Longroyd Bridge

Longroyd Bridge Toll House (*At Risk)

Strongly associated with the Luddite risings is Longroyd Bridge Toll House, more recently used as a taxi office, which is currently in poor condition and may not be with us much longer. It stood on the Huddersfield Austerlands Turnpike (now Blackmoorfoot Road) close to the site in 1812 of Wood's and Fisher's cropping shops in an area now known to have been Luddite headquarters. William Horsfall must have passed by on his fateful last journey on 28th April 1812, on horseback, from Huddersfield cloth market towards his home near Marsden. Not long after passing the toll house he was attacked and shot by a gang of four Luddites, George Mellor, William Thorpe, Thomas Smith and Benjamin Walker who all worked in those cropping shops and feared for their jobs and their futures. The attack happened at what is now William Horsfall Street. Horsfall was taken back along the road to the Warren House Hotel but died two days later from his injuries. Mellor, Thorpe and Smith were hanged for the murder on 8th January 1813 after trial at York Assizes. Walker gave evidence for the Crown against them.