Castle Hill, Huddersfield

Castle Hill is a scheduled ancient monument in Almondbury overlooking Huddersfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England.

[3] The hill has been a place of recreation for hundreds of years and the easily discernible remains of past occupation have made it a subject for legend, speculation and scientific study.

The hill owes its shape to an outlying cap of hard Grenoside sandstone that has protected the softer stone beneath from erosion.

The first people to visit Castle Hill were probably hunters and gatherers of the Mesolithic age, camping amongst the forests which at that time covered the land.

In the Neolithic and Bronze Age, there appears to have been widespread travel or trade along the river valleys connecting the Yorkshire Wolds, the Peak District and the Mersey and Ribble estuaries.

[5][6] The banks and ditches that remain are more likely to be the result of recutting and other alterations carried out during the Middle Ages, and modified by centuries of erosion.

During the great weavers’ strike of 1883 a rally of between two and three thousand people braved bitter weather to listen to speeches by union leaders.

The Thandi Partnership bought the public house on land leased from Kirklees Borough Council and applied for planning permission to renovate it.

[8][9] An anti-aircraft battery was built near the south-east end of the hill and a range finder is located at the north side of the outer bailey, the remains of which may be seen, and pieces of high-explosive shell casings are occasionally picked up in the adjacent fields.

Designed by Isaac Jones of London, it was built by the firm of Ben Graham and Sons of Folly Hall, using stone from Crosland Hill.