Spen Valley Magazine Spen Valley Magazine (draft) | Page 17

Buildings
in Cleckheaton
Cleckheaton Town Hall
For centuries, until the industrial revolution, Spen Valley’s
homes were scattered farmhouses (like Egypt Farm
Gomersal, Lower Blacup Farm Cleckheaton, or Stubley
Farm Heckmondwike), and clusters of cottages. Wealthy
clothiers built more elaborate houses of local stone, with
frontages of several gables topped by ornamental stone
finials. Many of these were in Liversedge, then the most
important township, where we can still see Haigh Hall,
Liversedge Hall, Lowfold Hall and Duxbury Hall.
Heckmondwike had Old Hall (now a pub) and Gomersal
had Pollard Hall. The Taylor family’s Red House in Gomersal
(1660, Grade II* Listed) was unusual for being made of
red brick.
Cleckheaton Library
When the industrial revolution reached Spen Valley at
the start of the 1800’s, there was a building boom. Mills
became large factories with chimneys, as coal created
steam to power machinery. Rows and rows of terraces
were erected to house workers. Many were back-to-back,
eg. Brighton Street Heckmondwike or Quarry Street
Cleckheaton. Town centres grew, with shops, chapels
and Sunday Schools, banks and offices. Heckmondwike
and Cleckheaton had public baths until Spenborough
Pool opened in 1969. Clinics (Elm Bank, the Ellison Clinic
and The Hollies) and isolation hospitals (eg. North Bierley
1892 by Cleckheaton Golf Clubhouse) were necessary.
Spen’s fine Grade II Listed Town Hall in Cleckheaton was
paid for by public donations and opened in 1892. By the
end of the 19th Century the rural green Spen Valley had
become a smoky mass of cobbled streets, buildings and
chimneys.
The 20th Century saw cinemas come and go: Cleckheaton
had the New Picture House and the Savoy; Heckmondwike
had the Palace and the Pavilion. Our first library was
Heckmondwike’s (1909) funded by the Carnegie Trust,
followed by Cleckheaton’s (1930), which was purpose-built
and a gift to the townspeople from the wealthy Mowat family.
From the 1950’s onwards we lost most of the large mills.
Three that remain have been converted into housing:
Balme & Prospect Mills, Cleckheaton and Brunswick Mill
Heckmondwike. The 1950s saw demolition of many old
houses that had no indoor sanitation: people moved into
houses with bathrooms and gardens on estates like
Windybank and Dale Lane.