Tourism - Travel

Castle Hill - Huddersfield - England - Travel

The summit of Castle Hill is by far the most conspicuous landmark in the Huddersfield area. The Hill has for hundreds of years been a place of recreation, and the easily discernable remains of past occupation have made it a subject for legend, speculation and scientific study.

The hill owes its shape to an outlying cap of hard Grenoside sandstone, which has protected the softer stone beneath from erosion. The first people to set eyes on Castle Hill were probably hunters and gatherers of the Mesolithic age, camping amongst the forests which at that time covered the land. In the Neolithic and Bronze Age, there appears to have been widespread travel or trade along the river valleys connecting the Yorkshire Wolds, the Peak District and the Mersey and Ribble estuaries. This is shown by various characteristic types of stone and bronze tools in a place far from their points of origin. A hillfort was constructed in the early Iron Age, around 555BC, which took up the whole hilltop. Later in its life the hillfort was modified to improve the defences probably in response to the new threat from the Romans from AD43.

The banks and ditches that remain are not those left by the Iron Age people. They are much more the result of recutting and other alterations carried out during the Middle Ages, modified by centuries of erosion. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, Almondbury became part of the territory known as the Honour of Pontefract, which was held by the de Laci family. It was they who established a castle on the hill. The castle is mentioned in a charter of King Stephen to Henry de Laci of about 1142 to 1154, and archaeological excavation has provided a wooden stake, radiocarbon-dated to the late 1140s, and a coin of about 1160. It can be assumed that the castle was complete and occupied by the 1140s.

Castle Hill’s flat top was a useful venue for large political, religious and other meetings. Chartist rallies were held on the hill at least four times, in 1843 and 1848. During the great weavers’ strike of 1883 a rally of between two and three thousand people braved bitter weather to listen to speeches by union leaders. A tavern to cater for pleasure-seekers was first built on the hill in about 1810-11. A bowling green was formerly situated to the south of the hotel. Other pursuits are recorded at Castle Hill included bare-knuckled prize fights, dogfights and cockfights.

By 1897 Queen Victoria had reigned over the British Empire for sixty years, longer than any other monarch. A permanent memorial of this event was planned in the form of a tower perched on the hill overlooking the town of Huddersfield. Despite some difficulty raising the money required, the tower was opened by the Earl of Scarborough on 24th June 1899. Although often referred to as the Jubilee Tower, the correct name is the Victoria Tower. Designed by Isaac Jones of London, it was built by the firm of Ben Graham and Sons of Folly Hall, using stone from Crosland Hill. It cost £3,298, and was 106 feet (32.3 metres) high, which, added to the height of the hill itself, made the top 1,000 feet (305 metres) above sea level.