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- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Almondbury is 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Huddersfield town centre. Since 1974 it has been located in the Kirklees District of the administrative county of West Yorkshire, England. The population of Almondbury in 2001 was 7,368, increasing to 18,346 at the 2011 Census.
Almondbury appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Almondeberie". After the Norman Conquest, the land around the village was held by the powerful De Lacy family, who gave their name to De Lacy Avenue in Almondbury.
For 300 years until the 17th century, the village's "Monday Market" was the most important in the area. Almondbury was the hub of parish activity and in its early history was a more important centre than the town of Huddersfield. The townships and chapelries of Linthwaite, Lockwood, Honley, Holmfirth, Meltham and Rashcliffewere all part of the Almondbury ancient parish area.
GENUKI provides a description of the ancient and ecclesiastical parish of Almondbury from a gazetteer from the 1820s.
The village is close to Castle Hill, Huddersfield's most prominent landmark. Almondbury has several notable buildings including the 16th-century Wormald's Hall and the Grade I listed All Hallows Church.
Almondbury was a civil parish within Huddersfield Municipal Borough and County Borough from 1868 until 1924 when the civil parish was abolished and Almondbury became completely part of Huddersfield County Borough.
The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portmouth Department of Geography).
- "ALMONDBURY, a town, a township, a [registration] subdistrict, and a parish in the district of Huddersfield, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The town stands near the Colne river and the Sheffield railway, 2 miles SE of Huddersfield. It has a post office under Huddersfield, and a fair on Easter-Monday. ... The township includes also the hamlets of Coldhill, Fennybridge, Castlehillside, Oaks, Newsome, and Thorpe. Acres: 2,585. Real property: £22,943. Population: 10,361. Houses: 2,225.
- "The subdistrict comprises the townships of Almondbury and Farnley-Tyas. Acres: 4,208. Population: 11,063. Houses: 2,376. The parish, in addition to this subdistrict, comprises the [registration] subdistricts of Lockwood, Meltham, and Honley, and part of the subdistricts of Slaithwaite and Holmfirth. Acres: 28,092. Rated property, exclusive of the chapelries of Nether-Thong, Armitage-Bridge, and Holme: £175,443. Population in 1841: 37,315; in 1861: 42,889. Houses: 8,884.
- "The property in many parts is much subdivided. A large proportion of the inhabitants are employed in cotton and woollen factories. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value: £571. Patron: Sir J. W. Ramsden, Bart. The church is in the perpendicular English style. The chapelries of Honley, Meltham, Marsden, Linthwaite, Lockwood, Crossland, Nether-Thong, Upper-Thong, Holme-Bridge, Farnley-Tyas, Meltham-Mills, Milns-Bridge, Armitage-Bridge, Rashcliff, Wilshaw, and Holme, are all within the parish; and there are various chapels for Independents, Baptists, and Methodists. A free grammar school was founded in the time of James I., and has £75 a year from endowment; and other charities have £348.
Research Tips
- British History Online (Victoria County Histories) do not cover the West Riding of Yorkshire
- GENUKI has a page on all three ridings of Yorkshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes in the county. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. The list is based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and there may have been a number of alterations to the parish setup since then. However, it is worthwhile information for the pre civil registration era. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and the submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
- The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851 which gives the registration district and wapentake for each parish, together with statistics from the 1851 census for the area.
- A Vision of Britain through Time, Yorkshire West Riding, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72.
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- The above three maps indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
- Yorkshire has a large number of family history and genealogical societies. A list of the societies will be found on the Yorkshire, England page.
- In March 2018 Ancestry announced that its file entitled "Yorkshire, England: Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1873" has been expanded to include another 94 parishes (across the three ridings) and expected it to be expanded further during the year. The entries are taken from previously printed parish registers.
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