Town in West Yorkshire, England
Dewsbury
Every Christmas Eve, Dewsbury Minster tolls a bell once for every year since Christ's birth, to scare off the Devil. The town also built a fortune on rags.
Key information
- County
- West Yorkshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 63,000 (2011 Census, built-up area)
- Known for
- Shoddy and blanket making, the Devil's Knell, Dewsbury Minster, rugby league
- Famous people
- Paulinus, Patrick Brontë, Thomas de Soothill (of Devil's Knell legend)
About Dewsbury
The bell that tells the Devil to keep out
Every Christmas Eve, Dewsbury Minster rings the Devil's Knell. A single bell called Black Tom of Soothill tolls once for every year since the birth of Christ, and the ringing is timed so that the last stroke lands at midnight. That means the total is now well over two thousand. The story goes that the bell was given by Sir Thomas de Soothill as penance after he killed a servant. The tolling is said to ward off the Devil, who is meant to die when Christ is born. The ritual draws a crowd of locals and curious visitors, and the town has kept it going year after year.
A preaching spot older than the town
The Minster stands on a site with a claim to be one of the oldest Christian places in the North. Tradition says Paulinus, the missionary who converted much of Northumbria, preached here in 627. Fragments of Anglo-Saxon crosses found at the church are still kept there. The church has medieval origins and some surviving medieval fabric. It was substantially remodelled in 1767 and then restored and enlarged in the nineteenth century. Patrick Brontë, father of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, worked as a curate in the Dewsbury area in 1809, long before his children wrote a word. The Minster remains the town's most recognisable landmark, close to the busy streets of the centre.
The town that turned rags into riches
Dewsbury grew rich on a very unglamorous product: shoddy. Shoddy was recycled wool, made by tearing old woollen rags back into fibre and spinning it again. Its coarser cousin was called mungo. The trade, centred on Dewsbury and neighbouring Batley, made the area the heart of the Heavy Woollen District. Mills along the River Calder turned out blankets, overcoats and military cloth, and rags arrived from across the world to feed them. Cheap warm cloth meant fortunes for mill owners and work for thousands. The grand Town Hall, finished in 1889, was built to show how much money had been made. Today shoddy is used as a word for poor quality, but in Dewsbury it was proof of a clever business.
Rams, a Cup and a title
Dewsbury is a rugby league town. Dewsbury Rams were founded in 1898 and play at Crown Flatt, a ground the club has long called home. Their greatest days came in 1912, when they won the Challenge Cup by beating Oldham at Headingley. In 1973 they became league champions by beating Leeds in the final. The Rams have never been one of the biggest clubs, but they have a loyal following and the honours to prove they once played with the best.
A town of many communities, and a few great curries
From the 1950s and 1960s, people from Pakistan, India and the Caribbean came to Dewsbury to work in the mills. Their families made the town what it is today, with mosques, temples and churches all within a short walk of each other. That shows in the food. Dewsbury is a good place for a karahi or a plate of biryani, and a bakery or sweet shop is never far away. Yorkshire puddings and pies still appear on the menu too. On a sunny day, many locals head for Crow Nest Park. Its Victorian mansion housed Dewsbury Museum until it closed in 2016.