County in Yorkshire, England
West Yorkshire
The world's oldest surviving film was shot here in 1888, and the county also gave rugby league its birth, England's rhubarb triangle and the Brontës.
Key information
- County
- Yorkshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- Over 2.3 million (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Wool and mill heritage, the Brontës, rugby league, forced rhubarb, Salts Mill, curry houses
- What locals are called
- Yorkshire folk, sometimes Tykes; Leodensians in Leeds
- Famous people
- Emily Brontë, David Hockney, Henry Moore, Patrick Stewart
- Football clubs
- Leeds United, Bradford City, Huddersfield Town, FC Halifax Town
About West Yorkshire
The garden party that started cinema's story
In October 1888 a French inventor called Louis Le Prince pointed his camera at his family in a garden in Roundhay, Leeds. The result, Roundhay Garden Scene, lasts about two seconds and is the oldest surviving film in existence. Bradford later took the story on. In 2009 it became the world's first UNESCO City of Film, and its National Science and Media Museum keeps the history of photography, television and cinema on show. Not a bad record for a county people mostly associate with wool.
Mills, moors and the money that built them
West Yorkshire got its look from the wool trade. Fast Pennine streams powered the mills, the soft water was good for washing cloth, and coal lay close by. Halifax's Piece Hall, opened in 1779, was a vast Georgian trading floor where handloom weavers sold their cloth. Bradford grew so rich on worsted that it was once called the wool capital of the world. The grandest monument is Saltaire, the model village built by Titus Salt beside the River Aire. Its giant Salts Mill is now a gallery with a big collection of David Hockney's work, and the whole village is a World Heritage Site. The trade also bred anger. In 1812 Luddites attacked Rawfolds Mill near Cleckheaton in protest at machines taking their jobs. Charlotte Brontë later used the story in her novel Shirley.
A rugby league heartland
Rugby league was born here. In 1895 northern clubs met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield and broke away from the rugby union establishment, partly over payments to players who had to take time off work. The county is still packed with clubs: Leeds Rhinos, Wakefield Trinity, Castleford Tigers, Huddersfield Giants, Featherstone Rovers and Bradford Bulls. Headingley in Leeds is a famous home of both rugby and Yorkshire cricket. In football, Huddersfield Town won three league titles in a row from 1924 to 1926, the first club to manage it. Leeds United, Bradford City and Halifax add to the rivalry. In 2014 the Tour de France began in Yorkshire, and its opening stage ran through Leeds and the Pennine hills.
Rhubarb, curry and a bear called Pudsey
Between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell lies the Rhubarb Triangle, where pink stalks are grown in the dark. Pickers harvest them by candlelight, because the plants are said to grow so fast you can hear them creak. The forced rhubarb has protected status, and Wakefield holds a festival in its honour every February. Bradford is known for its curry houses, and the city has won national curry titles several times. Leeds has Kirkgate Market, where Michael Marks started his Penny Bazaar in 1884 before he and Thomas Spencer founded Marks & Spencer. Pudsey, in Leeds, gave its name to the BBC Children in Need mascot, Pudsey Bear.
Brontës, sculptors and a poet's valley
In Haworth, above Keighley, the Brontë sisters grew up in the parsonage beside a graveyard and wrote Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey within a few years of each other. The steam trains of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway still run through the area. The county is also a centre for sculpture. Henry Moore was born in Castleford and Barbara Hepworth in Wakefield, and their home county now has the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Hepworth Wakefield. Further up the Calder valley, Mytholmroyd was the birthplace of poet Ted Hughes. Hebden Bridge and the old chapels and mills around it make it one of the most photographed corners of the Pennines. The county's old song is On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at, a hymn-tune comedy about a man who goes courting without his hat and catches his death of cold.
Why a Wakefield battle matters
Wakefield was the scene of a bloody Wars of the Roses clash in December 1460. Richard, Duke of York, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, and his death helped push his son towards the throne as Edward IV. The county's self-confidence is much older than its mills. Add in 18th-century counterfeiters such as the Cragg Vale Coiners, led by King David Hartley, and you can see why the place has a reputation for doing things its own way.