Huddersfield Railway Station ......... what they did after building our own Liverpool Road Station

We were in Huddersfield a few year's back enjoying the last of the summer sunshine and following Bradshaw’s railway guide.

Now I am a great fan of Mr Bradshaw and bought in to his three maps of The Inland Navigation of England and Wales which he produced in 1830 as well as his Illustrated Handbook to London which came out in 1862.

At which point I should say that the actual inspiration for the trip came from that television series based on the railway guide and given the magnificent shots of St George’s Square and the surrounding buildings we were hooked.

The station was built in 1846 received praise from both Sir John Betjeman and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and is very impressive.

That said the interior is much smaller than you would expect from that grand frontage and the two buildings at either end are now pubs.

But it is still magnificent and has that statute of Harold Wilson who I have to admit I’d forgotten come from Huddersfield.

So for those who want to see where railway architecture went after Liverpool Railway Station was built in 1830, this is the next best place.

Our own first station was a bold statement for the new railway age but this one coming just 16 years later has all that confidence that said "the railway is here to stay" and that I like.

And  it is still a busy place with trains coming and going and a shed full of passengers travelling east to Leeds and beyond and  west to Manchester and Liverpool.

It may not have the size of Piccadilly or Victoria or that restaurant at Stalybridge but there is no doubting that we are doing serious rail travel here.

What is more you can can still get to it by train from Manchester, now that can’t be bad.

We went by car but had planned on using the train which is just how you should visit a railway station.

And that just leaves me to send you back to all those earlier stories of Manchester's railway stations.*

Pictures;  of Huddersfield Station and St George’s Square, August 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Next; that station at Stalybridge, for a pint, a pie and a view of the hills.

*Manchester Railway Station,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Railway%20Station

In St George’s Square with the expert

Now it is always nice when a story is picked up and given an added dimension by someone  who knows and loves the place.

So in response to the story on Huddersfield Railway Station, Andrew Haign quick as a flash came back with this.*

“Well, each building in the square is listed and each has their own story. 

But kicking off with the George Hotel, to Harold's left,  it was the first building to join the Railway in 1850, its predecessor The George Inn was knocked down to make way for John William Street to be built which is the road the Lion directs you down to the Market Place. 

The George Hotel's most notable claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of Rugby League. 

A meeting was held there in 1895, where 21 northern clubs decided to break away from Rugby Union.

Incidentally, the aforementioned lion is actually a 1977 fibreglass replica of the original Coade Stone lion of 1854. 

It's said the lion leaves his pedestal and saunters round the Square when the station clock chimes for midnight. Just a shame the station clock doesn't chime.”

Now you can’t beat detail like that.

And the square, the station and the hotel are all but a short train ride away through some fascinating landscape which must be a pretty outrageous plug for the railways.

And of course for our own great Manchester railway stations which feature on the blog.**

That said the George is closed for refurbishment till the new year which just leaves those two pubs either end of the main station one of which so impressed Jean who also picked up on the story that she was moved to write,

“Spent some time in the Head of Steam next to the station a couple of weeks ago when I attended the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival. They do great chips too!"

All of which suggests that when you are tired of Manchester there is always Huddersfield just down the train track.

Pictures; of the George Hotel, and St George’s Square, 2014 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Text © Andrew Haigh

*Huddersfield Railway Station ......... what they did after building our own Liverpool Road Station, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/huddersfield-railway-station-what-they.html?spref=fb

**Manchester Railway Station,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20Railway%20Station

Gazing into shop windows

It is pretty much one of those things that advertising and all the posters, TV commercials and catch phrases that go with a successful campaign can both date and also illuminate a period.

I still have fond memories of the little robots who thought making mashed potato using the raw ingredients was plain daft and old fashioned when a packet of powder could deliver the business.

Or that stylish and award winning commercial which featured a man under a street light at night holding a cigarette with the caption “You are never alone with a Strand.”

Awards it might have won but many associated the cigarette with being alone and sales did not match its style.

All of which is merely to state the obvious that any advert is of its time and reflects what think, value and even what makes us laugh.

Who now could make an advert using a certain primate dressed in human clothes and performing as we do?

All of which made me reflect on these two posters in two empty shops in Huddersfield recently.

Thinking back there were more than two empty retail units and the posters were doing the bit of keeping the place looking busy.

And I have to say I liked them.  Big bold and in your face.

I shall go back sometime soon and see if they are still there.

Pictures; Huddersfield posters, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Stories from Huddersfield

Now I have been drawn over the last few weeks to Huddersfield and today I am focusing on some of those bold new blocks of social housing which went up in the 1960s.

If you know Huddersfield you may know  Richmond flats on the top of Leeds Road.

Andrew Haigh tells me they are  now called "Harold Wilson Court after a much overdue referb. 

Interestingly, the other two 60s flats in the vicinity... (Ibbotson and Lonsborough) are destined for demolition along with the sports centre. 

So, Huddersfield's sporting greats... Anita Lonsborough (gold medal winner at the Olympics in swimming) and Derek Ibbotson (another Olympic medal winner, with a bronze, who also ran in the first ever 4 minute mile, finishing fourth in exactly 4:00.00 at White City Stadium - a brilliant quiz question given Bannister's fame) are to be demolished alongside the town's sports centre. 

Meanwhile, Sidney Richmond, who designed the flats... would be pleased to know that the one block of flats named after him will survive.”

It is just one of the short pieces where the blog moves east.

Picture; from the rooftop of the Richmond flats.2014 Andrew Haigh from his site
TWK/meander, http://tw33king.tumblr.com/post/59721772349/an-olympic-gold-medal-swimmer-and-a-world