Huddersfield, wool, rugby and the Pennines

Huddersfield is a textile town in West Yorkshire, at the foot of the Pennines, between Leeds and Manchester. With about 140,000 inhabitants, it is the largest town in the district of Kirklees and is famous for three things: fine wool, rugby league, which was born here in 1895, and one of the most beautiful railway stations in England, with a neoclassical façade that looks like a stately home. Around it, the green valleys and moors of the Pennines, with dark stone villages, canals and old mills, offer some of the most atmospheric walks in the north of England.

Trains from Leeds take about twenty minutes, from Manchester just over half an hour, and Leeds Bradford Airport and Manchester Airport are less than an hour away.

Wool town

For centuries weavers in the valleys around Huddersfield worked wool at home, using the soft water of the Pennine streams, ideal for washing and dyeing cloth. The Industrial Revolution brought large mills, and in the 19th century Huddersfield became one of the world's centres for high-quality worsted cloth, still used today by the most prestigious tailors for men's suits. In 1812 the town was at the heart of the Luddite uprising, when textile workers smashed the new machines they blamed for taking their jobs: a local mill owner, William Horsfall, was murdered, and the repression was very harsh.

In 1847 the station opened, a neoclassical building with a long Corinthian colonnade, which the poet John Betjeman called the most splendid station façade in England and which dominates St George's Square. In front of it stands a statue of Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister born in Huddersfield in 1916, and inside is one of the pubs most loved by beer enthusiasts.

Rugby league

On 29 August 1895, at the George Hotel, the Victorian hotel opposite the station, representatives of twenty-two clubs from the north of England decided to break away from the rugby union, which banned paying players. The northern clubs, made up mostly of workers who lost wages in order to play, wanted to compensate them. So the Northern Union was born, which became rugby league, a thirteen-a-side version of rugby that is hugely popular today in the north of England, Australia and France. The Huddersfield Giants are the town's team and play at the John Smith's Stadium, which they share with the football club.

What to see in Huddersfield

The Victorian centre

Huddersfield's centre is one of the best-preserved groups of Victorian architecture in England, with dark sandstone buildings built by the Ramsden family, who for centuries owned almost the whole town. Around St George's Square and the nearby streets are the station, the George Hotel, the town hall with its concert hall, the Victorian covered market and many ornate commercial buildings. The Lawrence Batley Theatre, in a former Methodist chapel, is the town's theatre.

Castle Hill and the Victoria Tower

South of the town rises Castle Hill, a hill overlooking the valley, inhabited since the Stone Age and fortified in the Iron Age and later by the Normans. On top stands the Victoria Tower, built in 1899 for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. From the hill you can see the Pennine valleys, the town and, on clear days, even the hills of the Peak District.

Museums and parks

The Tolson Museum, in a Victorian mansion, tells the story of the area, its textile industry and the Luddites, while the large Greenhead Park has glasshouses, ponds and gardens. Just outside town, Oakwell Hall, an Elizabethan house at Birstall, inspired Charlotte Brontë, who described it in her novel Shirley, set during the Luddite years.

Music

Huddersfield has a strong musical tradition. The Huddersfield Choral Society, founded in 1836, is one of the oldest and most prestigious choirs in the world, famous for its performances of Handel's Messiah. Every November the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival brings avant-garde composers and musicians from around the world to the town. The university also has a major music department.

Sport

As well as rugby league, the town has a great football tradition. Huddersfield Town, built up by the legendary manager Herbert Chapman, became in the 1920s the first English club to win three consecutive league titles, in 1924, 1925 and 1926. More recently it played two seasons in the Premier League, from 2017 to 2019.

Canals and the Pennines

From Huddersfield the Huddersfield Narrow Canal crosses the Pennines to Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester. In the Marsden valley the canal enters the Standedge Tunnel, about five kilometres long: the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in Britain. Closed in the 1940s, it reopened in 2001, and in summer you can take boat trips inside it.

Around the town there are very picturesque villages. Holmfirth, in the Holme valley, is famous because Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running sitcom in British television history, was filmed there for almost forty years. Marsden, at the foot of the moors, is a starting point for walks along the Pennine Way and the Kirklees Way, among reservoirs, dry-stone walls and sheep.

A day in Huddersfield

A possible itinerary: arrive by train to admire the station and the square, walk through the Victorian centre and the market, then visit the Tolson Museum. After lunch, climb Castle Hill for the view over the Pennines. In the afternoon take the train or bus to Marsden and walk along the canal to the entrance of the Standedge Tunnel, or go to Holmfirth for tea in the places of the TV series. In the evening, a concert or a pint in the station pub.

Living in Huddersfield

Huddersfield is a university town, with more than twenty thousand students at the University of Huddersfield, and has an economy based on quality textiles, engineering, chemicals and services. Homes are much cheaper than in the nearby big cities, and Leeds and Manchester are a few minutes away by train. The centre has suffered from the decline of retail but is the focus of a major cultural regeneration project.

Getting there and getting around

• By train: from Leeds about twenty minutes, from Manchester about thirty-five, with frequent trains on the TransPennine line; services also to York, Liverpool and Newcastle.
• By air: Leeds Bradford and Manchester airports are less than an hour away.
• In town: the centre is walkable; buses serve Castle Hill, Holmfirth and Marsden, which also has a railway station.

For travel around the rest of the country see trains and transport, and for other cities British cities.

Tips for your visit

• How long: one day for the town and Castle Hill; another for the Pennines, Marsden and Holmfirth.
• When to go: May to September for walking; November for the contemporary music festival.
• A tip: bring walking boots and a waterproof jacket: in the Pennines the weather changes fast.

Huddersfield on the map

Nearby