Denholme, United Kingdom

The entire Victorian housing sites of Denholme were built by the Fosters who also built the old textile mills of Denholme. The houses were for the workers of the mills.

It was common in Victorian England for wealthy businessmen to build entire towns to house the workers of their mills.

Denholme railway station opened on 1 January 1884, closing to passengers on 23 May 1955 and closed completely on 10 April 1961 when sometime after most of its buildings were demolished. The railway was built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and linked Bradford, Keighley and Halifax via a triangular junction at Queensbury. The Queensbury lines and station transferred to the London & North Eastern Railway and, ultimately, to the North Eastern Region of British Railways before closure. At 850 feet (259 m) above sea level, Denholme was the highest station on the entire GNR system. The line was mostly rural and needed the construction of many earthworks, viaducts and tunnels. Its hilly nature earned it the nicknames of "the Alpine route" or "the switchback" from its drivers.

The original mills around which the town grew have now gone, though their sites have been partially re-used for light industry. Recent years have seen the closure of the bulk of the remaining manufacturing industry in the town, including specialised textiles, joinery and constructional timber. Whilst there are still employment opportunities in the shops, schools and other town services, or on the surrounding farms, the majority of working residents now commute to Bradford, Keighley, Halifax or Leeds.