Welcome to this month’s newsletter. The next one will be out in mid-May– any items for inclusion by 8 May please. We welcome all local history news!
PLEASE NOTE CHANGED DATE BELOW FOR JOSHUA HOBSON EVENT AT EDGERTON CEMETERY
Our next meeting – Monday 27 April
The annual Luddite Memorial Lecture
Joshua Hobson: His Radical Publishing and Work on the Northern Star
Speaker: Dr Vic Clarke
Our next meeting is the twelfth in a series of annual public lectures, presented jointly by HLHS and the University of Huddersfield, focusing on aspects of the history of radicalism in the Huddersfield district and beyond. On the 150th anniversary of his death, Dr Clarke will talk about Huddersfield-born Joshua Hobson’s life as a publisher of the Northern Star, the Chartist newspaper which he produced in Leeds in the 1840s, charting his journey from teenage handloom weaver to radical publisher and his entry into municipal government.
Image courtesy of Kirklees Museums & Galleries
Dr Clarke says: ‘We will follow his life through the pages of the newspapers he worked on as well as those who followed in his footsteps. Hobson’s lifetime of political activity was keenly shaped by networks of comradeship – from illegally publishing news for the poor from behind bars in the early 1830s, to literally shaping the environs of his native Huddersfield through his job as Clerk of Works to the Improvement Commissioners in the 1850s, his voice is present and persistent throughout the radical history of the West Riding in the Victorian period’.
The meeting is on Monday 27 April at 7.30 pm in the Oastler Building at the University (the building above Shorehead roundabout). Car parking options are these (nearest first):
- The car park beneath the adjacent University gym, accessed from Wakefield Rd heading into town, just before the roundabout traffic lights. Parking is by the RingGo App only, at about £1.50. There’s a lift which comes out near the Library in the Schwann Building, a few steps from the Oastler. Full details of University car parks.
- Free on-street parking in Oldgate, or in Queen St South and adjoining Chapel St and Milford St, which run though to Chapel Hill.
- The Civic Centre car park in Albion St, free after 6 pm (but NB no walking route through the Piazza during the Cultural Heart development).
Commemorating Joshua Hobson at Edgerton Cemetery
In a linked event, at 4.30 pm on Friday 8 May (the date of Hobson’s death in 1876), we will gather at his obelisk in Edgerton Cemetery to reveal the re-lettering of the faded monumental inscription, which the Society has funded. Entering from Cemetery Road, the monument is just to the left of the lodge – and fortunately just outside the current exclusion zone around the sadly decrepit chapels. An informal ceremony will feature brief contributions from Dr Clarke and our own Alan Brooke and David Griffiths, on different aspects of Hobson’s career. (This event is postponed from the previously announced 27 April.)
Members and the public are welcome at both free events.
New season of Discover Huddersfield walks kicks off
The first two walks of the 2026 season are these:
Sunday 26 April, 2.30 pm: Exploring Marsden – The Growth of a Village
Join Roger Logue for a guided tour around the centre of the village. From the carboniferous period to present day Marsden, via Roman roads, packhorse and turnpike routes, mills, child labour, Luddites, poets and much more. This walk has been organised in association with Marsden History Group.
Meet outside the conservatory, Marsden Mechanics’ Institution, Peel Street, HD7 6BW.
Sunday 10 May, 2.30 pm: Exploring Castle Hill
Join John Bowen and Linda Beever from Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society for an archaeological tour of Castle Hill. We will explain the known development and use of the monument from the Mesolithic period through to modern times. We will explore and explain the earthworks, look at the findings from previous and recent excavations and show locations and explain uses of earlier buildings on the hill. There will be some uneven ground.
Meet at the car park at the top of the hill, accessed via the byway off Lumb Lane, Almondbury.
Bookings can be made up to 14 days before each walk, via Eventbrite, at https://bit.ly/47OW5ia, with a charge of £5 per person (free for under-12s). For email notification when booking for each walk opens, you can subscribe at info@discoverhuddersfield.uk
The Calderdale Heritage Walks programme is also under way and details are here.
Other forthcoming events
Friday 1 May, 1.0 pm – Julia Varley plaque unveiling event
Julia Varley was a prominent campaigner for workers’ rights during Bradford’s early 20th century industrial boom. She was a key figure in the famous Manningham Mills strikes, as well as being involved in the formation of the Independent Labour Party and a leading figure in Bradford Trades Council. As a suffragette she was twice sent to prison for her commitment to votes for women, and she was one of the first women to serve on the TUC General Council. The plaque will be unveiled on the former Bradford Trades Union Council building,at the junction of Sackville Street and Sunbridge Road, BD1 2SX. A booklet on Julia Varley is available to download in PDF format.
Wednesday 13 May, 2.0 pm – Yorkshire pits and mining communities on postcards
An illustrated talk by Christine Leveridge, another in the series of ‘tea and cake meetings’ at the Tolson Museum, Wakefield Road, presented by the Friends of Tolson and Ravensknowle.
