Editing Dewsbury (section)

==History==

===Toponymy===
The [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 records the name as ''Deusberie'', ''Deusberia'', ''Deusbereia'', or ''Deubire'', literally "Dewi's fort", Dewi being an old Welsh name (equivalent to David) and "bury" coming from the old English word "burh", meaning fort.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Yorkshire+WR/Dewsbury|title=Key to English Place-names|website=kepn.nottingham.ac.uk}}</ref>

Other, less supported, theories exist as to the name's origin. For example, that it means "dew hill", from [[Old English]] ''dēaw'' (genitive ''dēawes''), "[[dew]]", and ''beorg'', "hill" (because Dewsbury is built on a hill). It has been suggested that ''dēaw'' refers to the town's proximity to the water of the [[River Calder, West Yorkshire|River Calder]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yorkshire-england.co.uk/Calderdale.html |title=Calderdale: Halifax to Pontefract |website=Yorkshire |access-date=5 January 2006}}</ref>

In the past other origins were proposed, such as "God's fort", from [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''Duw'', "God". "Antiquarians supposed the name, Dewsbury, to be derived from the original planter of the village, Dui or Dew, who … had fixed his abode and fortified his "Bury". Another conjecture holds, that the original name is Dewsborough, or God's Town" (1837)<ref>{{cite news |date=1837 |title=Dewsbury |url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Dewsbury/Dewsbury37.html|newspaper=White's History |access-date=5 January 2006}} "Antiquarians supposed the name, Dewsbury, to be derived from the original planter of the village, Dui or Dew, who … had fixed his abode and fortified his "Bury". Another conjecture holds, that the original name is Dewsborough, or God's Town" (1837).</ref>

===Early history===
In [[Anglo-Saxon]] times, Dewsbury was a centre of considerable importance. The [[ecclesiastical parish]] of Dewsbury encompassed [[Huddersfield]], [[Mirfield]] and [[Bradford]]. Ancient legend records that in 627 [[Paulinus of York|Paulinus]], the [[Archbishop of York|Bishop of York]], preached here on the banks of the River Calder. Numerous Anglian graves have been found in Dewsbury and [[Thornhill, West Yorkshire|Thornhill]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Pete |last=Piwowarski |url=http://www.huddersfield1.co.uk/huddersfield/tolson/angles_danes/anglian_abbeys.htm |title=Huddersfield One – Tolson Museum Booklets – Angles, Danes and Norse in the District of Huddersfield |publisher=Huddersfield1.co.uk |access-date=22 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622070019/http://www.huddersfield1.co.uk/huddersfield/tolson/angles_danes/anglian_abbeys.htm |archive-date=22 June 2013}}</ref>
[[File:Dewsbury Minster.jpg|thumb|[[Dewsbury Minster]]]]
[[Dewsbury Minster]] lies near the [[River Calder, West Yorkshire|River Calder]], traditionally on the site where [[Paulinus of York|Paulinus]] preached. Some of the visible stonework in the nave is Saxon, and parts of the church also date to the 13th century. The tower houses "Black Tom", a bell which is rung each Christmas Eve, one toll for each year since Christ's birth, known as the "Devil's Knell", a tradition dating from the 15th century. The bell was given by Sir Thomas de Soothill, in penance for murdering a servant boy in a fit of rage. The tradition was commemorated on a [[Royal Mail]] postage stamp in 1986.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/bells.htm|title=Eric Shackle's eBook – Bells|access-date=10 September 2016}}</ref>

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Dewsbury was in Morley wapentake, but with a recorded population of only nine households it was a relatively small settlement at that time.<ref>[https://opendomesday.org/place/SE2421/dewsbury/ Open Domesday: Dewsbury]. Accessed February 2021.</ref> The Agbrigg and Morley wapentakes were administratively combined into the [[Agbrigg and Morley]] wapentake in the 13th century. When they were separated for administrative purposes in the mid-19th century, Dewsbury parish had grown to straddle the border between both wapentakes, hence being mainly in the Lower Division of the Wapentake of Agbrigg.<ref>[https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Dewsbury/Dewsbury37 DEWSBURY: Geographical and Historical information from the year 1837.] GENUKI.org website, accessed February 2021.</ref>

Dewsbury market was established in the 14th century for local clothiers. Occurrences of the [[Bubonic plague|plague]] in 1593 and 1603 closed the market and it reopened in 1741.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dewsbury Kirklees Cousins |url=https://kirkleescousins.co.uk/places/dewsbury/|accessdate=3 May 2022}}</ref>

Throughout the [[Middle Ages]], Dewsbury retained a measure of importance in ecclesiastical terms, collecting tithes from as far away as [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]] in the mid-14th century. [[John Wesley]] visited the area five times in the mid-18th century, and the first [[Methodist]] Society was established in 1746. Centenary Chapel on Daisy Hill commemorates the centenary of this event, and the Methodist tradition remained strong in the town.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nowthen.org/articles/singlearticle.php?targetid=755&rcode=75&bcode=26 |title=Nowthen Dewsbury: Central Methodist Church |access-date=30 December 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930001438/http://www.nowthen.org/articles/singlearticle.php?targetid=755&rcode=75&bcode=26 |archive-date=30 September 2007}}</ref>

===Industrial Revolution===
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2016}}
[[File:Dewsbury County Court.jpg|thumb|The Dewsbury County Court]]
In 1770, a short branch of the [[Calder and Hebble Navigation]] was completed, linking Dewsbury to the [[canal]] system giving access to [[Manchester]] and [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/calder-and-hebble-navigation|title=Calder & Hebble Navigation |publisher= Canal & River Trust|access-date=9 April 2018}}</ref> By the time of the [[Industrial Revolution]], Dewsbury was a centre for the [[shoddy]] and [[Glossary of textile manufacturing#Mungo|mungo]] industries which recycled woollen items by mixing them with new [[wool]] and making heavy blankets and uniforms. The town benefited economically from the canal, its location at the heart of the [[Heavy Woollen District]], and its proximity to [[coal mines]]. The railway arrived in 1848 when [[Dewsbury railway station|Dewsbury Wellington Road]] railway station on the [[London and North Western Railway]] opened. This is the only station which remains open. 

Other stations were Dewsbury Central on the [[Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)|Great Northern Railway]] which closed in 1964 and Dewsbury Market Place on the [[Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway]] which closed in 1930. A fourth goods-only railway station was built in the early 20th century at Savile Town by the [[Midland Railway]]. In 1985 a bypass road was built on the site of Central Station and its adjacent viaduct, and nothing remains of Market Place railway station. The 19th century saw a great increase in population, rising from 4,566 in 1801 to around 30,000 by 1890.

[[File:Steam engine, Providence Mills - geograph.org.uk - 688602.jpg|thumb|250px|Steam engine, Providence Mills, Dewsbury]]
[[File:Shoddy and Mungo Mill, Dewsbury, Yorks.jpg|thumb|Machell's Shoddy and Mungo Mill in Dewsbury town centre]]
The town's rapid expansion and commitment to industrialisation resulted in social instability. In the early 19th century, Dewsbury was a centre of [[Luddite]] opposition to mechanisation in which workers retaliated against the mill owners who installed textile machinery and smashed the machines which threatened their way of life. In the 1830s, Dewsbury was a centre of [[Chartism|Chartist]] agitation. In August 1838, after a speech by Chartist leader [[Feargus O'Connor]], a mob of between five and seven thousand people besieged the Dewsbury [[Poor Law]] Guardians in the town's Royal Hotel. The mob was dispersed by troops. 

Trouble flared in 1840 when radical agitators seized control of the town, and troops were stationed to maintain order. This radical tradition left a legacy in the town's political life: its first elected [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) in 1867 was [[John Simon (MP for Dewsbury)|John Simon]], a [[Jew]]ish lawyer from [[Jamaica]] and a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]. The tradition of firing the "Ten o'Clock" gun dates from 1815 and was a hangover from the Luddite problems. It was fired from Wormald and Walker's Mill to reassure that all was well, and could be heard all over the area. Eventually the actual gun was replaced with a specially made firework, but the tradition was discontinued in 1983 with the closure of the mill.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.batleynews.co.uk/news/nostalgia-days-when-the-dewsbury-ten-o-clock-gun-was-fired-every-night-1-9018110|title=Nostalgia: Days when the Dewsbury ten o'clock gun was fired every night|work=Batley News|access-date=20 March 2018}}</ref> 

The mills were family businesses and continued manufacturing after the wool crisis in 1950–51, which saw Australian [[sheep husbandry|sheep farmers]] begin to charge higher prices. The recovery of the late 1960s was reversed by the [[1973 oil crisis]], and the textile industry in Dewsbury declined, with only bed manufacturing remaining a large scale employer.

===Recent history===
Significant immigration from the 1960s onwards left a huge demographic impact on the town, which continues today. Asian British and Muslims now make up roughly 45 percent of the population, and the percentage is expected to grow in the coming years.

After 2005, following negative press reports, Dewsbury was labelled a troubled town<ref>{{cite news |last=Wainwright |first=Martin |title=The name's Dewsbury |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/may/29/communities.pressandpublishing |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=29 May 2008 |access-date=4 June 2009}}</ref> and became "the town that dare not speak its name"<ref>{{cite news |last=Norfolk |first=Andrew |title=Dewsbury: Kidnap, lynching and a suicide |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4016574.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012204834/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4016574.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 October 2008 |work=The Times |location=London |date=28 May 2008 |access-date=4 June 2009}}</ref> after high-profile crimes brought it into the media spotlight. In June, a girl of 12 was charged with [[grievous bodily harm]] after attempting to hang a five-year-old boy from [[Chickenley]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Hanging case girl spared custody |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/4305188.stm |website=[[BBC News]] |date=3 October 2005 |access-date=4 June 2009}}</ref> [[Mohammad Sidique Khan]], ringleader of the group responsible for the [[7 July 2005 London bombings]], lived in Lees Holm, Dewsbury.

On 19 February 2008, [[Shannon Matthews]], a nine-year-old girl from the Moorside Estate, was reported missing. After a 24-day hunt which attracted huge media and public attention nationally, she was found hidden in a flat in the [[Batley Carr]] area on 14 March 2008. Her mother Karen Matthews, along with Michael Donovan, the uncle of her stepfather Craig Meehan, were later found guilty of abduction and false imprisonment, as part of a plot to claim the reward money for her safe return by pretending to have solved her disappearance; both were jailed for eight years.

In October 2010, the Dewsbury Revival Centre opened, in the refurbished former St Mark's Church on Halifax Road, the church attended by [[Wallace Hartley]], bandmaster of the ''[[Titanic]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dewsburygospelchurch.org.uk/drc.html|title=The Building|publisher=Dewsbury Revival Centre|access-date=10 September 2016|archive-date=23 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123040819/http://www.dewsburygospelchurch.org.uk/drc.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In July 2014, Kirklees Council enforced a media ban covering the visit of [[Princess Anne]], who was due to deliver a speech on the importance of restorative justice. Kirklees Council later responded that the highly unusual media ban had been insisted upon by the Royal Household. [[Buckingham Palace]], however, was mystified over the ban, with a Royal spokesman stating: "This visit has been openly listed in the future engagements section on the Royal website for the last eight weeks. There are no restrictions on reporting on the event from the Royal Household."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/princess-royal-dewsbury---media-7374552|title=Princess Royal in Dewsbury – but media banned from reporting visit until she left|first=Martin|last=Shaw|date=5 July 2014|work=Huddersfield Daily Examiner|access-date=10 September 2016}}</ref>