A HISTORIAN is appealing to local residents to help him rediscover Huddersfield’s lost palace.
Christopher Webster’s quest to discover the origins of a magnificent mansion built around 1820 in what is now New Street in Huddersfield town centre has so far proved unsuccessful.
The architectural historian and former lecturer from Leeds has been published widely on the buildings of England and needs the information for an in-depth article for Architectural History Magazine.
The stately home was located on Buxton Road, which is now the pedestrianised New Street. Walking away from the town centre, the house would have been the last building on the left before the road which is now the ring road opposite Chapel Hill.
Mr Webster, 61, has spent many hours contacting local civic organisations and visiting the town’s archives, but remains perplexed as to how such a grand building, probably the finest in the town in the early 1800s, could be shrouded in so much mystery.
He said: “Despite much work over many years by an army of diligent local historians on a vast range of Huddersfield topics, this building seems to have been overlooked.
“It would have been one of the wonders of Huddersfield, people would have come to gawp at it. It was palatial, without a doubt the grandest house in Huddersfield at the time.
“Although there were a number of fine houses built in the 1850s there was nothing as opulent as this example from 1820. It’s very strange there is no record of when it was built or for which family.
