Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton sits in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire. Historically part of the West Riding, the town expanded in the 19th century around textile recycling — shoddy and mungo — and the mills that served that trade. The commercial core runs along Dewsbury Road and Northgate, where an indoor market and civic buildings form the shopping and administrative focus. Street patterns and some surviving buildings reflect the town’s development around former packhorse and turnpike routes, and rows of terraced houses sit close to former mill sites.

A former railway corridor through the town has been converted to the Spen Valley Greenway, used by walkers, runners and cyclists and linking Cleckheaton to neighbouring parts of the valley. Community life includes an annual folk festival held across town venues, amateur sports clubs, and local arts and heritage activities. Local services include a library and health centres, and small manufacturers and independent retailers remain part of the local economy, alongside housing from different phases of the town’s growth.