29/10/25 Parks of Huddersfield

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Huddersfield gave us enough of a taste of autumn in Yorkshire to convince me that winter would not be for the faint-hearted.  We hung out with family a lot, conducting consumer research on English snacks and continuing the Great Scrabble Tournament.  Roger went for walks in Norman Park which was conveniently located barely 20m from our front door and had a fine asphalt walking path and squirrels for entertainment.

When lapping Norman Park became a little tedious we went further afield, exploring Huddersfield's Greenhead Park.

"This Park was secured for the town mainly by the action of Alderman Thomas Denham JP and was opened to the public on Saturday 27th of September 1884 by Alderman Wright Mellor JPDL, Mayor of Huddersfield." 

Despite the bitter weather the park was full of children and families enjoying half-term holidays. Small children wrapped up in a Michelen Man's worth of clothes tumbled on playgrounds and swung on swings; dangerous flocks of them zoomed up and down paths on scooters; and an ice cream truck did a roaring soft serve trade. An elderly couple with an arthritic dog lapped in the opposite direction to us, offering polite British nods when we crossed paths.

There was a memorial to those who left, thousands of them from Huddersfield alone, to the two World Wars.

Greenhead Park put us in a park-exploration frame of mind, seeking suitable new avenues for Roger and Steve to explore.  Google maps led us up hill and down dale through Huddersfield's narrow streets to Beaumont Park which was Huddersfield's first public park and gave quite a false impression of being out in the country, being part of Dungeon Wood and adjacent to Beagle Woods. 

Restricted to flat(ish) walking, we stuck to the upper walkways of Beaumont Park, with beautiful views across the valley to Victoria Tower, 

the Lockwood Viaduct, 

The viaduct has a maximum height of 41m and runs through the Lockwood Park Sport Complex, leading some aspiring bowlers to attempt to lob a cricket ball over the viaduct.  History is silent as to whether this had ever been achieved, and the practice is officially discouraged.

and the Newsome Clock Tower.

The tower was erected in 1887 as part of the Newsome Woollen Mill.  The mill is long gone, fire destroyed many of the buildings around the tower, and it is currently in poor repair with much conversation about how to presrve it.

We walked along avenues under autumn foliage which was rapidly succumbing to winter, past .



Beaumont Park information centre.


And then we turned around and walked back again, driving back through the narrow streets to more good food and company.







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