Welcome to this month’s newsletter. It is the last before Christmas, so we take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The next one will be out in mid-January.
Our next meeting – Monday 24 November
Our November talk is The Photography of Working People in Yorkshire Between the Wars, by Michael Nolan, a retired local secondary headteacher. His presentation will focus on the period when mass photography first developed. This gave opportunities for ‘others’ to photograph working people; but crucially it gave working people the chance to portray themselves – perhaps for the first time in history? The contrast and the clash between these two very different photographies of the same subject matter reveal much about the strains in the society of inter-war Britain. The photographic archives used will be almost entirely from Yorkshire.
The meeting is on Monday 24 November at 7.30 pm in the Oastler Building at the University.
Your new Committee
Our Annual General Meeting last month saw something of a ‘Cabinet reshuffle’, with Cyril Pearce stepping down from the Chair and committee, Steve Challenger retiring as Treasurer, and Dave Pattern rejoining us as website manager. The Committee for 2025/26 is:
- Co-Chairs: Beverley Norris & David Griffiths
- Vice-Chair: Janette Martin
- Secretary: Richard Hobson
- Treasurer: Neil Ottaway
- Membership Secretary: Val Davies
- Programme Secretary: Beverley Norris
- Publications Secretary: David Griffiths
- Journal Editor: Rob Piggott
- Publicity: Christine Verguson
- Website: Dave Pattern
- Discover Huddersfield rep: Maureen Mitchell
- Committee members: Steve Challenger, Keith Robinson
In a change to our advertised programme…
Our 26 January talk will now be Huddersfield Town’s Thrice Champions: 100 Years On, a presentation by James Chisem to mark the centenary of Town winning the old First Division of the Football League in 1924, 1925 and 1926. This replaces the previously announced talk by David Griffiths about ‘Albert Lunn, decorator, developer and devotee of Ruskin’.
Book launch – Saturday 22 November
Mr Lunn’s major contribution to the development of Huddersfield’s 20th century suburbs does feature strongly, however, in David’s new book, Huddersfield’s Art & Crafts Houses: from Edgar Wood to the 1930s. You can still register for the launch, on 22 November at 2.30 pm at Lindley Methodist Church, 45 East St, Huddersfield HD3 3ND – but please do so by return by emailing publications@huddersfieldhistory.org.uk
The book is priced at £12.95 and will also be available at our meeting on 24 November, through our website, and then in local bookshops.
Last call for subscriptions
We’re now four months on from the August start of the Society’s year, and just a few subs are still outstanding. This is the last newsletter we’ll send to members who are not paid up for 2025/26, so do please act now if you want to continue your membership. Details of how to set up a standing order or to pay online are on the Membership page of our website; you can also pay by cheque (payable to Huddersfield Local History Society), sent to the Membership Secretary at 21 Glebe Street, Marsh, Huddersfield, HD1 4NP; or you can pay by cash, cheque or card at our November events.
Other forthcoming events
Thursday 20 November, 7.0 pm on Zoom: Calverley Old Hall
A Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust lecture, by Caroline Stanford of the Landmark Trust, will explore the remarkable discovery of a near-complete scheme of mid-16th Century grotesque work at Calverley Old Hall in Leeds, discovered in 2021 during the Landmark Trust’s restoration of the derelict building.
To join the meeting, click here, Meeting ID: 864 3525 1165, Passcode: 090390.
Thursday 11 December, 1.0 pm: Ghost-Signs of Kirklees
At the Local Studies Library’s Lunchtime Club, our member Carol Hardy will introduce her collection of ghost signs. These faded painted adverts on buildings, for long ago disappeared businesses and products, evoke times past and poke through into the present. How long will they remain? Tickets will be available shortly on Ticketsource.
You may still be able to book a place there for Rebecca Gill’s talk on Thursday 20 November at 1.0 pm, about An Ordinary Life, Florence Lockwood’s memoir, which we published last year.
Local Studies’ temporary home is in Victoria Lane, to the side of the former main library.
Everyday Life in Seventeenth-Century Calderdale
Hebden Bridge Local History Society has recently published this new book by Peter Brears. Ranging from farming, cloth making and many other occupations to the houses people lived in, their furnishings and how people dressed and ate, it provides an evocative picture of daily life in Calderdale between 1688 and 1700.
For ten years two groups of local historians meticulously transcribed and published hundreds of wills and inventories of people’s houses in the Calder valley. The book draws on this huge mass of information to provide a vivid recreation of life and work in the area. The result is a unique account of this part of seventeenth-century England just before it was transformed by the Industrial Revolution.
The book is a hardback of 300 pages with 91 colour illustrations and costs £20 (plus postage). It is available here or from the Bookcase in Hebden Bridge.
Calderdale Heritage Walks
If you’re missing your exercise with Discover Huddersfield, a full programme of Calderdale Heritage Walks continues throughout the winter – you can find the programme, and join their mailing list, on their website. Discover Huddersfield will be back in March.
