Caught the park on a VERY quiet day! It’s usually full of very shifty white lightning drinkers and the lake and rockery are infested with rats. Quite a good analogy for the rest of my home town, actually.
I make no apologies for saying this Dewsbury is a flipping dump and unloved. My mum and Dad are from Dewsbury Thornhill Lees ( Dad originally from Batley ) and back in the day growing up have incredibly fond memories of Dewsbury. Dad was a weaver then into the RAF for his National Service and stayed on. Mum lived there on and off while Dad was overseas on tours. Dewsbury was such a busy,bustling happy place and a great place to shop.Christmas was a special time and the market was one of the best for miles around. I remember the Tripe shop I believe it was on the corner just before the market, my gran loved a bit of tripe. Nobody left of my parents era just a relatives whom I have not seen for years. Such a shame the history of this place is fantastic.My mum in the 80’s still talks fondly of her time growing up there.
@haydoncooper3744 unfortunately Dewsbury centre is like many other towns....people buy online and the shops close. Until people return to local street shopping then things sadly will never return to 'normal' as it used to be. I think there's still lot of good around the town, and nice places on the outskirts too.....however, I do understand how many feel about the decline. Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it 🙂
How sad, I worked for M&S in the 80's and often went to the Dewsbury store. It was the smallest M&S I every visited, but it was charming, as was the Town. The decline is a reflection of most of our once fabulous Towns.How I hope it's unique character can be preserved...not as positive as you though Matt. Thanks for the vlog.. enough though it made me cry, and I don;t cry easy!
Like you mention, there seems to be many towns in decline, but sometimes they can bounce back. What I felt made Dewsbury different was that the structure was sound, and that there are people trying to do things to turn it around....so I think there's hope 😊
Just a quick correction regards the ringing of black tom. The story about it ringing is true but It rings on Christmas Eve and not New Year's Eve. Also, there is an old Victorian tip near earlsheaton that is worth a look. And near that is an old plague graveyard and a derelict TB hospital called Mitchell laiths that's worth a walk around
I grew up in Dewsbury but my family left in 76 it was a wonderful place for a kid to grew up fields everywhere wonderful Market where coaches would bring people from all over to shop in Dewsbury.
grew up in dewsbury and its heartbreking to see. dewsbury died with the decline of the textile industry. the money just stopped. devils knell is still rung . thomas de soothill did exist, theres a lane named after him . builing opposite the town hall was the old post office, the other one was the old library.the blue building next to kirklees college has just got permission to open as a nother gambling den. last couple of weeks two more pubs closed down. used to be said that the army wore uniforms from cloth made in desbury and slept under blankets made in dewsbury. the term shoddy comes from desbury, process to get the wool out of the raggs.
Thanks for watching and for clearing up some of my thoughts whilst filming. I'm impressed they still do the bells 😊. The buildings are wonderful, and you can see there was money there at some point in the past. Many towns now seem to run off gambling shops, vape shops, pound shops....its not great. Thanks again 😊
yes , a lot the old buildings are still there but most of them have gone to rack and ruin. once the textile trade died that was it for dewsbury. seems a cliche now but there used to be coach trips to the market it was so good. the group slade even played dewsbury town . used to be a great northern soul/ mod club called the bin lid. some big american names played there.
yes, the building is still there. its on union street , the street that looks like a war zone off daisy hill. its roughly opposite the the back of the cinema. are you familar with the story of champion jack dupree? an reasonably famous american bluesman who settled in ovenden , halifax. good story.@@matparks08
Sounds like a nice place 😌. Yeah, a lot of the bigger northern towns do struggle. . might sound odd, but if amazon and eBay didn't exist, a lot of these shops would still be open today.
It’s a friendly place despite the need to take a few deep breaths at the condition of the town centre. The local authority does its best. The overwhelming presence of traffic doesn’t help. Did you get a brew?
