Almondbury was a larger and more important place than Huddersfield before the Industrial Revolution and was granted a Charter to hold a market as early as 1294, mainly for the sale of woollen cloth.
The village stocks were found in Wormall Hall and re-erected in the grounds of Almondbury All Hallows Parish Church in 1903.
The handsome building which now houses the Conservative Club was originally Wormall Hall, dating from a bout 1400. The lower part was altered by Israel and Elisabeth Wormall in 1631 and rebuilt in 1868, as testified by inscriptions on the building itself.
Almondbury Library is a Carnegie Library, one built with financial assistance from the former Scottish millionaire, Andrew Carnegie. It opened on 24th February 1906 and was Huddersfield's first purpose built library and its first branch library. Local dignitaries Sir Thomas Brooke and John Brooke, brothers and grandsons of the founder of Armitage Bridge Mills, brought Almondbury to the attention of the Carnegie Trust. Both men believed in education and self improvement. John lived locallyat Fenay Hall. His brother had been involved in trying to establish a library in the centre of Huddersfield earlier. The land for Almondbury library was donated by local landowner Sir John Ramsden and it was designed by Kenneth Findlater Campbell, the Borough Engineer. The foundation stone was laid by John Brooke on July 8th 1905 whilst Thomas unlocked the doors with a solid gold key at a special opening ceremony.
The Emily Parkin almshouses were built in 1931 under the provisions of the Will of Emily Parkin of Prospect House, Almondbury. She was the last of a family of that name who had lived at Lumb since the 14th Century at least. She left £3,000 for building the almshouses, which were designed by Abbey and Hanson of Cloth Hall Street in Huddersfield and constructed in stone with ashlar dressings to doors and windows. Th ey consist of six bungalows in two blocks of three, with gardens and enough space for kitchen gardens. A road to the almshouses from Northgate was also created. Miss Parkin had purchased the site some time before with the almshouses in mind.
Miss Parkin had previously always shown interest in the parish church, financing the re-hanging of the oldest bell when the church bells were being re-hung. Her Will also left £1,000 to augment the income of the church and £500 towards the maintenance of the churchyard.
The National School was founded in 1818 in buildings to the west of the church. It was extended in 1873 and 1879 as a result of the 1870 Education Act. It eventually became the infant school for the village for many years, being described as Almondbury Voluntary School in 1961. Eventually the school closed, the children moved to Longcroft and the building was converted to flats and houses, now known as Hallows Court.
Watercroft Mill still stands in Almondbury. It was owned by Thomas Midgeley & Sons, woollen manufacturers in 1881, then owned briefly by John Addy & Sons in the 1890s when its chimney was blown down in a storm. Unfortunately Addy went bankrupt and the mill was put up for sale. The chimney was, however, rebuilt in brick.
Old police telephone box This still exists on Northgate, Almondbury, reminiscent of Dr. Who's Tardis, but in fact of a different design. The Tardis style boxes, which began appearing in Scotland from 1929, were designed by G. McKenzie-Trench, made of concrete, and expensive to build, so many cities introduced their own designs, generally made of timber like this one. Police telephone boxes began appearing in Britain by 1888, but the first city wide scheme was introduced by Chief Constable Frederick Crawley in Sunderland in 1923. When he moved to the Newcastle force two years later, the boxes were installed throughout that city too. They were then adopted throughout England and Scotland, being painted blue, except in Glasgow where they were originally red and not painted blue until the late 1960s. We are assured by a former Almondbury resident, however, that their box was also painted red initially and remained that colour for many years. The boxes were really a mini police station. Apart from a direct telephone link to police H.Q., they had facilities such as water and electricity supply, a bench desk and stool, an incident log and report book, and could even be used to lock up an apprehended criminal for a short time until assistance arrived.
The Almondbury box, the property of West Yorkshire Police, has been on this spot for decades and is now a listed building. After being disused for some years, public pressure led to its refurbishment in 2009 for use by the local police community support officer, who can use it to receive directions, read e-mails and write reports, make a hot drink and take a break without having to go back to the Moldgreen police station. It is also a contact point between police and public, and police advice surgeries are now possible there. It was renovated again in 2017.
Nationally, police telephone boxes began to be decommissioned and demolished in 1959 due to the introduction of 2-way radios. Not too many have survived, especially those of timber construction like ours.