ONE of Huddersfield’s landmark buildings is 40 years old this week.

Although the town’s police headquarters on Castlegate was officially opened in February, 1968, the building was finished and the doors opened to the public months earlier.

Steve Carter, a former Pc, said: “I remember being on duty watching the place for a couple of nights before it opened. No lights were working and small tables were all over the place.

“I ended that two-night shift with my shins covered in bruises.’’

The building replaced the old police station which was on Peel Street below Huddersfield Town Hall. It was knocked down and replaced with Queensgate Market.

That station opened in September, 1898, and cost just £12,000 to build.

One of the main innovations in the new building was its control room, which had 15 phone lines going into it manned by three officers.

Over the following years the room continued to expand and the staff sat at three specific desks; – inner Huddersfield, outer Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

The local control room was axed in 1999 and shifted to Bradford.

The Examiner wrote at the time the new HQ opened: “When one considers the cramped conditions at the Peel Street headquarters it is apparent that one of the main assets of the new building is space.

“There is space for the police officer to carry out his duties and to relax.

“The control room is the hub of the new headquarters and behind the impressive control ‘console’ is a story of months and months of work by skilled engineers.’’

Although the control room is long gone the room remains the police station’s engine-room.

It is the Divisional Intelligence Unit, where officers and civilian staff collate all the crimes that have happened across Kirklees, along with all the vital intelligence coming in from officers or though Crimestoppers, about suspected criminals and their associates.

This information is then sifted and passed on to detectives, beat bobbies or the Neighbourhood Policing Teams for further action.

Huddersfield has one of the highest rates of calls to Crimestoppers and the information passed on leads to hundreds of arrests every year.

The officers moving in during 1967 did not take a lot with them from Peel Street.

But one vital item they did move was the full- size snooker table which officers working in the early days at Peel Street clubbed together to buy.

The oak table cost £93 at the time the Chief Constable was paid £250 a year.

It is now in storage as the snooker room has been turned into a kitchen and eating room for officers – complete with a plasma TV.

The old canteen was transformed this year into a new CID suite and on the top floor of the station there are conference and briefing rooms.

Beat bobbies are on the second floor and Neighbourhood Policing Teams on the ground floor.

Many years ago the police station had its own .22 shooting range used by its sports and social section – not to train armed officers.

That was removed many years ago.

The police station’s main entrance and inquiry desk used to be on Castlegate and at one point there were hopes that car parking spaces would be provided there just off the ring road.

But the road was deemed too busy and eventually the main entrance was shifted around the side of the building into Albion Street.

One of the weirdest things in the police station’s history was when one of its cells was painted pink in 1990.

Research suggested there was a 95% probability that aggressive prisoners put in the cell would calm down within 30 minutes.

Or perhaps they just couldn’t stand the hideous colour any longer and would do anything to get out.

Now all 16 cells in the station are the same drab colour.