The following is the annual Huddersfield: Official Handbook for 1968, which was issued by authority of the Huddersfield County Borough Council.

The book is reproduced with the permission of Kirklees Council.

A Message from the Mayor

I am glad to have this opportunity of contributing a foreword to this Centenary Edition of the Huddersfield Official Handbook, and giving a brief introduction to the town which you will find described in the following pages.

The Centenary which we celebrate in 1968 is that of the Borough, which was incorporated on July 7, 1868, but the town has a much longer history than one hundred years. It is true to say, however, that the Industrial Revolution brought the town to the prominence and pre-eminence it now enjoys. It gave a tremendous impetus to the development of the trades and crafts which had long been practised in this district, and it called for the new skills and created new industries to keep pace with the advances of the age of the machine.

The workers in the industries of the town have a skill which has been inherent through many generations, and the products of this town are synonymous with quality. The vigour and adaptability of mill owners and management have advanced the trade of the town to the extent that products bearing the legend “Made in Huddersfield” go round the world and are universally accepted as being of the highest quality.

I extend my cordial greetings and those of the citizens of Huddersfield to the many visitors from other parts of the country, and from other parts of the world, who may come to Huddersfield during the Centenary Year not only to see our products, but also to see how we live and enjoy ourselves — how, for instance, we enjoy music and music-making for which the town is also famous. I am sure that visitors will find the town a much more pleasant place than their imagination of an industrial town in Northern England might have painted for them.

To all who may see this Handbook, but have not the opportunity to visit the town, I extend the same greetings, and hope that from these pages they will form an agreeable impression of Huddersfield, and also find information which will be helpful to them concerning any aspects of the industrial, commercial, cultural and social activities within the County Borough.

J. SYKES
Mayor of Huddersfield.