Yorkshire is brimming with historic and beautiful listed buildings, but one of the most peculiar is Huddersfield's former Lockwood Spa Baths, which has now been transformed into a tyre garage. Today, the building houses Euro Tyres, but it was once a grand spa frequented by the well-to-do. It's thought that remnants of the once sought-after leisure destination still lie beneath the tyre shop floor.
The address, Bath Street, offers a subtle hint to its past grandeur, but it's hard to imagine now that Lockwood once aspired to be a spa town to rival Harrogate and Bath. In fact, Lockwood once had a completely different identity. Originally known as North Crosland, the area was part of the Crosland family estate.
Back in 1827, when Lockwood was still relatively rural, a private company was established to construct the handsome baths on the banks of the River Holme. Designed by local architect John Oates from Halifax, the intriguing building was classical in style with a Tuscan porch, designed to overlook the scenic river that flowed past its rear. It seems an unlikely concept now, in an area largely populated by industrial buildings and terraced houses, that Lockwood could ever compete with the illustrious likes of Harrogate, Bath and Buxton.
But two centuries ago, the once rural and picturesque area of Huddersfield held high hopes of attracting the rich and famous to the small Yorkshire town. At a time when the only road through Huddersfield meandered through fields and meadows, t.
