Cleckheaton
Encyclopedia
Cleckheaton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees
, in West Yorkshire
, England
, situated south of Bradford
, east of Brighouse
, west of Batley
and south-west of Leeds
. It is at the centre of the Spen Valley
and was the major town in the former borough of Spenborough
.
Historically
a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire
, Cleckheaton has a history as a mill town, like much of West Yorkshire, although this industry has now all but vanished.
, the Spen Valley
was once heavily wooded. Human habitation began thousands of years ago and Mesolithic
and Neolithic
remains have been found in various places. Roman remains have been found in the valley and it is thought that the roads from York
to Chester
, and from settlements in Halifax
and Wakefield
, ran through Cleckheaton and the junction gave rise to a staging post.
Cleckheaton was included in the ancient parish of Birstall. A chapel-of-ease, known as the White Chapel (later Whitechapel) was established in the area.
After the Reformation
, Kirklees Priory was largely destroyed, many families were driven from the area and new non-aristocratic lords of the manor who were sympathetic to Protestantism were introduced by Elizabeth I, as was a puritan clergyman who was installed at Birstall Church. By 1570, at the time of the Rising of the Northern Earls, the last of the old Norman noble families had been swept away. Sir John Neville went into exile and forfeited his estate and Thomas Hussey
(heir to the de Tilly family of Oakwell Hall) was imprisoned in the Tower of London
for some time before being pardoned.
By the 17th century land-owning farmers were finding it increasingly difficult as were their landlords and some payments were still in kind as farmers had no money to pay their debts. Meanwhile the textile workers were becoming more and more prosperous and paid less and less attention to their hard up and increasingly impotent landlords. During the English Civil War
the clothiers were on one side and the landlords on the other. Lords of the area were made Royalist officers and made some progress such as at the battle of Adwalton Moor about a mile east of Birkenshaw
and the siege of Bradford
, before the Parliamentarians took control of the area. Royalist families were forced, after the war, to pay large fines to keep their lands and avoid imprisonment. All the time clothiers were growing wealthier and by the end of the 17th century more than half of the wills in the parish of Birstall came from men whose wealth came from textiles.
, Anglicanism
was reintroduced also. However many people had found puritan teachings more to their taste and it took many years to re-install an Anglican vicar to Whitechapel. Despite the draconian nonconformist laws, there was a large number of non-Anglican meeting houses and nonconformity flourished; a fifth of the population of the Birstall Parish was estimated to be nonconformist. Quakers were widespread and even now a number of 17th and 18th century Quaker burial grounds remain in the area. In the 18th century Presbyterianism
was widespread but then lost a large minority of its flock to Unitarianism
and to the Baptist
church. Methodism
also flourished from the 1740s after visits from John Wesley
and Charles Wesley
, as did the Moravian Church. Indeed John Wesley lived in Birstall for some time as it was near to many large towns in the West Riding.
In spite of the religious strength in the Valley, the inhabitants were somewhat unconventional and still went to astrologers, quack doctors and prophets. Men like Eli Collins, the "Wizard of Wyke", and Alvery Newsome, the "Wise Man of Heckmondwike", were widespread. Furthermore, to increase the isolation, the area had no canals and had few roads, apart from a few turnpike roads, including the major ones from Leeds
to Huddersfield
and Bradford to Halifax.
In 1804 the Reverend Hammond Roberson, annoyed that the administration of Liversedge was disorganised, promoted a system of reform - the select vestry - which quickly spread to Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. In 1810, after his wife's death, Roberson turned his attention to church building in the area. In 1818 Parliament voted a million pounds for the building of new churches in the country and Roberson was able to secure funding to build Cleckheaton church.
The mill owners built turnpike roads between the villages to enable their employees to get to work and lobbied to get railways built to get their products to reach customers. After a great deal of wrangling with the various railway companies in the 1840s railways were finally built which enabled the textile mills, ironworks, chemical factories and collieries to compete with those around the country. More than this, the railways brought together the people of the individual villages of the valley and quickly the villages grew until they merged together.
In 1903 Lion Confectionery began making "Midget Gems" in Cleckheaton, and 1904 saw the opening of the Phelon & Moore
motorcycle factory in the town, soon followed by a car factory. BBA (formerly British Belting & Asbestos), the large asbestos, friction material, and conveyor belting firm, built its headquarters at Moorend where they manufactured automotive disc brake pads under the Mintex banner. A tourist industry developed to serve visitors to the area made famous by Charlotte Brontë's "Shirley" and by the Luddite attacks. The Mowatt family paid for Cleckheaton Library and also the reference library at Cleckheaton's grammar (later secondary) school, Whitcliffe Mount which bears their name.
From the 1920s, however, Spenborough's fortunes began to decline. Pits began to close and trade waned. Slowly, central government took on responsibilities previously held by Spenborough
such as water supply, gas production, public health and education. By this time the level of industry was in serious decline as the textile mills, foundries and other factories slowly closed.
In the 1960s and 1970s many new houses were built in Cleckheaton, as the town attracted commuters to Leeds
and Bradford
. Ashtons
built many houses around Cleckheaton and neighbouring Mirfield
.
man was accused of, as counsel for the prosecution put it, effectively stealing Cleckheaton railway station. The station had closed to passenger traffic in 1965 and to freight four years later. British Rail
had contracted for the clearing of the site, part of the deal being that the contractors would sell and retain the proceeds from disposal of the materials and scrap. On arrival, they discovered that the station and most of the material were already gone. It transpired that the man had been contracted by another firm to clear the site, had been advanced a sum for hire of plant, and had spent three weeks clearing the site. Subsequent efforts to trace the second firm failed, and the court found the man not guilty, deciding that he had been duped and left significantly out of pocket.
and ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees. The ward elects three of the borough council's sixty-nine councillors. As of 2007 all three councillors were members of the Liberal Democrats. Under the borough council's decentralisation
scheme, Cleckheaton's councillors are grouped with those of the neighbouring wards of Heckmondwike
and Liversedge
& Gomersal
to form the Spen Valley Area Committee.
was formed to govern the area. In 1885 Cleckheaton and the three neighbouring townships of Gomersal, Heckmondwike and Liversedge were grouped to form the Parliamentary constituency of Spen Valley
. The Local Government Act 1894
reconstituted the area of the local board as Cleckheaton Urban District. There were at this time attempts to involve all the local authorities in the valley in joint projects such as installation of sewers and water. In 1915, the three urban district
s of Cleckheaton, Liversedge and Gomersal were amalgamated to form Spenborough Urban District
. In 1937 a county review order
enlarged the urban district to include Birkenshaw, Hunsworth and Hartshead.
Spenborough (which now included all of the Spen Valley save Heckmondwike) was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough
on 23 May 1955. The borough continued to use the coat of arms
which bore the motto "Industry Enriches" which it had been granted in 1949.
On April 1, 1974 the Local Government Act 1972
reorganised administration throughout England and Wales. The borough of Spenborough was abolished, and its area combined with that of ten other local authorities to form the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, one of five metropolitan borough
s of West Yorkshire
.
MP
from 1983 to 1997. Since that date the constituency has been held by Labour
MP Mike Wood.
county constituency. The seat was held at various times by the Liberal
, National Liberal
and Labour parties.
From 1950 to 1983 Cleckheaton was included in the borough constituency of Brighouse and Spenborough
. It was a marginal seat, changing hands between the Conservative and Labour parties on six occasions.
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Cleckheaton is at the centre of a number of villages which together form the Spen Valley:
Oakenshaw
, East Bierley, Hunsworth, Birkenshaw
, Drub, Gomersal
, Little Gomersal, Littletown, Millsbridge, Liversedge
, Roberttown, Hartshead, Clifton, Hightown
and Scholes.
The town itself is made up of areas such as Moorend, Whitechapel, Whitcliffe, Moorbottom, Moorside, the Marsh and Rawfolds.
Liversedge F.C.
are the town's highest football club in the football league pyramid, playing in the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division for the 06-07 season. They play at Clayborn, 1 km from Cleckheaton town centre. They have an associated junior club Gomersal and Cleckheaton F.C.
There are many Sunday League football teams around Cleckheaton and cricket is also big locally, with Cleckheaton (also part of Cleckheaton Sports Club) Scholes, Gomersal, Spen Victoria, Hartshead Moor, East Bierley and Liversedge all within the Spen Valley.
Kirklees
The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 401,000 and includes the settlements of Batley, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Kirkburton, Marsden, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite...
, in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, situated south of Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, east of Brighouse
Brighouse
Brighouse is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Calder, east of Halifax in the Pennines. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the...
, west of Batley
Batley
Batley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies southeast of Bradford, southwest of Leeds and north of Dewsbury, near the M62 motorway. It has a population of 49,448 . Other nearby towns include Morley to the northeast, Ossett to the southeast...
and south-west of Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
. It is at the centre of the Spen Valley
River Spen
The River Spen is a river in the county of West Yorkshire, England and is a tributary of the River Calder. It rises north of Cleckheaton, runs through Liversedge and flows into the River Calder, West Yorkshire south of Dewsbury at Ravensthorpe. The average rainfall for the river valley is between...
and was the major town in the former borough of Spenborough
Spenborough
Spenborough was, from 1915 to 1974, a local government district in the administrative county of Yorkshire, West Riding.Spenborough was created as an urban district in 1915 by the merger of Cleckheaton, Gomersal and Liversedge urban districts...
.
Historically
Historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...
a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
, Cleckheaton has a history as a mill town, like much of West Yorkshire, although this industry has now all but vanished.
Early history
Like much of EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the Spen Valley
River Spen
The River Spen is a river in the county of West Yorkshire, England and is a tributary of the River Calder. It rises north of Cleckheaton, runs through Liversedge and flows into the River Calder, West Yorkshire south of Dewsbury at Ravensthorpe. The average rainfall for the river valley is between...
was once heavily wooded. Human habitation began thousands of years ago and Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
and Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
remains have been found in various places. Roman remains have been found in the valley and it is thought that the roads from York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
to Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, and from settlements in Halifax
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
and Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, ran through Cleckheaton and the junction gave rise to a staging post.
Cleckheaton was included in the ancient parish of Birstall. A chapel-of-ease, known as the White Chapel (later Whitechapel) was established in the area.
Textile working
The area was very disorganised for a long time after the Norman Conquest and the richest townships at the time of the Norman Conquest were still the richest 300 years later as the Poll Tax returns of 1379 show. They also demonstrate the lack of administration as only the richest four of the 227 families living in the Spen Valley were made to pay more than the 4d minimum tax. These tax returns also show the recent deviation form the traditional sources of wealth in the area (i.e. farming and allied trades). These were centred around textiles and included dyeing, weaving and fulling (common names in the area nowadays still recall these early trades: Lister- dyer, Webster- weaver, Walker- fuller). The spread of these trades was also a result of the absence of regulation of the area. Due to the lack of manorial control, land was divided between all the sons in a family rather than just passing to the eldest. As the farmland owned by a family got smaller they became unable to support the family and so people turned to production of woollens to gain extra income.After the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
, Kirklees Priory was largely destroyed, many families were driven from the area and new non-aristocratic lords of the manor who were sympathetic to Protestantism were introduced by Elizabeth I, as was a puritan clergyman who was installed at Birstall Church. By 1570, at the time of the Rising of the Northern Earls, the last of the old Norman noble families had been swept away. Sir John Neville went into exile and forfeited his estate and Thomas Hussey
Thomas Hussey
Thomas Hussey may refer to:*Thomas Hussey , MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis * Thomas Hussey , Irish diplomat, chaplain and bishop...
(heir to the de Tilly family of Oakwell Hall) was imprisoned in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
for some time before being pardoned.
By the 17th century land-owning farmers were finding it increasingly difficult as were their landlords and some payments were still in kind as farmers had no money to pay their debts. Meanwhile the textile workers were becoming more and more prosperous and paid less and less attention to their hard up and increasingly impotent landlords. During the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
the clothiers were on one side and the landlords on the other. Lords of the area were made Royalist officers and made some progress such as at the battle of Adwalton Moor about a mile east of Birkenshaw
Birkenshaw, West Yorkshire
Birkenshaw is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It lies at the crossroads between the A58 Leeds to Halifax road and the A651 Bradford to Heckmondwike road....
and the siege of Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, before the Parliamentarians took control of the area. Royalist families were forced, after the war, to pay large fines to keep their lands and avoid imprisonment. All the time clothiers were growing wealthier and by the end of the 17th century more than half of the wills in the parish of Birstall came from men whose wealth came from textiles.
Nonconformity
After the restoration of the MonarchyMonarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
, Anglicanism
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
was reintroduced also. However many people had found puritan teachings more to their taste and it took many years to re-install an Anglican vicar to Whitechapel. Despite the draconian nonconformist laws, there was a large number of non-Anglican meeting houses and nonconformity flourished; a fifth of the population of the Birstall Parish was estimated to be nonconformist. Quakers were widespread and even now a number of 17th and 18th century Quaker burial grounds remain in the area. In the 18th century Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
was widespread but then lost a large minority of its flock to Unitarianism
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
and to the Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
church. Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
also flourished from the 1740s after visits from John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
and Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
, as did the Moravian Church. Indeed John Wesley lived in Birstall for some time as it was near to many large towns in the West Riding.
In spite of the religious strength in the Valley, the inhabitants were somewhat unconventional and still went to astrologers, quack doctors and prophets. Men like Eli Collins, the "Wizard of Wyke", and Alvery Newsome, the "Wise Man of Heckmondwike", were widespread. Furthermore, to increase the isolation, the area had no canals and had few roads, apart from a few turnpike roads, including the major ones from Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
to Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
and Bradford to Halifax.
Industrial Revolution
After the discovery of good quality coal in the north of the valley industry spread quickly.In 1804 the Reverend Hammond Roberson, annoyed that the administration of Liversedge was disorganised, promoted a system of reform - the select vestry - which quickly spread to Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. In 1810, after his wife's death, Roberson turned his attention to church building in the area. In 1818 Parliament voted a million pounds for the building of new churches in the country and Roberson was able to secure funding to build Cleckheaton church.
Spen Valley
By the mid 19th century the Spen Valley entered its golden era. In 1800 children were paid starvation wages for putting staples into leather for carding wool, but by 1838 there were eleven carding factories in Cleckheaton and by 1893 the town was recognised as the carding capital of the world.The mill owners built turnpike roads between the villages to enable their employees to get to work and lobbied to get railways built to get their products to reach customers. After a great deal of wrangling with the various railway companies in the 1840s railways were finally built which enabled the textile mills, ironworks, chemical factories and collieries to compete with those around the country. More than this, the railways brought together the people of the individual villages of the valley and quickly the villages grew until they merged together.
20th century
Around the turn of the century, many huge and expensive buildings were erected and became symbols for the area's wealth; massive chapels and a new Grammar School were built in Cleckheaton, and to mark the new urban district and the fact that it was the centre of it, Cleckheaton built a town hall in 1892, paid for by public subscription.In 1903 Lion Confectionery began making "Midget Gems" in Cleckheaton, and 1904 saw the opening of the Phelon & Moore
Phelon & Moore
Phelon & Moore manufactured motorcycles in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, England from 1904 to 1967 particularly those under the Panther marque. They became identified with one particular design of motorcycle which had a large sloping 40-degree single-cylinder engine as a stressed front frame member...
motorcycle factory in the town, soon followed by a car factory. BBA (formerly British Belting & Asbestos), the large asbestos, friction material, and conveyor belting firm, built its headquarters at Moorend where they manufactured automotive disc brake pads under the Mintex banner. A tourist industry developed to serve visitors to the area made famous by Charlotte Brontë's "Shirley" and by the Luddite attacks. The Mowatt family paid for Cleckheaton Library and also the reference library at Cleckheaton's grammar (later secondary) school, Whitcliffe Mount which bears their name.
From the 1920s, however, Spenborough's fortunes began to decline. Pits began to close and trade waned. Slowly, central government took on responsibilities previously held by Spenborough
Spenborough
Spenborough was, from 1915 to 1974, a local government district in the administrative county of Yorkshire, West Riding.Spenborough was created as an urban district in 1915 by the merger of Cleckheaton, Gomersal and Liversedge urban districts...
such as water supply, gas production, public health and education. By this time the level of industry was in serious decline as the textile mills, foundries and other factories slowly closed.
In the 1960s and 1970s many new houses were built in Cleckheaton, as the town attracted commuters to Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
. Ashtons
Ashtons
Ashtons were a leading British house builder.-History:The Company was founded by Norman Ashton. The Company constructed many homes in the North of England during the 1960s and 1970s. Ashtons were one of several pioneers of the british three bed semi, a style of house used frequently from the...
built many houses around Cleckheaton and neighbouring Mirfield
Mirfield
Mirfield is a small town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury...
.
Cleckheaton station
In 1972 a singular case was heard at Wakefield Crown Court. A DewsburyDewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...
man was accused of, as counsel for the prosecution put it, effectively stealing Cleckheaton railway station. The station had closed to passenger traffic in 1965 and to freight four years later. British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
had contracted for the clearing of the site, part of the deal being that the contractors would sell and retain the proceeds from disposal of the materials and scrap. On arrival, they discovered that the station and most of the material were already gone. It transpired that the man had been contracted by another firm to clear the site, had been advanced a sum for hire of plant, and had spent three weeks clearing the site. Subsequent efforts to trace the second firm failed, and the court found the man not guilty, deciding that he had been duped and left significantly out of pocket.
Local government
Cleckheaton is an unparished areaUnparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...
and ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees. The ward elects three of the borough council's sixty-nine councillors. As of 2007 all three councillors were members of the Liberal Democrats. Under the borough council's decentralisation
Décentralisation
Décentralisation is a french word for both a policy concept in French politics from 1968-1990, and a term employed to describe the results of observations of the evolution of spatial economic and institutional organization of France....
scheme, Cleckheaton's councillors are grouped with those of the neighbouring wards of Heckmondwike
Heckmondwike
Heckmondwike is a small town in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, which is located geographically at the centre of West Yorkshire, England, south west of Leeds. Close to Cleckheaton and Liversedge, it is part of Cleckheckmondsedge, a name invented by J.B. Priestley to represent a West Riding...
and Liversedge
Liversedge
Liversedge is a township in the former parish of Birstall, in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Liversedge lies between Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike about southwest of Leeds.-Settlements within Liversedge:...
& Gomersal
Gomersal
Gomersal is a village in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is south of Bradford, east of Cleckheaton, and north of Heckmondwike and close to the River Spen....
to form the Spen Valley Area Committee.
Civic history
Cleckheaton adopted the Local Government Act 1858 in 1864 and a local boardLocal board of health
Local Boards or Local Boards of Health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate slaughterhouses and ensure the proper supply of water to their...
was formed to govern the area. In 1885 Cleckheaton and the three neighbouring townships of Gomersal, Heckmondwike and Liversedge were grouped to form the Parliamentary constituency of Spen Valley
Spen Valley (UK Parliament constituency)
Spen Valley was a parliamentary constituency in the valley of the River Spen in West Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:...
. The Local Government Act 1894
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
reconstituted the area of the local board as Cleckheaton Urban District. There were at this time attempts to involve all the local authorities in the valley in joint projects such as installation of sewers and water. In 1915, the three urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
s of Cleckheaton, Liversedge and Gomersal were amalgamated to form Spenborough Urban District
Spenborough
Spenborough was, from 1915 to 1974, a local government district in the administrative county of Yorkshire, West Riding.Spenborough was created as an urban district in 1915 by the merger of Cleckheaton, Gomersal and Liversedge urban districts...
. In 1937 a county review order
Local Government Act 1929
The Local Government Act 1929 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales....
enlarged the urban district to include Birkenshaw, Hunsworth and Hartshead.
Spenborough (which now included all of the Spen Valley save Heckmondwike) was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
on 23 May 1955. The borough continued to use the coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
which bore the motto "Industry Enriches" which it had been granted in 1949.
On April 1, 1974 the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
reorganised administration throughout England and Wales. The borough of Spenborough was abolished, and its area combined with that of ten other local authorities to form the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, one of five metropolitan borough
Metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...
s of West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
.
Parliamentary representation
For elections to the UK parliament, Cleckheaton ward forms part of Batley and Spen borough constituency. The constituency was created in 1983 and was represented by a ConservativeConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
from 1983 to 1997. Since that date the constituency has been held by Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP Mike Wood.
Parliamentary history
From 1885 to 1950 the town formed part of the Spen ValleySpen Valley (UK Parliament constituency)
Spen Valley was a parliamentary constituency in the valley of the River Spen in West Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:...
county constituency. The seat was held at various times by the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, National Liberal
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)
The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968...
and Labour parties.
From 1950 to 1983 Cleckheaton was included in the borough constituency of Brighouse and Spenborough
Brighouse and Spenborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Brighouse and Spenborough was a parliamentary constituency in the West Riding of Yorkshire, comprising the areas of the two municipal boroughs of Brighouse and Spenborough...
. It was a marginal seat, changing hands between the Conservative and Labour parties on six occasions.
Geography
Oakenshaw
Oakenshaw, West Yorkshire
Oakenshaw is a village near Cleckheaton in the City of Bradford and Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England.It is situated to the south of Bradford, close to the M606 motorway and junction 26 of the M62....
, East Bierley, Hunsworth, Birkenshaw
Birkenshaw, West Yorkshire
Birkenshaw is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It lies at the crossroads between the A58 Leeds to Halifax road and the A651 Bradford to Heckmondwike road....
, Drub, Gomersal
Gomersal
Gomersal is a village in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is south of Bradford, east of Cleckheaton, and north of Heckmondwike and close to the River Spen....
, Little Gomersal, Littletown, Millsbridge, Liversedge
Liversedge
Liversedge is a township in the former parish of Birstall, in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Liversedge lies between Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike about southwest of Leeds.-Settlements within Liversedge:...
, Roberttown, Hartshead, Clifton, Hightown
Hightown, West Yorkshire
Hightown is a hamlet within Liversedge, West Yorkshire, England, with a diverse socioeconomic culture. To the north, neighbouring the border with Calderdale, is Windybank council estate...
and Scholes.
The town itself is made up of areas such as Moorend, Whitechapel, Whitcliffe, Moorbottom, Moorside, the Marsh and Rawfolds.
Sports
Cleckheaton's rugby union team play in the North Division 1 and are a constituent part of Cleckheaton Sports Club and play at their grounds in Moorend, where they also have "one of the best bowling greens in West Yorkshire", often holding local league games and such competitions as the John Smith's Classic.Liversedge F.C.
Liversedge F.C.
Liversedge F.C. are a football club based in Cleckheaton, England, on the border with Hightown in Liversedge and members of the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division for the 2011–12 season....
are the town's highest football club in the football league pyramid, playing in the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division for the 06-07 season. They play at Clayborn, 1 km from Cleckheaton town centre. They have an associated junior club Gomersal and Cleckheaton F.C.
There are many Sunday League football teams around Cleckheaton and cricket is also big locally, with Cleckheaton (also part of Cleckheaton Sports Club) Scholes, Gomersal, Spen Victoria, Hartshead Moor, East Bierley and Liversedge all within the Spen Valley.
Notable people
- John Bentley, the first man to play both Rugby Union and Rugby League for England, is from Cleckheaton; he played for Cleckheaton RUFC (part of Cleckheaton Sports Club) and is their Director of Rugby
- Danny CadamarteriDanny CadamarteriDaniel Leon "Danny" Cadamarteri is an English footballer who plays for Huddersfield Town in Football League One. Cadamarteri has played for a number of teams in England, in the Premier League, the Football League as well as a short period in non-League football, before joining Dundee United.Early...
, Huddersfield Town F.C.Huddersfield Town F.C.Huddersfield Town Football Club is an English football club formed in 1908 and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. They currently play in League One...
footballer, was born in Cleckheaton in 1979. - Andrew GaleAndrew GaleAndrew William Gale is an English first-class cricketer, who plays for and captains Yorkshire County Cricket Club...
, Captain of Yorkshire Cricket Club was educated at Whitcliffe Mount School and played for Cleckheaton CC (part of Cleckheaton Sports Club) - Roger HargreavesRoger HargreavesCharles Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of children's books, notably the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers...
, author of the Mr Men and Little MissLittle Miss"Little Miss" is the title of a song written by Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, of the country music duo Sugarland. The song was released in November 2010 as the second single from their fourth studio album, The Incredible Machine. Before the albums release, the song charted on the Billboard...
es series of books, was born in Cleckheaton in 1935.