12,000 Years of Huddersfield History! (And I yelled at a Duck) #huddersfield

Our journey begins at the end of the last Ice Age, and goes right up to the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

The whole textile, wool, mills, industry thing is for another video.

#walkaboutwithrob #huddersfield #yorkshire

hfield described by Frederick angles as being the most handsome of all the factory towns of Yorkshire and of Lancashire and is today famed as having more listed buildings than all but two other places in England but what was here before all this [Music] at the end of the last ice age about will you shut up at the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years AO go and due to the melting glaciers much of the Huds field area was in fact underwater this was one massive post glacial Lake and as the ice melted forests recolonized the landscape now the quacky Slime ducks are thinking I’m going to give them food but I’m not I’m just trying to make my way down to the river bank [Music] and as expected Castle Hill plays a major role in the early history of the hutsfield area many years ago there was an archaeological excavation up here and it uncovered traces of an early half and small settlement radiocarbon dating dated this settlement to about 2,151 BC that places it in the early Bronze Age this here is the river col I think that’s how you pronounce it it flows through Huddersfield the name is actually of Celtic origin and it’s believed to mean the Stony River despite centuries of Germanic settlement here the river has retained its Celtic name and that actually brings us very conveniently to the people of the Iron Age whom we often call the k in about the year 555 BC the earliest defenses were constructed here at Castle Hill were these defenses put up by the bantis tribe whom the Romans wrote about 5 centuries later or were they constructed by some other tribe whose name has been lost to history were these defenses put up in response to bantian expansion from further north in about 430 BC there is evidence of limited burning of the defenses here after which the entire site went out of use when the Romans arrived centuries later much of the north was bantian territory could this indicate that Castle Hill was conquered by the brigantes the burning of the fort shows evidence of vitrification a process that is little understood but which involves the burning of rocks that causes them to fuse together and the burning here was quite localized as if it was deliberate and controlled my theory is that the area fell to the Banes in about 430 BC who then conducted a ritual burning of part of the defenses to symbolically neutralize the fort the Banes were the largest Celtic tribe in Britain and it’s possible their origin was further north from here and that they expanded southwards the fact that the damage to the Fort here at Castle Hill was through vitrification a process that is more common in Scot land would lend further weight to the idea that the Banes had a northern origin and aggressively expanded southwards oh and the meaning of the name Banes means Hill dwellers now the locals pronounce it Castle Hill or something to that effect in Australia we say castle because we all know there’s an r in the word Castle it’s at this point in our story that the Romans make an appearance and the place where they make their appearance in the greater huttersfield area is here at the outlane golf course it was in about the year 79 ad that the Romans set up a fort here at outlane right next to the road that led from Chester to York that road today is the m62 Not only was there a Roman Fort here there was also a vus and that’s a civilian settlement you see when you get Roman setting up somewhere you have a market for the locals because the soldiers need things like wine food repairs to their kit new shoes female company so you would get civilians setting up shop just near the fort that vus it seems carried on long after the fort went out of use in about 140 ad it’s possible the v’s carried on till about the fourth maybe even the fifth Century despite the fact that there was a Roman Fort here the overall Roman presence in the hutsfield area was minimal to probably non-existent and I think the main reason for that is just this area was fairly sparsely populated it was certainly not an area of great agriculture so the Romans didn’t really do much with it to the locals who were here life carried on pretty much as it always had they live lived in their round houses they worshiped their gods they spoke their indigenous British Celtic languages probably never ever really meeting a Roman and I’ve just got to say from a personal point of view this is absolutely incredible and exciting there’s a Roman Fort right behind me foundations and Archaeology is still there the whole side is not been excavated there’s a lot still to be learned here after the withdrawal of Roman Administration from the 4th to the 7th centuries ad the west and south Yorkshire areas became the kingdom of elmet while areas of Eastern and Southern Britain were becoming Anglo-Saxon elmet carried on as a Celtic entity elmet was eventually annexed to the kingdom of North Umbria in about 617 ad this was the era when the Celtic identity of this area was fading to be replaced by the Germanic cultures of the English and the Norse this here is Albury now the word Albury is a compound from two different languages the first part Alman is nor and it means all men the second part b r y That’s Old English and that means a stronghold or fortified Place I.E Castle Hill so Armen Bri actually means all the men of the stronghold it was at some point now that the village of Huddersfield began and it was known as odfel oders field eventually the tiny settlement was held by a guy called Godwin an English thing um it was in 1066 that those jerks the Normans invaded very quickly the English language was replaced in government and in the courts with Norman French and the English ruling class were almost completely given the sack ilbert and Walter of the Dey family from Normandy came over with William the Conqueror it was ilbert who was given lands in what is now West Yorkshire including the manner of hutsfield amongst other places this was William the conqueror’s way of saying thanks to ilbert for helping him with the conquest of England it was here’s some land for you ilbert the locals call it Yorkshire you can have it ilbert also made himself busy as a participant in the harrying of the north he also built ponr castle where I’m standing right now next to the Victoria tower on Castle Hill this was the site of a Norman Castle put up by the dees in the late 1140s this was the castle to help control the local area and out that way that was the Bailey where you had soldiers and then uh people living and blacksmiths and all that sort of thing the castle here though is not the only castle in the hutsfield area there is actually another one this little helic behind me with the trees on it is that second Norman Castle this is on Beacon Street at the Northern end of Huddersfield and Beacon Street where I’m walking right now this forms the western boundary of the old ramparts of the castle in the Doomsday Book both hutsfield and Armen B are listed as being waste as a result of the harrying [Music] St Peter’s Church apparently founded in the 11th century by Walter Dey the Second Son of ilbert Dey and according to Legend he was riding between huttersfield and Halifax and he fell from his horse and was badly injured so he made a promise to God if you allow me to survive I’ll build you a church while he survived there’s the church the church was rebuilt in 1503 and again in 1836 due to the previous one falling into [Music] disrepair in 11:30 the Parish of hutsfield was given to the monks of nostell Abbey at Wakefield the income for the Vicor they appointed only came from donations when the plate was passed around the monks got all the income from the parish actually armb was the main commercial center for this entire area centuries before Huddersfield was they had a medieval Market here I think back in about the 13th century [Music] it was in the late 13th century that the castle here up on Castle Hill more or less went out of use and it became a hunting lodge there was still extensive Woodlands all around here this area of nothing up on Castle Hill was once or something in the 1320s the delacy family founded a small town up here having a little town wasn’t such a bad idea because you could tax it they didn’t get to enjoy it for very long because something was about to change in this area and it was thanks to the crown in 1322 the manner of hutsfield oh this isn’t it I don’t know what that is it’s just a building I needed in the background that looked nice um was taken by the crown at the expense of the Dei family and the crown held it for the next 277 years it was in about 1350 that the town up here at Castle Hill became defunct in fact the entire site up here went out of use and Castle Hill remained abandoned more or less until the 19th century hello there back in armb the building behind me just across the road there that’s known as wormal Hall it dates from the 16th century we don’t actually know the exact date when it was built I don’t think so we’ll say, 1550 near the front door it says 1631 and what that’s referring to is the year when the stonework was built on the ground level that apparently was the fashion back then to put nice stonework on your ground level but yeah the the building actually dates from 16th century in 1599 William Ramon bought the manner of Huddersfield from Queen Elizabeth for £965 at this time huttersfield was a small settlement all the action was at armeny that had a weekly Market the Ramon were determined to build up the town into a prosperous Center of wool manufacturer in 1671 a Market Cross was erected in the town by the Lord of The Manor to acknowledge that huttersfield could now hold a we Market this was awarded by King Charles II a grant for a market was a very lucrative thing to have and it really helped hutsfield to grow take that armb the markets here were held on Tuesdays in 1920 the hutterville corporation bought the town for £1.3 million from the Ramon it famously became known as the town that bought itself well there we have it a quick rundown of about 12,000 years years of history in the hutsfield area thanks very much for watching the video I hope you liked it if you did please consider hitting that like and the Subscribe button and uh I’ll see you again soon [Music]