Almondbury Local Board
Almondbury Local Board was the local authority body primarily responsible for issues relating to public health in the township of Almondbury and was formed on 30 October 1862 with an initial membership of 12.
The Almondbury Local Board District included the remaining area of the township that was not already part of the Moldgreen Local Board District (formed 1859) or the Newsome Local Board (formed August 1862).
Typically elected by local rate payers and property owners, Local Boards were formed following the Public Health Act 1848 and the subsequent Local Government Act 1858, and had responsibility for the oversight of sewers, water supplies, public toilets, street cleaning, slaughterhouses, pavements, and burial grounds within their district.
The following were reportedly the first members of the local board:[1]
- George Arlom
- John Beaumont
- Walter Cliffe
- Edward Dyson (general practitioner) of North Gate
- Roger Houghton (woollen manufacturer) of North Gate
- James Parkin (farmer) of Castle Houses
- Law Parkin (woollen manufacturer) of Lumb
- William Pontey (nursery man & gardener) of Quarry Hill
- Luke Sykes (farmer) of Lower Houses
- Samuel Sykes (farmer) of Lower Houses
- John Edward Taylor (woollen manufacturer) of South Parade, Almondbury Common
- Joshua Joseph Henry Taylor (cloth manufacturer) of Croft House
One of the final acts of the local board was to order 150 yards of iron pipes to help distribute a new water supply which had been located by well sinkers Messrs. Job Dodson and George Sykes at the top of the town. The pair had found "no fewer than eight springs or jets of pure water" at a depth of 18 feet that provided an aggregate yield of about 8 gallons per minutes, which was "considered sufficient to supply the whole of that portion of the township".[2]
The Almondbury Local Board District was abolished on 7 September 1868 when the township became part of the combined Almondbury & Newsome Ward within the new Municipal Borough of Huddersfield.
Almondbury Local Board District
The extent of the local board district (taken from the early 1890s O.S. maps) is given below. The district is shaded in green and the entirety of township of Almondbury is shown in red.