The deal was struck via locally-born entrepreneur Sam Copley and finalised a year later, on 29 September 1920. 

Plans by a partnership of the Council and voluntary groups to mark the centenary of the purchase this month, initiated by Huddersfield Local History Society, have inevitably been revised, but much has survived:  

* A mobile exhibition on the Ramsden story, prepared by West Yorkshire Archive Service with Huddersfield University history students, will be open in a (COVID secure!)  town centre pop-up shop for three days at the end of September, although a planned tour of community venues has now been postponed until 2021.

* Also available there will be a new 250-page book, Power in the Land: the Ramsdens in Huddersfield, 1542-1920, published by Huddersfield University Press in association with HLHS. Available at £30 from Gazelle Books (www.gazellebookservices.co.uk/GazelleBooks/sresult.pgm) , it will be available for £25 at the shop on those dates (£15 to HLHS members). 

* The book’s editor Professor Edward Royle, well-known to BALH, was scheduled to speak to HLHS about the centenary on Monday 28 September and it’s intended that this will go ahead virtually – details will be given on the HLHS website, www.huddersfieldhistory.org.uk  

* A Ramsden Heritage Trail is among the wide range of town trails published by Discover Huddersfield, www.discoverhuddersfield.com although a centenary guided walk has had to be deferred.

* Work by Kirklees Museums & Galleries on the Ramsden theme is in hand, including a revamp of their ‘Ramsden town’ gallery at the town’s Tolson Museum and a ‘museum in a box’

* The Ramsden story will also feature in plans for a town centre Heritage Action Zone which includes key Victorian buildings erected by the estate.

Further information about the purchase, and future updates, can be found on the dedicated ‘Town that bought itself’ website, https://huddersfield2020.org.uk

David Griffiths, Huddersfield Local History Society - huddshistory@gmail.com