2) Where?

Mashed Library UK 2009 will take place in the Creative Arts Building at the University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK on Tuesday 7th July 2009.

(you might recognise the building from the recent ITV drama “Unforgiven“)

We’ve knocked together a Google Map of Huddersfield that you might find handy if you never been there before.

The University campus is located close to the town centre of Huddersfield and is within walking distance of the Railway Station. A regular free bus service does a circular route of the town centre and there’s a bus stop opposite the entrance to the campus.

Huddersfield Railway Station (Wikipedia) is a major stop on the busy Transpennine Route. There are regular stopping trains (Sheffield, Bradford, Wakefield and Halifax) and express trains (Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York and Hull). Manchester and Leeds are major stops on the West and East Coast Lines respectively. The famous station building, designed by James Pigott Pritchett and built in 1846, was apparently described by the poet John Betjeman as being “most splendid” 😀

Getting to Huddersfield by train

There are regular Transpennine express trains to Huddersfield Railway Station from Liverpool, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, Selby, York and Hull. Some of those express trains also stop at Dewsbury and Stalybridge. Slower stopping trains link Huddersfield to Sheffield, Barnsley, Halifax, Barnsley, Manchester Victoria, Ashton-under-Lyne, and Wakefield Westgate.

Wakefield Westgate, York and Leeds are major stops on the East Coast Line (Edinburgh, Newcastle, Durham, Doncaster, Newark North Gate, Peterborough, and London King’s Cross). If you’re travelling up from London, it’s usually a safer bet to get a connection to Huddersfield from Leeds as the trains from Wakefield Westgate are slower and less frequent.

Manchester Piccadilly is a major stop on the West Coast Line (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Preston, Crewe, Birmingham New St, Milton Keynes Central, and London Euston).

Getting to Huddersfield by air

From Manchester Airport you can hop straight onto an express train which takes about 50 minutes to get to Huddersfield.

From Leeds/Bradford Airport, you need to catch a bus to Leeds Railway Station and then hop onto an express train to Huddersfield (the train takes about 20 minutes).

Getting to Huddersfield by road

If you’d prefer a road trip to Huddersfield in your jalopy, we’re close to the M62 (jnc 24) and the M1 (jnc 38). On-campus parking is limited, but we’ll do our best to try and accommodate you. Alternatively, there are two large public car parks close to the campus.

Getting to the university campus from the railway station

Once you get to Huddersfield, a free bus provides a regular service between the Railway Station, Bus Station and the campus. Alternatively, it takes about 10 minutes to walk and the easiest route is shown on this Google Map.

Accommodation

We’re anticipating that most attendees will probably be from Yorkshire or the surrounding counties and will travelling to Huddersfield on the day of the event. However, if you’re travelling from further afield and intend to come the day before, then you’ve got several options:

1) Hotels in Huddersfield.
The hotels in Huddersfield aren’t amazing — in particular, The George Hotel has seen better days and is overpriced, and The Huddersfield Hotel (which no longer seems to have a website) gets a lot of bad reviews online. If you’re driving, then there are two better hotels close to the M62 motorway — The Cedar Court Hotel and a Premier Inn.

2) B&Bs, etc
Arguably a better option than the two main hotels in Huddersfield is to hunt out a B&B or similar. Cambridge Lodge and Huddersfield Central Lodge are both in Huddersfield, within walking distance of the University, and seem to get good reviews online. Slightly further out of town, The Foxglove is highly recommended (especially if you like roaring log fires, good pub food and real ale!).

3) Outside of Huddersfield
If you’re travelling by train, then another option would be to stay within striking distance of Huddersfield (e.g. Leeds) so that you only have a short train ride on the morning of the event.

The hotels and lodges in Huddersfield are also shown on the Google Map. If you need any advice about accommodation, then please leave a comment or get in touch with us!