Huddersfield made history a hundred years ago when its Corporation agreed to buy the 4300-plus acres of the Ramsden estate — which made up nearly half the land within the Borough boundary and the whole of the town centre — for £1.3 million. The deal was struck via locally-born entrepreneur Sam Copley and finalised a year later, on 29 September 1920.
And later this month a partnership of the Council and voluntary groups plan to mark the centenary of the purchase with a series of events and a brand new website..
Central to the celebrations is a mobile exhibition on the Ramsden story in Unit 3 on the Piazza (opposite the Library), which will be open on Saturday 26, Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 September, from 11am – 4pm.
Also available there will be a new 250-page book, Power in the Land: the Ramsdens in Huddersfield, 1542-1920, published by Huddersfield University Press in association with Huddersfield Local History Society.
The book’s editor, Professor Edward Royle, was scheduled to speak to HLHS about the centenary on Monday 28 September and it’s intended that this will go ahead virtually – details will be given on the HLHS website, www.huddersfieldhistory.org.uk
Work by Kirklees Museums & Galleries on the Ramsden theme is in hand, and the Ramsden story will also feature in the Council’s Heritage Action Zone plans for St George’s Square and its key buildings.
For the story of the purchase, and future updates, keep an eye on the ‘Town that bought itself’ website, https://huddersfield2020.org.
