Fountain
The drinking fountain in the centre of Heckmondwike was erected by public subscription in March 1863 to mark the marriage of HRH the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The fountain caused a dispute in 1901 when Heckmondwike Council asked its clerk to investigate whether they could remove it, as it had become broken, blackened and had not been supplied with water for years. But the people of Heckmondwike rebelled and at a public meeting insisted the Council repair and maintain it in good working order. So, the fountain was restored and the following year, when a surplus remained in the Heckmondwike Coronation Fund, it was decided to provide the inhabitants with a town clock. William Potts Ltd of Leeds made the clock which was added to the fountain in 1904 at a cost of £160, raised partly by public subscription and partly from the Coronation Fund.
Blanket Halls
Heckmondike became famous for manufacturing blankets, originally produced by hand loom weavers there. One Francis Poppleton began to trade in blankets at the "George and Dragon" public house in the market place. Then the first Blanket Hall was built in 1811 to encourage further trade in that commodity. This hall was demolished in 2008. A second hall was built in 1839 on Blanket Hall Street, near the town centre. This welcome arch marks the street's location.
Fire Station and Public Baths
Pictured is the former combined fire station and public baths on Market Street sporting the old symbol of Heckmondwike Council, a trussed sheep hanging from an anchor with the motto "Nil Sine Labore" (Nothing Without Labour). Heckmondwike never joined its more powerful neighbour, Spenborough Urban District, which was based on Cleckheaton and included Gomersal,
Liversedge, Birkenshaw and Hunsworth with parts of Hartshead and Clifton. In1974 both Spenborough and Heckmondwike became part of Kirklees Metropolitan Borough forming the new Spen Valley district of Kirklees.
Former Heckmondwike Station
Heckmondwike station closed in 1965. Its dual tracks are now part of Spen Valley Cycleway and the edge of the station platform is now barely discernible amongst the undergrowth.
Advertising - "Ghost Signs"
Olympia Garage and Bosson's
Heckmondwike once had many billboards advertising various wares, especially in the Market Place area and near the station. Traces of painted advertising still appear on walls in the town.
Shown is a sign advertising Bosson's and a company providing fireplaces and tiling in Cemetery Road. A Wallace Bosson, grocer of Market Street, is recorded at Heckmondwike in the 1936 Kelly's Directory and again in a 1950-1 directory. Also a Ghostsign on Walkley Lane advertising the Olympia Garage. The business was wound up in 1969.
Oade's Garage
This faded advert for petrol probably refers to Oade's garage which once operated from nearby Oldfield Lane. Fred Oade founded the business. He had been born around 1868 in Green Side, Cleckheaton, to Andrew and Hannah Oade. Andrew was a mechanic at that time but by 1881 had become a cab proprietor and later Fred worked as a cab driver presumably in the family business there. By 1901 Fred had married and had three children of his own and had moved to Crown Street, Cleckheaton, but was still working as a cab driver. By 1911, however, he had moved to Heckmondwike and set up in business for himself as both cab driver and proprietor. In May 1913 Fred placed an advert in the 'Yorkshire Post' wanting " a steady man, used to horses and carriages" and offering steady employment to a suitable candidate at Oade's Livery Stable, Heckmondwike. The business may have begun as a horse and carriage concern but as time moved on had to adapt to the times and the growing motor trade. At his death in March 1934, aged 66, Fred is described as a carriage proprietor, but when his wife Ellen died 10 years later she is said to be "of Oldfield Lane Garage". Their son, Stanley of Kaye Street, Heckmondwike, is described as a garage proprietor when he is reported as giving evidence as a witness to a road accident nearby, in which a young woman was killed, in August 1936. It seems he had inherited the business.
Andrew Oade, the originator of the livery stable business in Cleckheaton was involved in a horrible accident at Millbridge, Liversedge in late October 1888. He was driving his hearse back from Huddersfield that day carrying a corpse which was to be buried in Liversedge churchyard the next day, but as the hearse entered New Street the horse was startled when children playing in the street set off some fireworks. The hearse overturned. Three men were thrown from it, Andrew, the driver, sustaining leg injuries. But worst of all the coffin and its contents were also overturned and the body dislodged onto the street. This must have been an horrific sight for the children playing there and one that would haunt their memories.
Gledhill plumbers
This sign has been overwritten but the original text refers to H. L. Gledhill and his skills as a plumber. Henry Leadbeater Gledhill was born in the town in 1852, the eldest son of Tom Gledhill and his wife Sarah. Tom was a surveyor and inspector, a respectable job, and the family must have been reasonably well off. At age 8 though, for some reason, Henry was living with his grandfather, Joseph, and great grandmother, Sarah, in High Street, Heckmondwike, but by 1871 was back home with his parents and siblings, and, aged 18, was already working as a plumber and eventually had his own business in the town. In October 1873 Henry was called as a witness in a court case, recorded in the Huddersfield Daily Chronicle, in which a local man was accused of being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer. Then late in 1874 he married Jane Ann Metcalfe and the couple found a home of their own in Green Side, Heckmondwike.
Things were not going too well for the business, however, which went into liquidation in 1876, Henry being declared bankrupt in 1878. Apparently undaunted, Henry and Jane Ann simply upped sticks and by 1881 had moved to the Scarborough area on the north Yorkshire coast where Henry continued to ply his trade as a plumber. Somehow the Heckmondwike business bearing his name continued, though, even advertising in the 'Huddersfield Daily Chronicle' for "a good plumber with tools" to work for them in October 1877 with the offer of regular employment. In 1901 Henry and Jane are recorded as residing in Town Street, Filey. The couple don't appear to have had any children and Henry in fact died there in early 1904 aged only 52.
Oakwood Roofing Company
This striking advertising sign is still in good condition on the side of a house in Centre Street which used to be the company's Heckmondwike office. Head office was in Masham Street, Leeds.
Goliath Boot company and Stanley Matthews
In 1880 the Co-operative Wholesale Society founded the Heckmondwike Boot and Shoe Works
to design and manufacture hard wearing work boots. The company, trading under the name of Goliath Footwear, began life in rented premises in Beck Lane but in 1884 the company bought and moved into Brunswick Mill on Brunswick Street, which had been built in 1871. By 1887 the factory had been extended so that leather curing could take place there, with further extensions in 1892, 1894 and 1896. Between 300 and 400 workers produced 6,000 to 8,000 pairs of boots every week. They made work boots for major companies such as the National Coal Board, British Aerospace and Rolls Royce, but they also made specialist football boots for the likes of Stoke City, Blackpool and England football player Stanley Matthews. Mr. Matthews delighted in a special lightweight boot fashioned especially for him, which he claimed fitted him like a glove, and he visited the factory several times for personal fittings. He also represented the company in advertising and visited other Co-operative stores to promote the boots, which he credited with his ability to run faster than his opponents.
Sir Stanley had a brand of the company's football boots named after him.
In 2003 the Co-operative Wholesale Society sold Goliath Footwear, but the company still exists, specialising as before in safety boots for the workplace.
Heckmondwike Illuminations
Heckmondwike was one of the first towns in Britain to have outdoor illuminations. The town's first gas works opened in 1840 and by 1844 the streets were being lit by gas. The availability of gas made illuminations a possibility and by the 1860s gas powered illuminations decorated the town on special occasions, in particular royal visits. The official opening of the renovated market on 29th February 1868 was one such occasion. At 5pm on that day a grand procession was staged from the Westgate barracks of the Artillery Volunteers through the decorated streets to the Market Place where the fountain was illuminated with Prince of Wales feathers on all four sides, surmounted by a star. The arch in Westgate was picked out in green with a salmon background with the words "Welcome to Heckmondwike Market" written across it. There were arches of flame across each causeway and part of the roadway with an imperial crown supported by two eight-pointed leaf stars positioned in the centre of the arch, and flags in all three arches. Luminous stars, crowns and coronets decorated the other buildings.
But this was just the beginning. In 1885 the Council spent £53 on the Christmas Illuminations, still gas powered at this stage, and people began to come from far and wide to see them, travelling by train or coach. Sometimes the coaches themselves were illuminated. Pictured is a poster advertising the 1904 lights and inviting the public to "Come in Crowds"!
By this time both electricity and gas were being used but electricity gradually took over as the sole power source. An electric power station had opened on Bath Road and the buildings still stand today, whilst the gasworks eventually closed. In fact Heckmondwike's 1904 electric powered illuminations pre-dated Blackpool's which only began in 1912. A delegation from Blackpool had visited the Yorkshire town for advice and information before instigating their own. The illuminations were suspended during the World Wars, but resumed afterwards. The lights featured fairytale characters such as Snow White and Cinderella, exotic birds such as peacocks, and some quirky ones such as a pair of boxing cats!
The lights had their heyday between the 1920s and 1950s. By the 1960s the town was struggling to keep them going, but in 1985, the centenary of the first lights, a huge effort was made to recapture their former glory. The town still has a Christmas lights switch-on ceremony each year, with guest celebrities performing the ceremony.
Some of the buildings in the centre of Heckmondwike still carry fittings to hold flags and illuminated lights.
The "Crown of Lights" feature in the town's "Green Park" is a present day reminder of Heckmondwike's spectacular tradition from the past.