Dewsbury
Dewsbury is an industrial town in the Kirklees area of West Yorkshire.
Patrick Bronte held his first appointments here in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1809 as curate to Dewsbury Minster and then in 1811 as minister at St Peter's Church in nearby Hartshead.
Since those days Dewsbury has been absorbed into the main part of the West Yorkshire conurbation (which includes the cities of Bradford and Leeds as well as the towns of Huddersfield and Wakefield).
At the turn of the 19th century the area was associated with the Luddites and their campaign against increasing mechanisation in the mills. Their plight and the political climate at the time provided inspiration for Charlotte Bronte's novel "Shirley".
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