underground Histories website. The location of many of the mills can be found on Huddersfield Exposed.
Early civic buildings
The Society’s illustrated paper, ‘Before the Town Hall: a short guide to Huddersfield’s early civic buildings’, prepared for the 130th anniversary celebration of Huddersfield Town Hall on 15 October 2011, can be viewed here. A companion piece on the mid-19th century search for a new cemetery site was published in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner on 1 February 2012.
As part of Huddersfield 150, a new Discover Huddersfield Civic Celebration Trail has been launched which can be downloaded as a PDF.
David Griffiths’ article on Huddersfield Prisons and Lock-ups is available to read on the Prison History web site.
Villas of Edgerton
The Victorian Society visited the Huddersfield suburb of Edgerton in April 2013 for a tour of some of the district’s notable 19th century houses. Historical and architectural notes by David Griffiths to accompany the tour are available here. They refer among others to the work of the noted architect Edgar Wood (1860-1935), whose work in Huddersfield is celebrated by the Edgar Wood Heritage Group (Yorkshire).
More recently, the Huddersfield Civic Society has published David Griffiths’ “impressively well-researched, lavishly illustrated and stylishly designed study” The Villas of Edgerton (ISBN 9780995632813). Reviews can be found on the Underground Histories and Yorkshire Post web sites, and the book can be purchased here.
Industrial villages
Another Victorian Society outing was to the industrial villages of Armitage Bridge, Meltham Mills and Wilshaw in May 2014. Historical and architectural notes to accompany this tour are posted here, together with photographs taken on the day by Vic Soc member Ruth Baumberg.
On-line review
An online review of Huddersfield’s architecture and planning history can be found here; the opinions are the author’s own, but we are pleased to provide the link to a well-illustrated piece of work.