Talk:Birstall, West Yorkshire

Untitled
Nice work... If you're going to the Black Bull say hello to dave or mel, and try the guest beer. Photo is badly exposed and could live without the transit van background. I'll try and get a replacement.

Village
Someone recently said that Birstall was not a suburb of Batley but a village. I disagree: 1 Birstall was part of Batley Municipal Borough between 1937 and 1974 2 On the census, Birstall is listed as part of Batley 3 On Kirklees website, Birstall is included as part of Batley 4 The big brown "Welcome to Batley" signs can be found on the way to Birstall from Gomersal or from Morley.


 * Birstall is a village by two of the three definitions shown in Wikipedia for an English Village, and by most definitions found elsewhere. Unlike other districts of Batley (say Soothill, or Staincliffe) Birstall has its own market. Also the article does mention that Birstall is a district of Batley, as well as being a village in the accepted definition of the term.

Decided to remove the bit. It's not clear if it's a town, village or suburb, but most people seem to call it a village. From my history knowledge, there was once the town of "Gomersal & Birstall". As it had a town charter, it could hold markets; these took place in Birstall. At some point, Gomersal got sent into Spenborough, and Birstall got sent into Batley. I don't know why this happened. The status of both Gomersal and Birstall is a mystery, but most locals seem to see them as villages. 212.159.30.47 14:52, 21 February 2007 (UTC) Changed to remove Batley reference. As discussed here, most people think of it as a village or town in its own right. Being in the postal district of Batley is not relevant to determining the official designation of a settlement. That argument would lead to Richmond upon Thames being in Twickenham. Also, the brown signs were erected as part of the bid for EU funds when such were available for “deprived areas” and Kirklees needed Fieldhead estate to be in with Batley to qualify. I’m not convinced that we should rely on what politicians lump together in bids to determine status either. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.189.194.26 (talk) 19:50, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

Historical claims
There are a worrying number of claims with no supporting evidence quoted. Having talked to the West Yorkshire Archive in Wakefield, they were contacted years ago about the tiles and coins claims, contacted museums and collections around the area and nobody had heard of any. Can the writer please give further info so we can track them down please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hwainwright (talk • contribs) 13:26, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 09:43, 29 April 2016 (UTC)