Almondbury | |
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Almondbury, showing Wormald's Hall (centre) |
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Almondbury shown within West Yorkshire | |
Population | 18,346 (Ward. 2011) |
OS grid reference | SE 16701 15345 |
• London | 160 mi (260 km) SE |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Huddersfield |
Postcode district | HD5 8 |
Police | West Yorkshire |
Fire | West Yorkshire |
Ambulance | Yorkshire |
EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
UK Parliament | |
Almondbury is a village 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east of Huddersfield town centre in West Yorkshire, England. The population of Almondbury in 2001 was 7,368 increasing to 18,346 at the 2011 Census.
Almondbury appears in the Domesday Book as "Almondeberie". After the Norman Conquest, the land around the village was held by the powerful De Lacy family, who gave their name to De Lacy Avenue.
For 300 years until the 17th century, the village's Monday Market was the most important in the area. Almondbury was the hub of parish activity and in its early history was a more important centre than the town of Huddersfield. The villages of Linthwaite, Lockwood, Honley, Holmfirth and Meltham were all part of the Almondbury parish area.
The village is close to Castle Hill, Huddersfield's most prominent landmark. Almondbury has several notable buildings including the 16th-century Wormald's Hall, now the village Conservative club, and the Grade I listed All Hallows Church.
In 1547 the people of Almondbury were faced with the possible dissolution of its Chantry Chapel. By "concent of the parishe", Arthur Kay of Woodsome and his son John "dyd shifte yt" stone by stone, along St Helen's Gate, to be reconstructed as a school house. A royal charter, formally called the Letters Patent, was granted by James I on 24 November 1608 and the school became a grammar school. The school has had various names (Almondbury Grammar School, King James's Grammar School) and today is called King James's School.
The Harry Taylor Trust was established in 1987 in memory of Harry Taylor, former headmaster of King James's Grammar School (1952-1973), to benefit pupils at the school and young people in the village of Almondbury.