The new Huddersfield Histories festival celebrating the area’s rich history kicks off its first programme on at the University of Huddersfield on Tuesday (June 17) with the focus on the centenary of Huddersfield rugby league icon, Harold Wagstaff.

The Festival also looks at the 50th anniversary of the election in 1964 of Huddersfield-born Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

It climaxes on Saturday with the Community Showcase from 12 noon with local community and history groups highlighting their work and activities with stalls, exhibitions, talks and workshops on the Queensgate campus.

The Showcase features performances of Bhangra dancing and music by VIRSA, and music from Hade Edge Academy’s Accordian and Concertina group.

Huddersfield Filmmakers’ Club will be screening archive classics, award-winning films and new documentaries about the town.

Over a hundred children and their teachers from local schools will take part on Friday, June 20 in a Schools Day workshop programme.

Dr Heather Norris Nicholson, Research Fellow at the University’s Centre for Visual and Oral History Research (CVOHR) which has helped organise the Festival, said: “We are really excited about putting these events on. There is so much going on in Huddersfield and the surrounding areas and here is a chance for people to see and sample the range of activities that local groups and individuals are engaged in.’

On Tuesday, June 17, one of the country’s leading sport historians, Professor Tony Collins re-assesses Wagstaff’s great sporting achievements. On the following day The Wagstaff Trail is launched in Holmfirth, tracing his connections in the Holme Valley.

A memorial plaque in Holmfirth for Harold Wagstaff
A memorial plaque in Holmfirth for Harold Wagstaff

During the week there will talks and events connected to the First World War with the university’s Dr Andrew Mycock, discussing on Wednesday, June 18, how we commemorate the Great War.

On the same day, there will be the launch of the 6 Million+ Charitable Trust which aims with the sculpture created from 6 million buttons to raise awareness of continuing genocides and persecution.

At 11.30am on Saturday 21 June, actor Colin Smith will re-enact Harold Wilson’s famous ‘White Heat of Technology’ speech at the Wilson statue in front of Huddersfield Railway Station.

MP Barry Sheerman will then talk about his memories of that election and Huddersfield’s own Prime Minister and will join the talk and discussion on the campus at 2pm about the election with talks about Wilson’s 1960s’ legacy by leading experts of the period.

The Director of CVOHR, Dr Stephen Dorril, who has written about Wilson’s time in office, said: “With an election due next year it will interesting to reassess Wilson in the light of what has happened in politics in recent years. He remains highly popular with the public and it is noticeable that some former critics have become much more sympathetic to what he did in office.”

The festival is asking anyone with memories of Wilson and the 1964 election to come and record them in the Wilson Video Box, as part of an oral history of the period.

All events are free. The full programme is available on the website of Centre for Visual and Oral History Research and Kirklees council (Search Events) or Twitter/Facebook – HUDDSHISTORIES. Also available from h.nicolson@hud.ac.uk or 01484 428437.

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