A circular walk from Huddersfield Station visiting the Gas Works and Hillhouse Coal Yard.
Distance 2.2 miles
At the time of writing a former gas works in Huddersfield was scheduled for demolition. At the recent Heritage Open Days a day of guided tours around the site were offered as a last chance to see the works. Unfortunately I was at work and missed the tours but I noticed from the details given that they would follow the perimeter of the site as much of the works site is fenced off ready for the demolition to start, this being areas accessible to the public I had a do-it-yourself visit using old maps.
The gas works was a half mile walk from Huddersfield station on Gas Works Street. More information about the works can be found on the Huddersfield Local History Society website.
Though the works dates back to 1821 it was begun on the west side of the canal where the Farmfoods supermarket now stands, receiving coal from the canal. The works expanded in all directions and much of what remains dates from around the time of the First World War. From 1919 the expanded works received coal by rail via a short branchline running along the streets from Newtown goods yard.
Below - The building on the right is shown on a plan of an 1890s rebuild of the site as containing a Sulphate Plant and Mechanics Shop. In more recent years it has been the Gas Club bar and social club. The land on the left is shown on the same plan as a Coal Store, this was the space between the works and the canal where the coal would be landed. When the railway link was built it crossed over the canal on a girder bridge and over the coal stores on a concrete flyover. The railway tracks in the middle of the shot carried on across the road to connect earlier parts of the site which have since been demolished.
Below - The last standing gas holder at the former works, there were previously more gas holders across the other side of Gas Works Street on the earlier part of the works that has been demolished. The point of the run round loop on the works railway can be seen.
Below - The track on the left is the former branchline from Newtown goods yard. It crossed over the coal store on a concrete flyover before crossing the canal on a girder bridge.
Below - The building on the left isn't shown as rail connected on the map but satellite images show it has two tracks in to it. It is not currently accessible. It looks as if it might have been the engine shed for the works railway.
Below - This building is actually of a mill alongside the works that seems to have existed before the works was expanded up to it. Older maps show it as Canal Bridge Mills (Woollen)
Below - Looking across to the part of the site south of Gas Works Street. Beyond the gate and pipe bridge the site is completely levelled.
Below - The former Sulphate Plant and Mechanics Shop.
Below - At the east end of the site was a power station, the site of this is now occupied by car dealerships along St Andrew's Road.
Below - The building I think would have been the loco shed seen from the Grove Road side. I had a bit of a long walk round as Grove Road is not now accessible from St Andrew's Road.
Below - The view from Leeds Road. The building on the left was part of the Canal Bridge Mill.
Below - The car parking is on what was the coal store.
Below - In this shot the concrete flyover for the rail link would have been above where I was standing and this area would have been covered with the coal store for the works.
Below - I took a short walk on the canal where it served the works prior to the railway link being built. The gas works began south of Gas Works Street and west of the canal so the location of the photo north of the road and east of the canal had seen other uses prior to the expansion of the gas works. In earlier maps Perseverance Mills (Dye Ware) are shown here, so these buildings may have been part of that mill. The doorway would have provided access to the gas works coal store from the canal.
Below - It's not very clear on the photo but this is where the railway crossed the canal. It could be seen where the abutment for the girder bridge over the canal had been.
Below - The concrete abutment for the girder bridge on the west side of the bridge.
Below - The railway to Newtown goods yard ran down the middle of Beaumont Street. The Great Northern Retail Park as been built across the street and only a short truncated section of Beaumont Street remains. The scars in the road are probably where the rails have been removed, or maybe they are still in the tarmac there somewhere.
Below - The gas works railway ran under the arch on the left.
Below - The arch on the left is where the line from the gas works emerged in to Newtown goods yard, retail units including the Halfords seen in the photo now occupy the site of the railway goods yard. The Newtown goods yard was run by the Midland Railway with everything around it being London & North Western Railway. It was served by a branch line from Mirfield which is now a foot and cycle path, a highlight of this is the Bradley Viaduct.
I didn't walk the Midland goods line on this occasion, I have done it before, instead I visited another interesting sight in the area. The Huddersfield tram network had a short freight branch to Hillhouse Goods Yard and carried coal to local businesses. It had been intended to retain some steam trams for the work when the tram system was converted to electric power but two electric powered coal trams were built for the work. The coal trams could carry 10 tons of coal and were demonstrated on 2nd September 1904. A couple of mills on the Outlane route were amongst the customers for the service. The coal trams hauled around 12000 tons of coal a year.
The branch left the tram route at the junction of Bradford Road and Whitestone Lane and ran along Whitestone Lane up to the goods yard. The coal drops survive and the tramway track at the foot of the coal drops is still in situ. I walked there along Bradford Road and Whitestone Lane following the route that the coal trams had taken.
Below - The tramway branch crossed Alder Street and in to the goods yard through the gate on the left.
On the right the fence at the edge of the top of the coal drops can be seen, though the site is quite overgrown.
Below - The tramway track to the foot of the coal drops seen through the gateway.
Below - The gateway at the south of the coal yard through which carts and later lorries would have entered the yard.
From here I walked back to Huddersfield station.
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