Huddersfield area/Irish Communities

[Christopher]

Simply because I am Irish myself,  tho' brought up in Manchester I was interested in the comment about the Irish lady in a black shawl, smoking a pipe.  That's a dead ringer from my maternal granny (died 1943).   She smoked a broken clay pipe,  filled with Gallaher's thick twist.   My paternal granny,  also Irish,  did not smoke at all!!   So there you go!

Bill

Hi Bill,

I thought that pipe smoking women no longer existed but a lass who works in a Belfast pub where I go for an occasional pint enjoys smoking a pipe. I think she comes from one of the eastern European countries.

Christopher

[rosme]

There were 2 areas of largely Irish settlement. One included streets at the top of town - Upperhead Row, John St. Charles St. Manchester St. etc and the courts and yards off them. The other was at the bottom of the town and included Castlegate, Rosemary Lane etc. and the many courts and yards in that area.

[sallyyorks]

Ìm not sure why someone "wearing a shawl and smoking a pipe" in West Yorkshire   would necessarily be Irish. Women from Yorkshire wore shawls (look at old mill photos) and smoked pipes.  Also most of the  "navvies" who built the canals and railroads were English , though there were Irish navvies too . I think the majority of people emigrated from Ireland to the northern towns and cities in the 1950s . But i do know that some families (like the Flynns) came over mid to late 1800s in Halifax  . Dewsbury has quite an old Irish community .   

[sstarr2008]

This web page about the Huddersfield Irish is worth a look for anybody with an interest

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlmayo2/huddersfield_england.html

I had Irish who came over in the 1840's (potato famine) and in 1915.

Stu

[sallyyorks]

Hi Stu. Yes worth a look . Though researched from an American perspective . In the link it states at  the mid  1800s " the numbers (of Irish) are substantial" but fails to give a total population of Huddersfield to compare with . Link states that  in 1851 the Irish of Huddersfield number about "1000" but i would disagree  that is "substantial" . According to the University of Huddersfield the TOTAL population of  Huddersfield in 1851 was 30,880

[bodger]

For what it mabe worth , in the1970s iwas involved in factories in the Connemarra gaeltacht "Irish speaking", and a lot of the families from that area Carraroe, Spiddal, etc  had families in Huddersfield, the parish preist at the time,  Father Martin Lang, had earlier spent time in Huddersfield, so it may be an area worth checking

[dave the tyke]

1848 to 1852 was the time of the Irish potato famine so it is not surprising that Huddersfield (along with lots of other places) acquired a substantial Irish population at that time.

Dave