Huddersfield
The heart of 100 villages
Huddersfield is among the largest towns in the country and the largest town and administrative centre of the metropolitan district of Kirklees.With a population of around 434,000, Kirklees is the seventh most populous metropolitan district in the country and fourth most populated metropolitan district in Yorkshire after Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford. The figure represents one in every 150 of the UK population.
Some 243,000 of that number live in the 'Greater Huddersfield' or 'South Kirklees' area featured in this guide. That includes the town itself and more than 100 small towns,
With a total area of 158 square miles, Kirklees is the third-largest metropolitan district in England after Doncaster and Leeds. Metropolitan districts in Yorkshire are on average three times larger than those in other parts of England.
Despite its high population and increasingly delicate balance between housing and other land uses, the district remains one of the country's most attractive leisure areas. It includes Pennine moorland, parts of which are in the Much of the local population is based around the valleys of the Rivers Holme, Colne and Dearne, Fenay Beck and Hall Dike while the River Calder lies just north of the Huddersfield area. High moorland valleys feed into some of Yorkshire's most scenic reservoirs. Deep valleys, moors and former mining activities have helped to maintain the area's unique character of a high density of distinct villages rather than urban sprawl. The Victoria Jubilee Tower at 
The town has also seen growth in recent years with the addition of new buildings at the 
The town has an award-winning modern The Huddersfield area is the location of Britain's tallest free-standing structure and listed building, the TV tower at Emley Moor, which is taller than The Shard in London which claims fame as Western Europe's tallest inhabited building. Huddersfield also has the country's longest and deepest canal tunnel, the 
Huddersfield was on the route of the 2014 Tour de France cycle race, which passed through the area on Sunday July 6, 2014, it has also featured in several other cycle races, including the Tour de Yorkshire and town centre criteriums. Huddersfield was due to be one of the host towns of the postponed 2020 Tour de Yorkshire. A millennium pie was the latest in a succession of world's largest pies to be made at Huddersfield has an international reputation for its music and its surrounding area has also become well-known for TV locations. The past list of programmes include Oh No It's Selwyn Frogitt, Wokenwell, Where The Heart Is, filmed around Huddersfield traditionally had industrial strengths in textile manufacture, chemicals, engineering and farming and to the east of the town coal mining. In recent years, though, many former manufacturing sites have been converted to residential and retail developments and sometimes to educational or commercial use. There has been increased diversity of remaining industry in the town, which now also includes retailers' warehouses. There has been the encouragement of media businesses to the town and the area also currently offers a great deal of town centre office space just 20 and 30 minutes from Leeds and Manchester city centres.
Commuters find Huddersfield is well-connected for If visiting the town for leisure, there are plenty of places to