You could sense something old and familiar emerging in the town on a gloomy May morning when the email reached Kirklees College and the alarms started to sound, forcing students out of their classrooms. Be concerned. Doubt. the feeling that an unplanned announcement is never beneficial. Parents in Huddersfield refreshed local news pages and waited for two hours after the sites went into precautionary lockdown at 10:30 AM. The lockdown was lifted at 12:30 PM after the police described it as a hoax and a malevolent act of theater. Life continued. But when something goes wrong, it’s difficult to ignore how quickly an institution like this becomes the emotional hub of a community.
Although Kirklees College isn’t well-known outside of West Yorkshire, passing its main campus off Manchester Road in Huddersfield gives you the impression that it has made significant investments in itself. Completed in 2013 at a cost of £74 million, the building is situated next to the River Colne with the kind of assurance typically associated with academic institutions. It took the place of the older New North Road location, which by the end had the worn-out feel of old further education buildings, complete with humming radiators, stained ceiling tiles, and an unquenchable instant coffee odor. The new campus is more intentional, glassier, and brighter. It is still more difficult to determine whether the architecture has improved results.
In August 2008, Dewsbury College was officially dissolved and merged into Huddersfield Technical College, which then discreetly changed its name, creating the college as it exists today. It’s a neat administrative paragraph for what was, at the time, an untidy human transition: two town identities attempting to coexist peacefully under one banner, staff reassignment, and course consolidation. The Huddersfield and Dewsbury sides still feel more like cousins than siblings. The long-standing Halifax Road campus closed in October of 2020, Springfield Sixth Form on Bradford Road opened in 2018, and Pioneer House opened in late 2020. These developments disrupt hundreds of teenagers’ daily commutes but don’t always make the local papers.
When you consider Kirklees’ longer history, you’ll notice how out of the ordinary its alumni list is for what is essentially a regional college. Dewsbury College produced Betty Boothroyd, the first female Speaker of the House of Commons. Tom Kilburn was a Wheelwright Grammar student and one of the engineers behind the Manchester Baby, which is considered to be the first stored-program computer. The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins attended Huddersfield Technical College. Then there’s comic book artist Tula Lotay; Dean Hoyle, who made Card Factory a national chain; and Eddie Waring, whose voice was essentially rugby league for a generation. For a school that also teaches plumbing, it’s a strangely literary mix.
But the point is that mix. Bricklayers and electricians are trained at the Brunel Construction Centre, which is located off the A62. Welding and automotive work are handled by the Engineering and Process Manufacturing Centers. Animal care and rural management are taught at the Taylor Hill location. All of this has a subtle practicality that doesn’t quite mesh with the current cultural fixation on degrees and universities. Even though politicians don’t always say so out loud, there is a feeling when strolling through Huddersfield that the local economy still depends on the kind of skills these buildings produce.
Not everything has gone as planned. Following a bullying case from 2008, the college discreetly settled a £5,000 claim with blind former student Tmara Senior in 2010. She and her blind husband publicly stated they didn’t want it “covered up.” In 2018, the renowned photography program at the Batley School of Art closed, bringing an end to a program with a true national reputation. These are the losses that pile up but don’t make headlines.
The place continues to move, though. Investors in higher education appear to think the model is effective, if that term even makes sense. The pupils continue to show up. Additionally, nobody calls the police on the majority of mornings.
