In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Holmfirth like this:
HOLMFIRTH, a town, a parochial chapelry, and a sub-district, in Huddersfield district, W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands at the confluence of the rivers Holme and Rippleden, and at the terminus of a branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, 6 miles S of Huddersfield; and comprises part of Upper thong township in Almondbury parish, and parts of Cartworth and Wooldale townships in Kirk-Burton parish. ...
It occupies romantic ground, partly in two deep valleys, partly on the acclivities of three great hills; is irregnlarly built, with little regard to street arrangement; and presents, at first sight, an extraordinary appearance; yet contains many genteel private residences, some good shops, and several good public buildings. It has a postoffice, ‡ under Huddersfield, a railway station, with tele.graph, a banking office, three chief inns, a townhall, a lock up, two churches, several dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institution, a national school, and five almshouses; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; has cattle fairs on the last Saturday of March and the Saturday after 27 Oct.; and carries on extensive woollen manufacture in many large mills. The townhall was built in 1842, at a cost of upwards of £3, 000; and is a spacious edifice. Holy Trinity church belongs to Holmfirth chapelry; is an ancient structure, of several dates and architectural characters; and has two aisles, a chancel, and an embattled tower. St. John's church belongs to Upper thong chapelry. The five alms houses were erected in result of liberality toward the sufferers by the bursting of the Bilberry reservoir, noticed in our article on Holme-Bridge. Pop. of the town, in 1861, 2, 466. Houses, 499. Pop. of the Upper thong portion, 1, 281; of the Wooldale portion, 850.—The chapelry is all in Kirk-Burton parish, - in the townships of Cartworth, Wooldale, and Hepworth; and was constituted in 1858. Pop. in 1861, 5, 447. Houses, 1, 124. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £300.* Patron, the Vicar of Kirk-Burton.—The sub-district containts the townships of Upper thong, Anstonley, and Holme, and parts of Cartworth and Wooldale. Pop., 10, 845. Houses, 2, 171.
Holmfirth through time
Holmfirth is now part of Kirklees district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kirklees has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Holmfirth itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Holmfirth, in Kirklees and West Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/525
Date accessed: 18th April 2024
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