The name
Holmfirth derives from
Old English holegn ('holly'), in the name of
Holme, compounded with Middle English
frith ('wood'). It thus meant 'the woods at Holme'. The town originally grew up around a corn mill and bridge in the 13th century. Three hundred years later Holmfirth expanded rapidly as the growing cloth trade grew, and the production of stone and slates from the surrounding quarries increased. The present
parish church was built in 1778 after the church built in 1476 was swept away in a flood the previous year. Dr
Albert Lister Peace was the church's organist, at the age of nine, in the early 1850s. In 1850
Holmfirth railway station opened, on the branch line built by the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. Local men who served and died in the
First and
Second World Wars are commemorated on the Holme Valley War Memorial found outside Holme Valley Memorial Hospital.
Bamforth & Co Holmfirth was the home of
Bamforth & Co Ltd, who were well known for their
cheeky seaside postcards – although around the time of the
First World War, they produced postcards of a more sober nature. The printing works on Station Road has now been converted into residential flats. Bamforth's company were early pioneers of film-making, before they abandoned the business in favour of postcards. During the early 1900s Holmfirth was well known for film making; during the periods 1898–1900 and 1913–1915, Bamforth and Co. produced what the
British Film Institute describes as 'a modest but historically significant collection of films'.
Flooding There are a number of instances when
flooding has occurred in the Holme Valley affecting Holmfirth and other settlements in the valley. The earliest recorded Holmfirth flood was in 1738 and the most recent was 1944. The most severe flood occurred early on the morning of 5 February 1852, when the embankment of the Bilberry Reservoir collapsed, causing the deaths of 81 people. Following a severe storm in 1777 the
River Holme burst its banks, sweeping away people and property with the loss of three lives; the stone church, built in 1476, was also swept away. A storm in 1821 again caused the river to burst its banks. The flooding on the night of 29 May 1944 was not nationally reported and it was then overshadowed by the
D-Day landings the following week.
Property The former Lodge's
supermarket building had been sitting empty in the heart of the town since the
Co-op moved to new premises in Crown Bottom. Lodge's was built in the 1970s by the prominent local grocery company. It was opened by
Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn and occupied an unusual location over the River Holme beside the town's small bus station. Lodge's was bought in the 1990s by
Co-operative Retail Services who eventually closed the store down in 1997, after investing in a brand new £2 million supermarket for the town. Local residents, led by the Holme Valley Business Association, campaigned for its demolition. Their campaign was featured in the 2005
Channel 4 documentary,
Demolition. The building has since been converted into several smaller shops, including a Sainsbury's Local, with some accommodation on the top floor. File:HolmfirthCentral(RLH)2007-03-21(1Mb).jpg| View across Holmfirth to
Castle Hill, Huddersfield, taken from Dunsley Bank Road File:Holmfirth2.jpg|Holmfirth centre showing the parish church File:Lodge's Supermarket (now derelict) - geograph.org.uk - 500159.jpg|Former supermarket built spanning the
River Holme ==Governance==