HCS Members’ Update April 2026
Welcome to our short April newsletter which covers:
- The ‘new’ HCS committee
- Our summer events
- A note about local news website the Huddersfield Hub
A full HCS newsletter will follow in late April covering the wide range of issues on which HCS is active as well as reviewing our March events. There will be special coverage reflecting the concerns many feel about the recent Kirklees Council decision to approve longstanding and controversial plans for a café/restaurant/hotel complex on the summit of Castle Hill, a greenbelt site inside a hillfort that is a scheduled ancient monument and forms an important part of the setting of the (listed) Victoria Tower.
The ‘new’ HCS committee.
Members of the committee standing for re-election were duly re-elected at the HCS AGM on Wednesday, March 25. Amanda Boothroyd stood down from the committee but will continue as an active member of the society and even promised to return when she is able to devote more time to involvement in the committee. Amanda’s colleagues wish her well and look forward to her return!
We welcome Adrian Pitts as a trustee and also welcome back to the committee a former Chair, Chris Marsden, who will help HCS benefit from his extensive local knowledge, experience and enthusiasm.
A fuller report of the AGM and the talk on the WYCA that followed will appear in the next newsletter.
HCS Summer visits 2026
HCS evening visit to Pensitone, May 2025 – Photo: Geoff Hughes.
Sunday, May 10 – Rochdale Town Hall visit
Sorry, now fully booked.
Tuesday, July 7 – Arts and Crafts houses walk 7pm to 9pm
Join HCS in the company of local historian David Griffiths, author of the recent book Huddersfield’s Arts & Crafts Houses: From Edgar Wood to the 1930s, for a Civic Society guided summer evening walk around our town’s richest area of such housing in the Lindley and upper Birkby district.
Meet at 7pm at Briarcourt, 28 Occupation Road (approximately 200 metres from Lindley Clock Tower), assembling in the front garden. There are pubs but no public toilets near the start. The walk will cover a range of pavements, paths and several road crossings. There is planned to be at least one pleasant surprise en route.
Finish around 9pm having returned up Daisy Lea Lane towards the recreation ground and Lindley Clock Tower.
Travel: by bus – 501 and other services, alighting at Lindley Clock Tower; by car – please drive to Lindley Clock Tower, turn into the upper section of Daisy Lea Lane and park near the recreation ground, allowing 5 to 10 minutes to walk back via the Clock Tower to Briarcourt.
We have 20 places available for a tour on a first-come, first-served basis. The walk is free for HCS members; £5 for non-members.
To book your place, please email Geoff Hughes
Save the date (1): HCS Visit to Portland Works, Sheffield 2.30pm to 4.30pm, Tuesday June 30
We are finalising a visit here to include a talk, walk and meeting some of the specialist trades operating in recently restored Portland Works, referred to as the birthplace of stainless steel cutlery manufacturing. It was built in Sheffield in 1879 and is now one of the last remaining working examples of a purpose-built metal trades factory. Following a half-century of neglect, the building was purchased in 2013 by a social enterprise comprising of more than 500 community shareholders who, having saved it from residential conversion, are now undertaking an extensive renovation.
The grade 2* listed building has been reborn as a centre for small manufacturing, independent artists and craftspeople, with many small businesses now based within the 2,600 square metre floor space. These include knife makers, an engraver and several engineers; cabinetmakers and joiners; jewellers and silver platers; artists; rug and guitar makers; photographers, a Yorkshire based gin distillery and even a high-tech CNC manufacturing site.
Full visit details will follow in the next newsletter.
Save the date (2): HCS Visit to Thornton village and Bronte Birthplace, Friday, August 14
In May 2025, Her Majesty Queen Camilla officially opened the Bronte Birthplace, Thornton, west of Bradford, where Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë were all born.
We will have a guided visit to the Bronte Brithplace itself and then around the village, to see and learn about the district’s rich history, including its associations with the Bronte family.
Again, full details to follow.
Discover Huddersfield’s summer 2026 programme
Discover Huddersfield – an organisation on which HCS is represented by David Wyles – has just announced its 2026 summer programme with 14 walks between April and October ranging from Kirkburton and Castle Hill to Lindley and Marsden – for details please see https://discoverhuddersfield.uk/walks/
A talk by Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society
Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society has a talk which may be of interest to HCS members – £5 admission for non-members – titled “Ancient Routeways in the Pennines – A Study of the Visual and Documentary Evidence in the Outlane Area” in Heritage Quay, Huddersfield University at 7.30pm on Friday, April 10, 2026. This will cover findings both old and new about routes through the area around Outlane and Wholestone Moor.
Heritage Open Days September 2026
As in previous years, HCS will be actively involved in Heritage Open Days which take place from Friday, September to Sunday, September 20. Details to follow in future HCS newsletters.
Thank you in anticipation …
Many thanks to the 82% of members who have now paid their 2026 subscriptions. Our Membership Officer, Howard Smith, would be delighted if those who have not yet managed to do so could please renew their membership by following this link to our website at your earliest convenience. If you are unsure whether you have paid or not, please drop a line to "> and we will happily check for you.
And finally …
A personal plea by HCS website editor Andy Hirst for HCS members to support Huddersfield Hub
As you may be aware I’m the HCS website editor but I’m also a journalist who writes for positive news website Huddersfield Hub (I worked on the Huddersfield Examiner from 1987 to 2018).
If you’ve not seen the Hub please give it a look at https://huddersfieldhub.co.uk as it covers news, features, what’s on, sport, community and charity stories. The Hub has written many stories about Huddersfield Civic Society, often highlighting issues to the wider public that have caused HCS concern.
The Hub’s editor is well-respected Yorkshire journalist Martin Shaw and between us we have a combined local journalistic experience of 75 years! Former Examiner columnist Denis Kilcommons also now writes for Huddersfield Hub every Sunday.
Huddersfield Hub publishes stories seven days a week and its website will always be free to access. There will be no paywalls, no hidden content and certainly none of those horrible pop-up adverts that make many news sites impossible to read.
HCS members have Huddersfield at heart like Martin and me so I’m asking if members would consider becoming Huddersfield Hub patrons for just £4.99 a month. To put it into context, the Huddersfield Examiner costs £17.80 a week or £71.20 a month.
It would really help Martin and me to survive and thrive. Patrons receive a fortnightly e-mail newsletter with a behind-the-scenes insight from Martin, an exclusive first-read story and reader offers you won’t find anywhere else.
Journalism done properly is worth investing in so please help the Hub do that for less than a fiver a month. Click here for more info https://bit.ly/48450tB
Many thanks for reading this,
Andy Hirst
We’d love to know what our members think about our activities, the newsletter, our events … and in particular your views on what is happening to your town … good and bad.
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Newsletter content prepared by Huddersfield Civic Society Committee Members.
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