Huddersfield

Huddersfield is a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire in England in the United Kingdom.

It is located in the Pennines.

It is the birthplace of Harold Wilson (1916-1995), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1964-1970 and 1974–76. Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), who served as Prime Minister from 1908 until 1916, also spend some of his childhood in Huddersfield.

It is the home of the Huddersfield Choral Society, one of the most well-regarded amateur classical choirs in the country.

History

Castle Hill, on which the late-19th century Victoria Tower now stands, which overlooks the local area has been the site of human activity for some 4000 years and was the site of an Iron Age hillfort.

Slack Roman Fort lies immediately west of the town. Discovered by archaeological digs in the 1700s, findings indicate that the fort was constructed from turf and wood to defend the Roman road in the time of Agricola in AD 79. Situated on the Roman Road between Deva Victrix (Chester) and Eboracum (York), Slack might have been the Cambodunum mentioned as a station on this route in the Antonine Itinerary. Later, during the sub-Roman era, it was suggested in 2016 by Peter Field of Bangor University in Wales that Slack may have been the location of Camelot, where the legendary King Arthur (reputedly alive 5th-6th centuries) held court.

The oldest surviving reference to Huddersfield by name is from the Domesday Book of 1086, a survey completed following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. In the survey, Huddersfield is referred to Oderesfelt. It was not recorded to have any population and its tenant-in-chief was Ilbert de Lacy, who at that time owned many estates in Yorkshire and several in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Huddersfield would remain in the possesion of the De Lacy family until confiscation by the Crown in 1322, during the reign of Edward II.