Place:Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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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. It lies by the River Calder and an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation.

Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, after undergoing a period of major growth in the 19th century as a mill town, Dewsbury went through a period of decline. More recently there has been redevelopment of derelict mills into flats, and regenerating of run-down areas.

According to the 2001 census the Dewsbury urban sub-area had a population of 54,341. Dewsbury is the largest town in the Heavy Woollen District, a conurbation of small mill towns.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Toponymy

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the name as Deusberia and Deusberie. It is believed to mean "fortified place by a stream", from Old English deaw "dew" (stream) and burg "fort". Other suggestions include the Burg of David, from the old pre-Norman-Conquest British Gaelic for David, being Deu, similar to the Welsh form, Dai. There are other theories on the name's origins such as a Mercian name, after the founder of a fortified settlement, named Dui, Dew or Deus--"beria" meaning fort or stronghold. # "God's Hill", from the old British word "Duw", meaning God (cf Latin "Deus"), and "burg", meaning a hill [1] [2] or "Tiw's Burh", derived from the Germanic god Tyr from the same Indo-European origin.

Early history

In Saxon times, Dewsbury was a centre of considerable importance. The ecclesiastical parish of Dewsbury encompassed Huddersfield, Mirfield and Bradford. Ancient legend records that in 627 Paulinus, the first Bishop of York, preached here on the banks of the River Calder. Numerous Saxon graves have been found in Dewsbury and Thornhill.

Dewsbury Minster lies near the River Calder, traditionally on the site where Paulinus preached. Parts of the church date to the 13th century. The tower houses "Black Tom", a bell which is rung each Christmas Eve, one toll for each year since Christ's birth, known as the "Devil's Knell", a tradition dating from the 15th century. The bell was given by Sir Thomas de Soothill, in penance for murdering a servant boy in a fit of rage. The tradition was commemorated on a Royal Mail postage stamp in 1986. [3]

Dewsbury market was established in the 14th century for local clothiers. Occurrences of the plague in 1593 and 1603 closed the market and it reopened in 1741.

Throughout the Middle Ages Dewsbury retained a measure of importance in ecclesiastical terms, collecting tithes from as far away as Halifax in the mid-14th century. John Wesley visited the area five times in the mid-18th century, and the first Methodist Society was established in 1746. Centenary Chapel on Daisy Hill commemorates the centenary of this event, and the Methodist tradition remained strong in the town. [4]

Industrial Revolution

In 1770, a short branch of the Calder and Hebble Navigation was completed, linking Dewsbury to the canal system giving access to Manchester and Hull. By the time of the Industrial Revolution, Dewsbury was a centre for the shoddy and mungo industries which recycled woollen items by mixing them with new wool and making heavy blankets and uniforms. The town benefited economically from the canal, its location at the heart of the Heavy Woollen District, and its proximity to coal mines. The railway arrived in 1848 when Dewsbury Wellington Road railway station on the London and North Western Railway opened; this is the only station which remains open. Other stations were Dewsbury Central on the Great Northern Railway which closed in 1964 and Dewsbury Market Place on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway which closed in 1930; a fourth goods-only station was built in the early 20th century at Savile Town by the Midland Railway. In 1985 a bypass road was built on the site of Central Station and its adjacent viaduct, and nothing remains of Market Place Station. The 19th century saw a great increase in population, rising from 4,566 in 1801 to around 30,000 by 1890.

The town’s rapid expansion and commitment to industrialisation resulted in social instability. In the early 19th century, Dewsbury was a centre of Luddite opposition to mechanisation in which workers retaliated against the mill owners who installed textile machinery and smashed the machines which threatened their way of life. In the 1830s, Dewsbury was a centre of Chartist agitation. In August 1838, after a speech by Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor, a mob of between five and seven thousand people besieged the Dewsbury Poor Law Guardians in the town’s Royal Hotel. The mob was dispersed by troops. Trouble flared in 1840 when radical agitators seized control of the town, and troops were stationed to maintain order. This radical tradition left a legacy in the town's political life, its first elected MP in 1867 was John Simon, a Jewish lawyer from Jamaica and a Liberal.The tradition of firing the "Ten O Clock" gun was a hangover from the Luddite problems. Presumably it was fired to reassure that all was well. (or it may have been the other way round) Except for a period during war time,it could be heard all over the area. It was resumed after the second world war but later discontinued. The mills were family businesses and continued manufacturing after the wool crisis in 1950–51, which saw Australian sheep farmers begin to charge higher prices. However, the recovery of the late 1960s was reversed by the 1973 oil crisis, and the textile industry in Dewsbury declined, with only bed manufacturing remaining a large scale employer.

Recent history

Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, was questioned at Dewsbury Police Station after his arrest in January 1981.

After 2005 Dewsbury was labelled a troubled town after negative press reports and became "the town that dare not speak its name" after high profile crimes brought it into the media spotlight. In June, a girl of 12 was charged with grievous bodily harm after attempting to hang a five year old boy from Chickenley. Mohammad Sidique Khan, ringleader of the group responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings lived in Lees Holm. On 19 February 2008, Shannon Matthews, aged nine, disappeared in Dewsbury Moor. She was found hidden in Batley Carr on 14 March 2008.

Kirklees Council compulsory purchased Pioneer House, a listed building formerly owned by the Co-operative Society. It had been purchased by a property developer and was in a dangerous condition, the building is being re-developed.

In October 2010 the Dewsbury Revival Centre opened, in the refurbished former St Mark's Church on Halifax Road, the church attended by the Titanic bandmaster, Wallace Hartley.

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