History of the Huddersfield Water Supplies
By T. W. Woodhead

CHAPTER II - EARLY WATER SUPPLIES

Until comparatively recent times the people in this neighbourhood were dependent for their water supply upon upland streams, springs issuing from the hillsides, and later, from roadside wells, village pumps, rain tubs and wells sunk in or near their houses. Early examples of sunken wells were found at the Roman Camp at Slack and the Norman Keep at Castle Hill, Almondbury. For centuries the thinly scattered population was able to supply its needs from these sources and as we shall see they still meet the needs of many scattered homesteads in the Borough. It was not until an increasing population and the demands of the developing industries found such sources not only inadequate, but increasingly liable to pollution, that it became necessary to go further afield, and take other steps to secure a more copious and safe supply. This, however, involved encroaching to the area of another authority and co-operation was often difficult to secure.

For more than two centuries the government of the township of Almondbury and Huddersfield was by Court Leet or Court of the Lord of the Manor, and the Vestry, and there was little need, beyond individual effort, to concern itself with so accessible a commodity as a water supply. In 1627 the Court Leet was granted by the Crown to the Ramsden Family as Lords of the Manor.

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