IT'S hard to imagine now, but Greenhead Park nearly became a building site.

The determination of one man saved the land from being covered with houses.

Victorian worthy Thomas Denham stepped in after learning of the development proposals back in 1869.

To him, it was shocking that the land could be lost.

What followed eventually led to the town winning a new playground that came to be loved by generations. Denham - at that time an alderman - tried to persuade the town council to buy the land from the Ramsden Estate.

But the council's delays - shades of modern times - forced him into taking matters into his own hands.

Denham, fearful that the builders would win, took it upon himself to lease the land.

His public-spirited action even extended to buying 150 seats and an orchestra platform.

It was perhaps right that he did - for the town council did not take over the lease until four years later in 1873.

It was a further seven years before Huddersfield Corporation bought the land.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

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