Overview

Evidence has been found of a Bronze Age burial site at Pule Hill, indicating that the area round Marsden has been inhabited since 1000 B.C. Roman roads exist throughout the area.

The first written proof of the village existing was in 1177 when it was known as 'Marches Dene'.

Cloth manufacturing has been carried out for hundreds of years in Marsden, first in three storey cottages on the hillsides before the Industrial Revolution took place.

Trains of pack horses were used to transport raw materials and woven cloth to the various trading centres both in Lancashire and Yorkshire. One of the original pack horse bridges can still be seen and is used by walkers when walking the many footpaths on Marsden Moor.

Eventually mechanisation was introduced to the textile industry. Enoch Taylor and his brother James, blacksmiths in Marsden were involved in making cropping frames to cut the surface of the woollen cloth before it went to the Market Hall. The mechanisation of the industry was met with opposition by a group called The Luddites who feared scarcity of work and food. As a result many frames were smashed by the Luddites and millowners threatened if they installed the frames, deaths did occur.

A favourite saying of the Luddites was "Enoch makes 'em, and Enoch breaks 'em"

The latter being the name of the hammer used to smash the frames, ironically these were also made by Enoch Taylor.

Taylor's business thrived, he moved to a purpose built foundry on Carrs Road Marsden in the late 1800's employing 300 people.

It is on this very site that SB Homes Ltd. are building their new Deer Hill development and so is linking the present with the past.

1794 saw the beginning of the construction of the narrow canal Standedge Tunnel at Marsden. A wonderful feat in those days of tunnelling under the Pennine hills for a distance of three and a quarter miles to link the narrow canal from Yorkshire to Lancashire. The canal meant that goods could be shipped by water rather than using the pack horse trails over the Pennines. In 1845 the first single line rail was built alongside the canal tunnel later to be joined by a second single track. In 1890 a double track was built which is still in use today.

Rail now superseded the waterway, the canal was officially closed to boats in1944. In 1974 the Huddersfield Canal Society was founded with a view to re-opening the canal for pleasure boats. After many years of hard work the canal was opened for navigation in 2001.

Marsden plays a key role in that the Standedge Visitor Centre at Tunnel End was created and has become an important tourist attraction depicting the history of the canal and giving people the opportunity to enter it by barge.

In the past Marsden has had it's share of 'characters', none more so than the Revd. Bellas vicar from 1779-1815. He was a frequent visitor to the Two Dutchmen pub where he used to fight-or knock religion into the regulars between sermons!

Despite being described as having more ale in him than religion, he impressed the inhabitants so much that Marsden was nicknamed 'Bellas Town'

Spring and sunshine is heralded by the sound of the cuckoo. A legend exists that many years ago people in Marsden tried to prolong it's stay by building a wall round it . Unfortunately the wall wasn't high enough. As the legend says 'It were nobbut just one course too low'.

The legend is commemorated each year when Marsden holds it's Cuckoo Festival.