Huddersfield Local History Society launches its 2014/15 programme of meetings this month in a brand new venue.
After several years in Huddersfield Town Hall where the society has struggled to accommodate over 90 people at its monthly talks, it is making the move to Heritage Quay, the new archives centre at Huddersfield University.
Opening the new season of talks on Monday, September 29, at 7.30pm will be Professor Lord Clark, the former Colne Valley MP David Clark, speaking on Early Labour pioneers in the Huddersfield area.
Subsequent talks by leading local historians will range from 16th and 17th century houses of the area, through the restoration of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the ‘teazles and teazlemen’ of the woollen industry to the Belgian refugees who came to Huddersfield during World War I. Talks are generally on the last Monday of the month at 7.30pm and non-members are welcome. Each talk costs £2 on the door.
Society publicity officer David Griffiths said: “With our membership almost doubling in recent years we were struggling to continue at the town hall. Fortunately, this has coincided with the opening of state-of-the-art facilities at Heritage Quay which we look forward to making our new home.”
The archives centre is housed in the university’s prominent central services building and clearly signposted from campus entrances by distinctive white-on-black signs.
In coming weeks the society will also publish Yours for Eternity: A Romance of the Great War.
Edited by society member John Rumsby, this presents the poignant correspondence between Henry Coulter, of Marsh, a Huddersfield Tramways clerk who died at the front in 1916, and his sweetheart Lucy Townend, of Birkby.
Thanks to unexpectedly high sales, the society has already reprinted its 2014/15 Journal, offering 84 pages of articles on a wide range of local history topics, available in Waterstones and at the railway station bookstall.
Details of the Society’s meetings and publications can be found at www.huddersfieldhistory.org.uk
