Kirklees Curiosities

Add Headings and they will appear in your table of contents.

This website has been created to record any oddities in the Kirklees area of England which may easily disappear from local knowledge unless we record them now. Things like old, fading business signs painted onto buildings, village stocks, old lettering on pavements or post boxes or manhole covers. In fact, any kind of oddity which may not survive and which would be of interest to anyone exploring this region’s past. Our intention is to photograph them and record them as a lasting reminder that they once existed. In addition we will tell you a little bit about each of them. Their history is inextricably interwoven with the history of Kirklees.

You can search the villages and towns of Kirklees using these links

Almondbury Batley Batley p2 Berry Brow Birkby Birstall Birstall page 2 Brockholes Clayton West Cleckheaton Cleckheaton p2 Dalton Denby Dale Dewsbury Emley Flockton Golcar Gomersal Hartshead Heckmondwike Hepworth High Flatts Highburton Hinchliffe Mill Holmbridge Holmfirth Honley Huddersfield Huddersfield p2 Huddersfield p3 Jackson Bridge Kirkburton Kirkheaton Kirkheaton p2 Kirkheaton p3 Lascelles Hall Lepton Lindley Liversedge Lockwood Lockwood p2 Longroyd Bridge Marsden Meltham Milnsbridge Mirfield Moldgreen Netherthong New Mill Scholes (Cleckheaton) Scholes (Holmfirth) Scissett Shelley Shepley Skelmanthorpe Thongsbridge Thornhill Thurstonland Totties (see Scholes (Holmfirth) Upper Cumberworth Upper Denby Wooldale

Or search for curiosities and where they are located in the Index

Some Buildings at Risk!!!!!!

Nortonthorpe Mills entrance doors see Denby Dale page - Chimneys article

The Shears Inn Luddite Meeting Place see Liversedge page

Longroyd Bridge Toll House see Longroyd Bridge page

We may this minute be at risk of losing lots of curious and interesting features of Kirklees that we usually take for granted. We are talking about the type of things already featured on this site plus many more. Do you know of anything which is under imminent threat of disappearing forever??? If so, please let us know immediately so that we can photograph and record it now. Please contact us, quoting “Kirklees Curiosities“ at Huddersfield.localhistory@kirklees.gov.uk. Help us preserve a record of our past for present and future generations. Thank you.

Too Late!!!

Its already too late to save some objects. For whatever reason some curiosities have already disappeared from our streets. A few examples are mentioned here

Statue of Sir Robert Peel (formerly in St. George's Square, Huddersfield)

Stott's Mill, Mirfield on fire 1909

Nortonthorpe Hall, Scissett. Home of Joseph Norton of Highbridge and Nortonthorpe Mills it later became a Remand Home and then a School.

An Inscribed stone marking the place where famed highwayman William Nevison killed local innkeeper Darcy Fletcher, who was trying to apprehend him, has been long lost. It was originally erected near Howley Hall, Batley, and commemorated the incident in 1684. It is rumoured a local farmer, fed up with sightseers trampling over his land, moved it and buried it in an unknown spot in the early 1900s.

Stott's Mill fire, Mirfield, 1909

If you have visited this website before you may be interested in these recent additions

Jackson Bridge
Scholes near Holmfirth