Birstall is a market and mill town in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England.

[3] Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and part of the Heavy Woollen District, Birstall is approximately 6 miles (10 km) south-west of Leeds and situated close to the M62 motorway.

The hill fort itself would have been situated high above the town, to one side of the present-day Raikes Lane, which heads towards Gildersome, and onto Leeds.

This location would give Birstall a great geographical advantage, making it within easy reach of the main thoroughfares of ancient Yorkshire.

[citation needed] A Roman tiled mosaic was unearthed at Birstall Smithies, a former early industrial slag smelting site, during excavations in 1965.

[citation needed] A quarter of a mile up the hill from Birstall on Leeds Road, there was once a Roman watch tower.

Of this period is the cobbled marketplace with a statue of Priestley, which was erected in 1912 by public subscription and sculpted by Frances Darlington.

Birstall contains a triangular-shaped Victorian marketplace, which replaced an earlier market on High Street in the Georgian area of the village.

The Chamber of Trade organise the annual Christmas lights with a big switch on event on the last Tuesday in November.

Close to Birstall is Oakwell Hall, an Elizabethan manor house romanticised by Charlotte Brontë as 'Fieldhead' in her novel Shirley.