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53-917: Gomersal is a town in the Kirklees district, in West Yorkshire , England. It is south of Bradford , south west of Leeds. east of Cleckheaton and north of Heckmondwike . It is close to the River Spen and forms part of the Heavy Woollen District . Gomersal was attested in the Doomes Day Book (1086) with the name Gomershale. * Guthmers Halh , is a supposed place-name, not attested in any written document, hence marked with asterisk in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names . The location

106-470: A "parish line", which divided northern from southern counties of England and Wales. In Denbighshire , Shropshire , Staffordshire , Derbyshire , the West Riding and North Riding of Yorkshire , and north of this line, parishes tended on the whole to be large, containing several townships. However, south of this line, parishes tended to contain single townships. A township appointed overseers of

159-473: A central position to all the other surrounding unitary boroughs of West Yorkshire, with people living in the northern parts commuting to Leeds and York for work and education. People living in the western parts commute to Bradford , Halifax and Huddersfield for education and work. People living in the southern and eastern parts commute to Wakefield , Barnsley , Sheffield and Manchester for work and education. The largest towns and principal districts in

212-538: A general redistribution of seats in 1983. Accordingly, Kirklees was divided between seven constituencies, which had first been used in the 1950 general election . (Defected to the Social Democratic Party in 1981 when he seemed unlikely to be reselected as Labour candidate for the next election.) 53°35′35″N 1°48′04″W  /  53.593°N 1.801°W  / 53.593; -1.801 Township (England) The township

265-406: A lion guardant purpure resting the inner hind leg on a cross crosslet Or embellished in each of the four angles with a fleur de lis azure. Badge or device : A roundel purpure charged with a Lacy Knot Or all within a circle of eleven roses argent barbed and seeded proper. The green colouring of the shield represents the fields, woods and moorland of the borough. The white stripe or bend represents

318-514: A number of traffic-free cycle paths called Greenways in partnership with Sustrans . Tourism in Kirklees is based around the area's countryside and industrial heritage: Kirklees Council closed Dewsbury Museum and Red House Museum at the end of 2016, claiming it could not afford to continue running them following cuts to its budget . Tourist information in Kirklees can be obtained from major libraries. Huddersfield Town play football in

371-578: A population of 422,500 in 2011; it is the third-largest metropolitan district in England by area , behind Doncaster and Leeds . The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 as part of a reform of local government in England . Eleven former local government districts were merged : the county boroughs of Huddersfield and Dewsbury , the municipal boroughs of Batley and Spenborough and

424-475: A water spring which, according to myth, is a tunnel (now flooded) leading to the Old Saw public house cellar nearby. The cellar was apparently used to hide priests fleeing persecution. Clay pipes were found in the earlier Old Saw premises in the walls and chimneys but, once exhumed, disintegrated. A glazed drinking cup found in the foundations survives after being carefully reassembled and preserved by Harry King,

477-508: Is composed of 69 councillors, three for each of the borough's 23 wards . Elections are held three years out of four, on the first Thursday of May. One third of the councillors are elected, for a four-year term, in each election. The council is currently led by a Labour executive. The shadow Kirklees District Council petitioned the privy council for a royal charter under section 245 of the Local Government Act 1972 granting

530-543: Is distinguished from the following: 'Township' is, however, sometimes used loosely for any of the above. In many areas of England, the basic unit of civil administration was the parish , generally identical with the ecclesiastical parish . However, in some cases, particularly in Northern England , there was a lesser unit called a township, being a subdivision of a parish. This could happen for several reasons: The local historian Dorothy Silvester has identified

583-546: Is the most populated borough or district in England not to have city status . In 2001 it was announced that a grant of city status was to be made to an English town to mark the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II , and Kirklees council indicated that it was considering applying on behalf of Huddersfield. An unofficial telephone poll by the Huddersfield Examiner found a slim majority against the proposal, and

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636-582: The Championship . Kirkless is served by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire broadcasting from the Emley Moor transmitter which is situated near the village of Emley , in Huddersfield . Local radio stations are: Local newspapers are Huddersfield Daily Examiner , Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Post . Kirklees Council is the local authority of the district. The council

689-560: The EFL Championship as of the 2022–23 season. They were the first English club to win three successive league titles. There are also 3 semi professional football teams within Kirklees, Liversedge , Emley and Golcar United . The birthplace of rugby league was at the George Hotel, Huddersfield ; local clubs include Super League side Huddersfield Giants , alongside Batley Bulldogs and Dewsbury Rams who both play in

742-483: The LNWR railway line diversion loop linking Leeds and Manchester and improving the main line capacity between Huddersfield and Leeds. The line was constructed between 1894 and 1902 and opened fully to passengers in 1904. It had some spectacular civil engineering for the time, including rail viaducts at Mirfield and Heckmondwike , a 90-foot-high (27 m) pedestrian road viaduct linking Cleckheaton town centre with

795-508: The M62 motorway , while the blue wave upon it is for the many waterways of the area. On the chief or upper third of the shield is a paschal lamb , symbol of St John the Baptist . John was the patron saint of woolworkers, and the inclusion of the emblem represents the historic woollen industry. The cogwheels are for the modern engineering industries. The crest is a ram's head, found in the arms of

848-684: The Penistone line have local Northern Trains services. Some towns in Kirklees have not been served by rail transport since the Beeching cuts . Dewsbury and Batley are served by the Calder Valley Line and the TransPennine Express lines. These serve an important urban area around Leeds and Kirklees with services to further away stations including Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Lime Street . Most bus services in

901-432: The blazon of the arms is as follows: Vert on a bend Argent a bendlet wavy azure on a chief Or a pale between two cog-wheels azure on the pale a Paschal Lamb supporting a staff of the fourth flying therefrom a forked pennon argent charged with a cross gules; and for a Crest , On a wreath of the colours a ram's head affronty couped argent armed Or gorged with a mural crown sable masoned argent. Supporters : On either side

954-411: The status of a borough from 1 April 1974. The grant of borough status entitled the chairman of the council to the title of " mayor ", effectively continuing the mayoralties of the former boroughs of Dewsbury (1862), Huddersfield (1898), Batley (1869) and Spenborough (1955). The mayor is elected from among the councillors for a one-year term (the "civic year") at the council's annual meeting. Kirklees

1007-478: The urban districts of Colne Valley , Denby Dale , Heckmondwike , Holmfirth , Kirkburton , Meltham and Mirfield . The name Kirklees was chosen by the merging councils from more than fifty suggestions, including Upper Agbrigg , Brigantia and Wooldale . It was named after Kirklees Priory , which is claimed to be site of Robin Hood's death , situated midway between Huddersfield and Dewsbury. The priory

1060-451: The "pork pie chapel". Gomersal also has some interesting street and place names, for example Mazy Brook (Mazebrook), Drub, Birdacre, Bleak Street, Wood Nook, Throstle Nest, Egypt, Worlds End, Fusden Lane, Monk Ings, Nutter Lane, Muffit Lane, Garfit Hill, Nibshaw Lane to name a few. Gomersal also has a football club, Gomersal & Cleckheaton F.C. , ranging from ages 6 to 17 and their traditional colours are red and black stripes. Gomersal

1113-434: The 01422 (Halifax) and 0113 (Leeds) codes respectively. Public transport information is provided by Metro , as is the case across West Yorkshire. Kirklees lies along the core Huddersfield line of the TransPennine Express network, with services calling at Huddersfield and Dewsbury . Direct Grand Central services to London King's Cross call at Mirfield . Other railway stations in the district on these routes and on

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1166-530: The 1960s on the same site a nuclear-blast-proof underground bunker was constructed as a monitoring post, one of over 1,500 constructed in the UK, for use in measuring direction, strength of blast and fallout in the event of the UK coming under nuclear attack. The ROC stood down during the late 1980s with the reduced threat of the Cold War and the bunkers were abandoned and sold or given back to the land owners. Gomersal

1219-497: The Cliffe lane area of Gomersal is known for the sighting of the scratje (pronounced Skrayty), a legendary Norse spirit supposedly observed by a son before the death of his father and characterised by a cold and apparently sourceless light which moves erratically. The old name for Cliffe Lane was Scrat Lane. Gomersal was heavily wooded up to the late 19th century with Swinley Great Wood, Lanes Wood, Scotland (Fusden) Wood containing

1272-652: The Coach House), High Rising (High Royd, another Taylor Household) now The Gomersal Hotel, Tanfield House, Firdene (currently on the market for £1.25 million), Hilltop House (now split into two homes with apartment buildings in the grounds), Gomers Hall (apparently, originally Gothmers Hall, which was demolished to build an electricity sub-station), Pollard Hall (home of the mill owner Thomas Burnley), Red House (now Red House Museum), Broadyards, Croft House, Sigston House, Gomersal Hall, Peel House, West House (the last three still privately owned). The Roundhill Mill site in

1325-559: The County Borough of Huddersfield and the Mirfield Urban District Council. The black mural crown stands for the district's status as a borough, recalling a city wall. The supporters are purple lions from the arms of the de Laci family, medieval lords of Huddersfield. For heraldic "difference" from other lion supporters a distinctive cross has been placed below their inner feet. This device, combining

1378-576: The Huddersfield area are operated by Team Pennine and First West Yorkshire , and most bus services in the Heavy Woollen area are operated by Arriva Yorkshire . The urban areas of Kirklees are served by the M62 and M1 motorways. Parts of the local road network are considered to require improvement, such as the main route from Huddersfield to the southbound M1 which narrows as it passes through Flockton . Kirklees Council has developed

1431-572: The Labour vote increased slightly, and they gained Dewsbury from the Conservatives. At the same time the Alliance vote fell, and the Conservatives took Colne Valley. The four MPs elected in 1992 were all returned in 1997. Kirkburton, Mirfield and Thornhill. Parliamentary constituencies in England and Wales continued to be defined in terms of the boroughs and districts abolished in 1974 until

1484-993: The Methodist Free United Chapel (off Reform Street), the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Moor Lane, the Moravian Chapel in Little Gomersal and Little Gomersal Methodist Chapel on Town Hill. Most are still in use. John Wesley preached in Gomersal. One of his closest lay assistants John Nelson was involved with lay preacher Edward Brooke who initiated the construction the Wesleyan Chapel in Latham Lane in 1827. Its unusual bow front led to it being known as

1537-672: The Taylor family burial ground, and Church Wood between the Hill Top and Monk Ings. During the Second World War, Gomersal had a number of public air raid shelters, with quite a few remaining in 2007 at Birkenshaw roundabout Park, Gomersal First School, Hill Top. This was likely due to the semi-underground control bunker for the anti-aircraft guns in the West Riding, protecting Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and Halifax. The bunker

1590-588: The area in 1812 provided Charlotte Brontë with material for her novel Shirley . Gomersal was the hometown of her friend Mary Taylor who lived at the Red House which she renamed Briarmains in the novel. The Taylor Family also lived in Spen Hall, a residence in the Lower Spen area of Gomersal. Spen Hall has been divided into several houses but retains a 16th-century mullioned window, a tennis lawn and

1643-509: The borough are Huddersfield , Dewsbury , Batley , Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton . The principal settlements of Kirklees are mill towns in the Colne Valley , Holme Valley , Calder Valley and Spen Valley . Those areas of the district with a more urban character bound Calderdale to the west, Bradford to the north-west, Leeds to the north-east and Wakefield to the east. The district also includes several rural villages, with

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1696-593: The buildings and structures repainted and new track in 1963. In 1952, Sir Winston Churchill , then Prime Minister, slept at Cleckheaton Spen sidings overnight in a special train with a heavy security cordon during election campaigning. Gomersal has a number of places of worship given the size of population, including Gomersal St Mary C of E Church (1851), the Methodist Wesleyan Chapel, Latham Lane 1827, Grove Congregational Chapel in Oxford Road,

1749-464: The council did not proceed with the application. Borough status also allows the council to confer the freedom of the borough on "persons of distinction". Since its formation Kirklees Council has granted this right to two individuals and two groups: Kirklees is twinned with: Kirklees Borough Council was granted armorial bearings by the College of Arms by letters patent dated 24 June 1974.

1802-531: The districts of Halfway, Mosborough village, Waterthorpe, and Westfield, is one of the 28 electoral wards in the City of Sheffield. It is located in the eastern part of the city and is one of the wards that make up the Sheffield Attercliffe parliamentary constituency . The area is often referred to as Mosborough Townships, but this usage does not have any administrative significance. In Shropshire,

1855-529: The former constituency receiving Heckmondwike ward from Batley and Spen. The constituencies were first used at the 1997 general election , when the Labour Party came to power in a landslide , gaining all the seats in the borough. The party held the seats at the subsequent elections of 2001 and 2005 . The incumbent MP for Batley and Spen , Jo Cox , was murdered on 16 June 2016. A constituency by-election took place on 20 October 2016 and Tracy Brabin

1908-447: The former owner of the cottage. The cup still requires dating. A hand-made brick-lined pit two feet (60 cm) deep was also discovered on the site. Its uses are disputed, with suggestions that it was a cockfighting pit or meat storage vessel. Gomersal also has many fine and historic houses which climb the hill of Spen Lane and along Oxford Road towards Birkenshaw . Houses such as Spen Hall, Spen House (now demolished and rebuilt, except

1961-557: The largest rural area extending from the south of Huddersfield. The Pennine countryside to the south-west of Meltham and Holme lies within the Peak District National Park. This moorland area mostly bounds Saddleworth , a traditional part of Yorkshire but now locally governed from Oldham , Greater Manchester . There is also a relatively short border with the High Peak district of Derbyshire , running across

2014-424: The poor and surveyors of highways in the same way as a parish and they financed their obligations by levying a rate, in the same way as parish officials. The original definition of a civil parish was any place in respect of which a rate could lawfully be levied. Most townships disappeared before 1866 either being included into adjacent civil parishes or gaining their own separate civil parish status. The use of

2067-529: The south have HD postcodes, Birkenshaw , Cleckheaton and Gomersal have BD postcodes, and the rest of the Heavy Woollen area has WF postcodes. Similarly the district is split between several telephone dialling codes, with most residents in the 01484 (Huddersfield), 01274 (Bradford) and 01924 (Wakefield) codes. A small number of residents in Birchencliffe and Birkenshaw villages fall within

2120-557: The station and goods yard. The Gomersal Tunnel is 890 yards (810 m) long and around 30 feet (9 m) deep, directly under the Shoulder of Mutton pub in Oxford Road at Great Gomersal (the LNWR bought the pub in 1897 in case it fell into the tunnel workings) and then the line opened into Gomersal Station in Moor Lane, a four-minute train ride from Cleckheaton Spen. The railway closed to passengers in 1964 and goods in 1966, having had all

2173-415: The summit of Black Hill , and the main border to the south of Kirklees is with Barnsley . The inclusion of two county boroughs resulted in a district without an obvious centre. Over the years there have been suggestions of splitting the district into two, administered from Huddersfield and Dewsbury. Graham Riddick , as MP for Colne Valley , campaigned for a split in the early 1990s. A similar ambition

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2226-525: The symbols of Christ and the Virgin Mary, represents the priory from which the borough took its name. In five areas of the borough there is a second tier of local government: the civil parish . Parish or town councils have limited powers of a purely local character, such as owning or maintaining allotments, burial grounds, footpaths and war memorials. Four of the parishes were formed as successor parishes to urban districts abolished in 1974. The fifth

2279-497: The term 'township' persisted and has recently been revived as a name for subdivisions of boroughs in northern England. For example, the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale has township committees , and the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan divides the borough into ten townships, which each have a township forum. Wirral is divided into forty-four, for planning purposes. In Sheffield, Mosborough ward, which includes

2332-434: The village. Gomersal was the filming location for a number of scenes in the long-running period drama Heartbeat . Kirklees Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire , England. The borough comprises the ten towns of Batley , Birstall , Cleckheaton , Dewsbury , Heckmondwike , Holmfirth , Huddersfield , Meltham , Mirfield and Slaithwaite . It is governed by Kirklees Council . Kirklees had

2385-620: Was at a bend in the brook which passes through the valley bottom before joining with the River Calder . This land became an Anglo-Saxon burial ground and most likely was the location of a Celtic temple site before the Roman Conquest. It became the site of the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, now known as St Peters. The brook formed the ancient boundary between Gomersal and Birstall . The Luddite riots, that occurred in

2438-547: Was elected. A further by-election will be held in the constituency on 1 July 2021, after Brabin's resignation, following her election as Mayor of West Yorkshire . 2010–present: Batley East, Batley West, Birstall and Birkenshaw, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Gomersal. 2010–present: Denby Dale, Dewsbury East, Dewsbury South, Dewsbury West, Kirkburton, Mirfield. 2010–present: Horbury and South Ossett, Ossett, Wakefield East, Wakefield North, Wakefield Rural, Wakefield West. The 1983 general election

2491-675: Was formed in 1988. The five town or parish councils are: The remainder of the borough is unparished , with the borough council exercising parish powers. Since 1997 Kirklees has been divided into five constituencies: four being entirely within the borough, while one ward (Wakefield) is included in the Wakefield Council borough. The boundaries of two of the Colne Valley and Huddersfield constituencies were virtually unchanged from those defined in 1983. Denby Dale and Kirkburton wards were transferred from Dewsbury to Wakefield, with

2544-408: Was formerly a township and chapelry in the parish of Birstall, in 1866 Gomersal became a separate civil parish , in 1894 Gomersal became an urban district , on 1 April 1915 the district was abolished to form Spenborough Urban District. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished. In 1951 the parish had a population of 7951. The Lower Spen area of Gomersal had a railway station, Cleckheaton Spen on

2597-676: Was in the grounds of Oakroyd Hall, making this a target for the German Luftwaffe; Oakroyd Hall is now the headquarters of the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. There was also a Royal Observer Corps "Orlit" type surface observation post on the Popeley Fields around 1 ⁄ 3 mile (500 metres) from the Gomersal Cricket ground. This was active throughout the war and manned day and night. In

2650-635: Was located within the present-day Kirklees Park estate, most of which actually lies in the neighbouring borough of Calderdale . Under the original draft of the Act, the district would have included Ossett , part of the Dewsbury Parliamentary constituency at that time. It was eventually decided that Ossett was too remote to be governed from Huddersfield and the town was included within the Wakefield district instead. Kirklees sits in quite

2703-477: Was mentioned by Elizabeth Peacock , MP for Batley and Spen in 1991. The boundaries of metropolitan boroughs were outside the remit of the Banham Commission appointed to review local government structures in 1992 or its successors, and only minor boundary changes were made with neighbouring districts in 1994. The district includes parts of three postcode areas. Huddersfield and the rural areas to

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2756-484: Was once home to Burnleys Textile Mill, which was a landmark in the Spenborough area. However, this has been demolished to make way for a new housing development of up to 300 homes. Gomersal has two primary schools; Gomersal Primary School and St Mary's First School. The composer Arnold Cooke was born in Gomersal in 1906. Gomersal is the birthplace of novelist John Barlow , who has set several works of fiction in

2809-525: Was the first at which constituencies based on the administrative areas created in 1974 were used. Kirklees was divided into four constituencies. The Conservative Party polled well in the 1983 election, and took two of the borough's constituencies. Labour held Huddersfield, while the Liberals, running in an alliance with the Social Democrats , held Colne Valley. In the following election in 1987

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