Longwood is a village and suburb of the town of

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

in the English county of

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

. It is situated some west of Huddersfield town centre, in the valley of the Longwood Brook, a tributary of the River Colne. The village is the home of the Longwood Sing, an annual event, where

choirs A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

from around the area gather to sing

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

and songs. Near the amphitheatre, where the sing takes place, the

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

Nab End Tower can be found. The tower was built in 1861 by unemployed local woollen

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * Factory * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Paper mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * Sugarcane mill * Textile mill * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic ...

workers. In 2008 it was restored by Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council at a cost of £200,000. There are also three reservoirs that supply Huddersfield. They were built around 1840, although strengthening work in the 1930s makes them appear newer. One now covered and the lower reservoir looking more like a natural lake that is called a compensation reservoir - 'Compensation' as it was set up to compensate the mill owner for water lost from natural sources that now went to the main reservoirs to be distributed by the water corporation under 'rates' systems - although the mill owner was most likely the owner of the main reservoir too. During the 1840s, Longwood was the home to the Hanson family of Ballroyd. Mary Hanson set up a carrying business to supplement her husband's income from farming and soon the Hanson wagons were seen taking the Great North Road to London. James Hanson, founder and former chairman of

Hanson plc Heidelberg Materials UK is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Previously known as Hanson UK, the company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly lis ...

, is a direct descendant of the Ballroyd family. When he was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

, he took the title ''Baron Hanson of Edgerton'' after the nearby suburb of Edgerton. Longwood was built up around the woollen industry and its mills, most of which have now been demolished and replaced by housing. As a result of this the village has recently seen an influx of new inhabitants. In 2005, a campaign was mounted to save the Longwood allotment plots (situated behind the

Mechanics' Institute Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult edu ...

) from being developed into housing. Longwood Church is dedicated to

St. Mark Mark the Evangelist ( Koinē Greek: Μᾶρκος, romanized: ''Mârkos''), also known as John Mark ( Koinē Greek: Ἰωάννης Μᾶρκος, romanized: ''Iōánnēs Mârkos;'' Aramaic'': ܝܘܚܢܢ, romanized: Yōḥannān'') or Saint Mark ...

, and is in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Huddersfield, being a

perpetual curacy Perpetual curate was a class of resident Parish (Church of England)#Parish priest, parish priest or Incumbent (ecclesiastical), incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England an ...

. Longwood is also home to the 27th Longwood Scout Group. The name Longwood derives from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''Lang wudu'', meaning "The Long Wood".

References

{{reflist
Areas of Huddersfield Colne Valley

See also

References