Ravensthorpe is an area of Dewsbury

Dewsbury

Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...

, in West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Ravensthorpe is on the western outskirts of Dewsbury and is part of the "Dewsbury West" ward in the district of Kirklees

Kirklees

The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 401,000 and includes the settlements of Batley, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Kirkburton, Marsden, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite...

. The area has always been heavily industrial and was once bustling with textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

 mills. There is now a toxic tip in the area and a large industrial estate. Ravensthorpe has a very multicultural population. It is also one of the most deprived areas of the country, as measured by super output http://www.kirkleesmc.gov.uk/community/statistics/ward-profiles/wards2004/DewsburyWest.pdf.

History

Despite its apparence, Ravensthorpe is not in fact an Norse name, but was coined in the 19th century by a local clergyman and historian to fit in with other Norse-named settlements in the area. Ravensthorpe did not exist as a community until the middle of the nineteenth century when large numbers of houses were constructed alongside the new textile mills.

Prior to the building of textile mills in the 1870s the main economic activity in the area was the production of malt

Malt

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...

 for the brewing

Brewing

Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...

 industry and coke

Coke (fuel)

Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...

 production based around the mine in the Shill Bank area.

Following the Second World War, large areas of Ravensthorpe were demolished as part of the slum clearance programme. A brief poem from the time read

Ravensthorpe, Ravensthorpe, what are they doing to you? They're knocking down the houses and building far too few.

There is a railway station

Ravensthorpe railway station

Ravensthorpe railway station serves the Ravensthorpe district of Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Huddersfield Line operated by Northern Rail and is north east of Huddersfield, just beyond Dewsbury junction of the former Manchester and Leeds Railway line towards Wakefield...

 in Ravensthorpe, opened in 19th century, near the Thornhill

Thornhill, West Yorkshire

Thornhill, is a village in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Thornhill was absorbed into Dewsbury County Borough in 1910. It is located on a hill on the south side of the River Calder, and has extensive views of Dewsbury, Ossett and Wakefield...

 power station. The station is on the Huddersfield Line

Huddersfield Line

The Huddersfield Line is the name given to one of the busiest rail services on the West Yorkshire MetroTrain network in northern England. Local services are operated by Northern Rail with longer distance services operated by TransPennine Express...

 and has a regular service to Huddersfield

Huddersfield

Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....

, Dewsbury

Dewsbury

Dewsbury is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Huddersfield and south of Leeds...

 and Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

.

Recent times

From the 1960s onwards, immigrants moved into the area, especially from Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. More recently, there has been a large immigration of Iraqi

Iraqi people

The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...

  Kurds

Kurdish people

The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...

 and Hungarians Romas

Roma minority of Hungary

Hungarian Roma, also known as Romani Hungarians, are Hungarian citizens or resident aliens in Hungary of Roma descent. They comprise between 2% and 6-11% of the total population...

 (Gypsies) into the area. There have been small riots between Hungarians and Pakistanis

Ethnic groups in Pakistan

About 98% of languages spoken in Pakistan are Indo-Iranian , a branch of Indo-European family of languages. Most languages of Pakistan are written in the Perso-Arabic script, with significant vocabulary derived from Arabic and Persian. Punjabi , Seraiki, Sindhi, Pashto, Urdu, Balochi, Kashmiri , etc...

 in February 2008, and between Kurds and Pakistanis in Summer 2007.http://www.thepressnewspaper.co.uk/NewsDetails.asp?id=1169 Both these riots were started after the alleged advances by Kurds and Gypsies on Pakistani girls.

Early 2008 will see an exciting development in the town, in the shape of a new shopping park. Eight new retail units are planned in total and all are due to open in February/March 2008. Tenants on the park include retailers such as Morrisons, Instore

…instore

...instore was a chain of retail stores in the United Kingdom selling a range of products and principally concentrating on value home-ware items....

, Home Bargains

Home Bargains

Home Bargains is a chain of discount stores, offering home bargains, operating throughout the United Kingdom, founded by Tom Morris in Liverpool, England approximately 30 years ago...

, Greggs

Greggs

Greggs plc is the largest specialist retail bakery chain in the United Kingdom. It was established in the 1930s as a single shop but has approximately 1,500 outlets....

 and Subway

Subway (restaurant)

Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...

.
Ravensthorpe also has many takeaways and restaurants in it and there is always a lot of competition between them all.
Ravensthorpe is also home to Dewsbury Bus Museum.