Contents
We hope that you will find our website informative and welcome your comments to help us to develop it further.
The website is essentially divided into a number of sections, in broad terms these are Talks, Old Liversedge, The Great War, Rail History, Days Out, Internet Links, Towton and our all important Help Required webpage.
Talks - Our current series of talks can be viewed here together with links to previous speakers. You'll see that we have two Memorial Lectures, you can find out about who we are remembering by browsing the In Memory page.
Old Liversedge - You'll find a wealth of knowledge in this section together with two hand drawn maps. You are able to download this information. The information covers Title Deeds, Land Tax information, an 1803 Survey, and action required following a Cholera outbreak in late 1840s.
The Great War - The Spen Valley lost in the region of 1000 men in WW1 and these are remembered on a number of war memorials, the two main ones being in Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike. Obituaries for the men and one woman named on the Cleckheaton Memorial have been written by Charlie Turpin of the British Legion. Obituaries for the 157 men named on the Heckmondwike Memorial are available to view on our website.
Rail History - We have two, now disused, railway lines that traverse the valley, the first being the Lancashire & Yorkshire and the second being the London & North Western. We nearly had a third, the Midland, that reached as far as Dewsbury and was planned to reach Bradford (Forster Square) by means of a 5000 yard tunnel. The Great War halted construction and after 1918 the business case did not "stack up" otherwise we could have been on a third mainline between London and Scotland that would have used the Settle-Carlisle line. John Thornhill in the 1986 edition of the Bradford Antiquary published details of several proposals for a Bradford Through Line. The proposals from 1894 onwards describe the line that would have passed through the Spen Valley. You can read his account here. A description of the Royston to Thornhill section of the line can be viewed here.
Days Out - We have a number suggestions that you may want to explore.
Internet Links - In this section who'll find links to local history groups and photographic archives.
Towton - This section provides links to information about the momentus battle that took place at Towton in 1461.
Help Required - We have had a number of requests for help and if we are unable to provide the required information we will place the request on the website.