[1] Following significant population growth, largely associated with the yarn spinning and cloth manufacturing industries,[2] Horbury became an urban district in 1894.

[3] In this context the new civic leaders decided to procure a town hall: the site they selected, on the north-east side of Westfield Road, was occupied by a private house rented by a builder, William Thickett.

On the first floor, there was a mullioned and transomed window and, at roof level, there was an entablature and segmental pediment containing a coat of arms in the tympanum.

[6] A brass plaque was erected in the town hall to commemorate the lives of local people who had died in the Second Boer War.

[6] A stained glass window was also installed in memory of a former lord of the manor, Sir Gervase Clifton, who, in 1653, had transferred a tract of common land into a trust for the benefit of the people of the town: located to the north-west of the town hall, it was landscaped in 1904 and initially became known as Sparrow Park and later as the Horbury Memorial Park.