Rastrick is a village in the 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 ...

, England, between Halifax, 5 miles (8 km) north-west and

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 ...

, 4 miles (7 km) south. The population of the Calderdale Civil Ward at the 2011 census was 11,351. It is perhaps best known for its association, along with its neighbour

Brighouse Brighouse (, locally also ) is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, West Y ...

, 1 mile (2 km) north-east, with the

Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band is a British brass band formed in 1881. The band is based in Brighouse, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The band is known across the world, and is regarded by many as the best and most consistent " ...

. Along with

, it is part of

Calderdale Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the ...

, but shares a

postcode A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

and

phone number A telephone number is the address of a telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a sequence of digits, but histor ...

. Historically part of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, the village is on an incline facing north-east, the Parish Church, is vertically in the middle. The area around the Parish Church is known as "Top o' t'Town" and the area around the Junction public house is known as "Bottom o' t'Town", this reflects the days when Rastrick had its own governance in the form of a Town Board whose Offices and lock-up were situated halfway between the two, on Ogden Lane. Remains of a fort have been found at Castle Hill, just below Top o' Town.

History

The name Rastrick is thought to be Viking in origin, with the "..ick" formation being common to many Norwegian Viking placenames, including "Jorvick", the Viking name for York. Rastrick is well known for its pubs and the "Rastrick Run" is a popular pub crawl. Rastrick, and the variation Raistrick are English surnames, originating from the area of the town.

Governance

Rastrick is a village and a

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

, a

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distr ...

within the

ceremonial county Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...

in England. Rastrick was recorded on 1 July 1837 as part of the Halifax Registration District. Rastrick was formerly a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of Halifax, in 1866 Rastrick became a separate

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, on 1 April 1915 the parish was abolished and merged with Brighouse. In 1911 the parish had a population of 8786. On 1 April 1938

borough was transferred to the neighbouring registration district of 'Calder' and in 1974 it was abolished as part of the creation of Calderdale. Rastrick became a ward of Calderdale, with boundaries similar to those of the original parish.

Geography

The ward of Rastrick is bordered to the north by the River Calder, which separates it from the ward of Brighouse. To the east and south the border with the

Kirklees Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. The borough comprises the ten towns of Batley, Birstall, West Yorkshire, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite. It ...

ward of Ashbrow roughly follows the

M62 motorway The M62 is a west–east Pennines, trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Kingston upon Hull, Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route Concurrency (road), is shared with the M60 motorway, ...

. The traditional north western boundary between

Elland Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland was recorded as ''Elant'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. It ha ...

and Rastrick was the edge of the escarpment, but the Elland Ward boundary is further east, encompassing parts of the old parish of Rastrick as far as Dewsbury Road and the crossroads with New Hey Road. The village is neighboured by the towns of

to the north and

to the west. The village of

Fixby Fixby is a suburb in north-west Kirklees bordering neighbouring Calderdale and is traditionally part of Huddersfield in the county of West Yorkshire, England. The area is now sought after suburban location of Huddersfield for homeowners. The vi ...

is to the south east and

Ainley Top Ainley Top is a village in Calderdale, West Yorkshire in England. It is situated approximately north west of Huddersfield on the A629 to Elland and Halifax. It is situated on a hill (the Ainleys) with the M62 motorway to the north, and junc ...

is to the south west.

Community facilities

Rastrick has its own library which can be found on Crowtrees Lane and a doctors surgery at Rastrick Health Centre which is on Chapel Croft. A second doctors surgery is situated at the junction of Castle Avenue and Field Top Road.

Landmarks

The highest point in the village is Round Hill which is adjacent to the grounds of Rastrick Cricket Club. This appears to be man made but is thought to be of natural origin. The Clough House Inn, on Clough Lane, is easily seen from the nearby M62. It was originally the White Lion Inn which was built in 1824, and is named as such on the 1835 and 1850 maps.

Transport

The local railway station is named Brighouse but is in fact in Rastrick. An extensive bus service is provided by several operators, including First West Yorkshire, Team Pennine and South Pennine Community Transport, under the guidance of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (brand name Metro).

Education

Rastrick has several primary schools, including Carr Green Junior, Infant and Nursery School, Field Lane Primary School, Longroyde Primary School, and Woodhouse Primary School. Rastrick High School is the secondary school for the area. Highbury School is a specialist school on Lower Edge Road, and The William Henry Smith School is a non-maintained residential school located on Boothroyd Lane.

Rastrick Independent School The Rastrick Independent School was a private school in Rastrick in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located ...

was a

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

located in the village that closed in 2019.

Religious sites

There are two

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

churches in the village. St Matthew's Church, which is used jointly by the Anglicans and the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

s and is situated on Church Street. Across the road from this Church is Rastrick Parish Centre, the church hall for St Matthew's Church. The Church of St John the Divine is located off Gooder Lane close to Brighouse railway station and was designed by Nicholson and Corlette in 1913. Both St Matthew's and St John's share the same

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, ...

vicar. The non-denominational New Road Family Church is located on New Hey Road and operated as a church from 1837 until 2021. It began as a

Sunday school ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...

, and continued to accommodate a school until 1912. In 1872 a Hope UK, Band of Hope Society was formed, and operated intermittently until the 1980s. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the church housed a

British Restaurant British Restaurants were communal kitchens created in 1940 during the Second World War to help people who had been bombed out of their homes, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help. In 1943, 2,160 British Restaurants served 600,0 ...

. Declining congregations in the 21st century, saw the church close in 2021. A book entitle
The History of New Road Sunday School
was written in 2012 by local historian Andrew Eccles and covers the entire history from 1837-2012. Upper Edge

Baptist Church Baptists are a denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers ( believer's baptism) and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of ...

is located on Dewsbury Road. The church traces its history to "Rossendale Church", which consisted of many Independent congregations located across the

Rossendale Valley The Rossendale Valley is in the Rossendale area of Lancashire, England, between the West Pennine Moors and the main range of the Pennines. The area includes the steep-sided valleys of the River Irwell and its tributaries (between Rawtenstall an ...

. Individual congregations became separate churches by about 1720. In 1837 a non-sectarian

Sunday School ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...

was founded at Elland Edge, and the first school was built in 1841. The Upper Edge Church as founded on 19 October 1863.

Sport

The cricket club in Rastrick, Rastrick Cricket Club, is found next to Round Hill, the highest point in Rastrick. Round Hill is a popular playing area for children in the area. A second cricket club, Badger Hill Cricket Club, formerly New Road Cricket Club, played on the field off New Hey Road. Rastrick Bowling Club is situated at the bottom of Toothill Bank which has many local bowling teams and entertainment nights, and is also a good venue for parties. Rastrick Constitutional Club (also known as Top Club) has been situated on Church Street since 1886 and is known for its snooker teams.

Notable people

Rastrick was the birthplace of religious writer

Margaret Barber Margaret Fairless Barber (pseudonym, Michael Fairless; 7 May 1869 – 24 August 1901), was an English Christian writer. Her book of meditations, ''The Roadmender'' (1902), became a popular classic. Life Barber was born in Rastrick, Brighouse, We ...

who wrote under the pseudonym Michael Fairless, and of the eccentric inventor

Wilf Lunn Wilfred Makepeace Lunn (20 March 1942 – 13 December 2023) was a British inventor, prop maker and television presenter. He is best known for his regular appearances on the 1960s and 1970s children's television show ''Vision On''. Early life a ...

. Acclaimed

travel writer The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered ...

, photographer, and adventure motorcyclist

Christopher Paul Baker Christopher P. Baker (born 15 June 1955) is a professional travel writer and photographer, adventure motorcyclist, tour leader, and Cuba expert, and the 2008 Lowell Thomas Award 'Travel Journalist of the Year.' He is a contributor to magazines ...

attended

Rastrick Grammar School Rastrick is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England, between Halifax, 5 miles (8 km) north-west and Huddersfield, 4 miles (7 km) south. The population of the Calderdale Civil Ward at the 2011 census was 11,351. It is perh ...

(1966–73). 1997 winner of the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

, John Ernest Walker (born 1941), also attended Rastrick Grammar School (1952–59).

References

The history of Brighouse, Rastrick, and Hipperholme; with manorial notes on Coley, Lightcliffe, Northowram, Shelf, Fixby, Clifton and Kirklees (1893)
Turner, J. Horsfall (Joseph Horsfall)

External links

Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band
{{authority control Villages in West Yorkshire Former civil parishes in West Yorkshire Wards of Calderdale Geography of Calderdale