Hebble Beck, Huddersfield

GEOGRAPHIC STUB
This page is a bare-bones entry for a location which appears on an historic Ordnance Survey map. More detailed information may eventually be added...

Details

  • appears on maps: 1890 [#1080]
  • location: between Great Northern Street & the Sir John Ramsden Canal, Huddersfield
  • status: still exists
  • category: misc feature
  • notes: stream, also named Clough House Mill Beck, flowing into the Sir John Ramsden Canal

Discovering Old Huddersfield

Extract from Discovering Old Huddersfield (1993-2002) by Gordon & Enid Minter:

After the railway, Hillhouse Lane runs very close to the Hebble Beck which we first encountered as the Grimescar Dike at Birkby. The stream flows along an open culvert at the far side of a piece of rough ground on the right hand side of the road. Here, in its lower reaches , it takes its name from the Hebble Bridge in Bradford Road but it seems likely that this is the water course called the Town Brook which is well documented in the history of Huddersfield.

The Town Brook plays an important part in confirming the antiquity of this part of the route. On Oldfield's estate map of 1716 the brook is shown running parallel with and very close to a road which can only be the present day Hillhouse Lane and as this was then the only north - south road in the area it must surely have been the way taken by Ogilby in 1675.

If a parking space can be found, stop in Hillhouse Lane to take a short walk over the bridge and down the steps to the canal bank. Just a few metres from the steps look for a gap in the buildings on the opposite bank through which it is possible to see the Town Brook as it enters the culvert which takes it underneath the canal. It is interesting that, despite being culverted for much of its length and despite the enormous changes that have taken place in the intervening years, the stream and the important junction of Hillhouse Lane and Leeds Road still lie as close together as they did when Oldfield drew his map nearly three hundred years ago.

Location