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Brighouse

Your guide to your Brighouse Town Centre

Brighouse's History

The history of Brighouse...


Brighouse is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Calder, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Halifax in the Pennines. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the town centre is a mooring basin on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The United Kingdom Census 2001 gave the Brighouse / Rastrick urban area population as 32,360.

The name Brighouse (or "Bridge House") originates from a building on (or close to) the bridge over the River Calder. In its early history, it was a hamlet of the nearby village of Rastrick. Brighouse has been represented as part of Calder Valley in the House of Commons by the Labour Party Member of Parliament Christine McCafferty since 1997.

Brighouse is twinned with Lüdenscheid in Germany, the link beginning with an exchange by Brighouse Children's Theatre in 1950 followed by a civic twinning charter in 1960.

Brighouse was part of Hipperholme with Brighouse Civil Parish until 1893, when Brighouse Municipal Borough was created. This included Rastrick but not Hipperholme, which became an Urban District. The other parts of Hipperholme with Brighouse, ie Norwood Green and Coley, became a civil parish in Halifax Rural District. The borough was expanded in 1937 when Clifton CP, Hipperholme UD, Norwood Green and Coley CP and part of Southowram UD were added. The Brighouse borough was abolished in 1974 when it became part of the Calderdale Metropolitan Borough. The mayor's mace was removed in 1974 to the Town Hall, Halifax, where it is now displayed in the mayor's parlour to denote the authority of the Halifax mayor.

Rastrick Bridge

There was a river crossing called Snake Hill Ford across the Calder - this is believed to have formed part of the Roman route between Wakefield and Manchester. A wooden structure called Rastrick Bridge was recorded as being present in 1275. The bridge was replaced by one built with timber donated by John Hanson in 1514. Hanson's son funded a stone replacement for this bridge in 1558. The river provided power for the flour milling industry and the textile mills. Brighouse's industry received a boost through the construction of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, started in 1757 by the engineer John Smeaton.

The Halifax and Huddersfield Turnpike Act of 1823 allowed for the building of Calder Bridge (now called Brighouse Bridge) over what was to become the A641 road; tolls were abolished on the bridge in 1875 and extensive widening work was undertaken in 1905 and 1999 (both of these latter dates being commemorated in dedication stones on the bridge).




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