https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds. It lies by the River Calder and an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation.
Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, after undergoing a period of major growth in the 19th century as a mill town, Dewsbury went through a period of decline. More recently there has been redevelopment of derelict mills into flats, and regenerating of city areas.
Toponymy
The Domesday Book of 1086 records the name as Deusberie, Deusberia, Deusbereia, or Deubire, literally “Dewi’s fort”, Dewi being an old Welsh name (equivalent to David) and “bury” coming from the old English word “burh”, meaning fort.
Other, less supported, theories exist as to the name’s origin. For example, that it means “dew hill”, from Old English dēaw (genitive dēawes), “dew”, and beorg, “hill” (because Dewsbury is built on a hill). It has been suggested that dēaw refers to the town’s proximity to the water of the River Calder.
Historically other origins were proposed, such as “God’s fort”, from Welsh Duw, “God”. “Antiquarians supposed the name, Dewsbury, to be derived from the original planter of the village, Dui or Dew, who … had fixed his abode and fortified his “Bury”. Another conjecture holds, that the original name is Dewsborough, or God’s Town” (1837)
History
In Anglo-Saxon times, Dewsbury was a centre of considerable importance. The ecclesiastical parish of Dewsbury encompassed Huddersfield, Mirfield and Bradford. Ancient legend records that in 627 Paulinus, the Bishop of York, preached here on the banks of the River Calder.
Dewsbury market was established in the 14th century for local clothiers. Occurrences of the plague in 1593 and 1603 closed the market and it reopened in 1741.
Throughout the Middle Ages, Dewsbury retained a measure of importance in ecclesiastical terms, collecting tithes from as far away as Halifax in the mid-14th century. John Wesley visited the area five times in the mid-18th century, and the first Methodist Society was established in 1746. Centenary Chapel on Daisy Hill commemorates the centenary of this event, and the Methodist tradition remained strong in the town.
Industrial Revolution, Dewsbury was a centre for the shoddy and mungo industries which recycled woollen items by mixing them with new wool and making heavy blankets and uniforms. The town benefited economically from the canal, its location at the heart of the Heavy Woollen District, and its proximity to coal mines.
The town’s rapid expansion and commitment to industrialisation resulted in social instability. In the early 19th century, Dewsbury was a centre of Luddite opposition to mechanisation in which workers retaliated against the mill owners who installed textile machinery and smashed the machines which threatened their way of life.
Recent history
After 2005, Dewsbury was labelled a troubled town after negative press reports and became “the town that dare not speak its name” after high-profile crimes brought it into the media spotlight. In June, a girl of 12 was charged with grievous bodily harm after attempting to hang a five-year-old boy from Chickenley. Mohammad Sidique Khan, ringleader of the group responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings, lived in Lees Holm.
On 19 February 2008, Shannon Matthews, a nine-year-old girl from the Moorside Estate, was reported missing. After a 24-day hunt which attracted huge media and public attention nationally, she was found hidden in a flat in the Batley Carr area on 14 March 2008. Her mother Karen Matthews, along with Michael Donovan, the uncle of her step-father Craig Meehan, were later found guilty of abduction and false imprisonment and both jailed for eight years, as part of a plot to claim the reward money for her safe return by pretending to have solved her disappearance.
Statues
Fame
Dewsbury is referenced in the Beatles’ 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour. A line of dialogue in the film has one of the magicians (all portrayed by the Beatles themselves) – who are keeping an eye on the whereabouts of the bus that is taking its passengers on the journey of the film’s title – exclaim: “The bus is 10 miles [16 km] north on the Dewsbury road and they’re having a lovely time!”
- Bob Hardy (born 1980), bassist for popular Scottish post-punk revival band, Franz Ferdinand.
- Tom Kilburn (1921–2001), computer engineer; co-inventor of the first stored-program computer.
- Joel Graham (born 1977), bassist for thrash metal band Evile.
- Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836–1925 – died in Cambridge), physician; inventor of the medical thermometer.
- Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (born 1929), politician; first female Speaker of the House of Commons between 1992 and 2000.
- Leigh Bromby (born 1980), footballer for Leeds United.
- Alistair Brownlee, British triathlete, having won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
- Sam Burgess (born 1988), English professional rugby league player for South Sydney Rabbitohs of the National Rugby League and for England, he is a dual-code rugby international.
- Roger Burnley (born 1966), businessman, CEO of Asda
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