Bnode. Digital done right.

We are based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire – ideally situated within the Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield City Region triangle, and just off the M62 motorway corridor. Bnode provides digital marketing, web design and web development services for Yorkshire and the surrounding regions, including Calderdale, North Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Dales and Lancashire. We also work with clients UK-wide, but Yorkshire has that special place in our hearts.

Factors such as business opportunities and being a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ make Huddersfield a great place to base a business – especially an ethical digital agency.

Plus, as we’ve seen, Huddersfield is in a fantastic location, with great rail and transport links that make getting around for business and leisure easy.

Before forming Bnode, Chris Naylor (MD for Bnode Ltd) worked in Manchester for 10 years, and Huddersfield’s rail link to Manchester and adjacency to the M62 made commuting to and from Manchester quick and easy.

Coincidentally, the brother of one of the consultants who works with Bnode also used to work in Manchester, and commuted there and back on the train via the main line through Huddersfield (from nearby Brighouse). Who knows, maybe they were on the same train together?

So why choose to live in Huddersfield and commute to Manchester?

There are many compelling reasons why, as you’ll see as you read on, but affordable property plus the great rail links made it quick and easy to get there and back without having to drive, so a rail commute to Manchester from Huddersfield was an attractive option.

Here’s a little bit of background information on the place itself, including some interesting facts and figures about Huddersfield.

1. Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England.
2. It is the administrative centre of – and largest urban area in – the Kirklees district.
3. Located in the foothills of the Pennines, which is an area of outstanding natural beauty with rolling hills and lush green countryside. The hills are so rolling, in fact, that in 2014 the Tour De France used Huddersfield and nearby Holme Moss for a climb as part of one of its stages, before rolling through other hilly parts of West Yorkshire, including Haworth.
4. Huddersfield has a population of approximately 142,000 people.
5. It has a long and illustrious history.
6. Huddersfield can boast of having been home to two Prime Ministers – Herbert Asquith, the last Liberal PM (to date), and Harold Wilson.

(Source: The Yorkshire Post: How Huddersfield became known as ‘the town that bought itself’)

Of course, if you’re getting the train out of Huddersfield daily, you’ll see the train station twice a day. Huddersfield Train Station provides visitors with a grand introduction to the town centre, showcasing the town’s Victorian civic pride. Designed by the architect James Pigott Pritchett, and built by the firm of Joseph Kaye in 1846–50 using the neo-classical style, Huddersfield train station is well-known in architectural circles for its classical-style façade.

The Harold Wilson Statue is a larger-than-life tribute to the former Labour Prime Minister, given pride of place in Huddersfield town centre. You can see it in St George’s Square – just outside the stunning Grade I listed Victorian train station – and he welcomes you to Huddersfield every time you get off the train and leave the station. Conversely, he is one of the last things you see in the town centre when getting the train out of Huddersfield.

The station frontage was described by the poet John Betjeman as “the most splendid in England” and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “one of the best early railway stations in England” and “the only important Victorian railway station [in the West Riding]”. Similarly, Simon Jenkins stated that it was one of the best 100 stations in Britain.
(Source: Wikipedia: entry for Huddersfield Railway Station)

Other sources cite the station as being in the Top 15 Best Stations in the UK, or even the Top 12!  TimeOut lists it at Number 8 in their rundown of the UK’s 12 most beautiful train stations.
(Source: TimeOut: The UK’s 12 most beautiful train stations)

But we would say it’s the best, of course.

There are plenty of grade II listed buildings in Huddersfield town centre too, including the Sir John Ramsden Building, built in the late 1700s, Ravensknowle Hall – home to the Tolson Museum – plus Huddersfield Town Hall.

Huddersfield was an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse in the past. So much so that, in fact, Huddersfield became the first ‘Northern Powerhouse’ 150 years ago.

Hence all of the impressive civic architecture that the mill and factory owners, railway companies and other civic dignitaries etc. helped build through raising, investing and donating monies to civic building projects for the town. Including Sir John Ramsden, for instance, the third baronet, who built the Cloth Hall for the town, for example. The Ramsdens “sold their land to Huddersfield Council” in 1920, “for the tidy sum of £1.3m”. This led to Huddersfield becoming known as “the town that bought itself”. In fact, notably, “much of the freehold of the town centre, even today, belongs to what is now Kirklees Council”. This is quite unusual and significant. (Source: The Yorkshire Post: How Huddersfield became known as ‘the town that bought itself’)

As Yorkshire Live and the Huddersfield Examiner says, “its first council”, made up of those civic dignitaries, “was truly pioneering” with regards to the council services it offered. (Source: Yorkshire Live: How Huddersfield became the first ‘northern powerhouse’ 150 years ago)

And, indeed, it still is a powerhouse in the 2020s.

As the business Kirklees website says, Kirklees, and Huddersfield within the district, is “a powerhouse in UK manufacturing, boasting double the national average employed in manufacturing and engineering”.

With a “global reputation [that] spans various industries” [including] Textiles, Advanced Precision Engineering, Health & Life Sciences, Furniture, Pharmaceuticals and drugs discovery, Chemicals and lubricants, and Food and Drink; Kirklees’ “strategic location in the northern industrial corridor… sits at the heart of West Yorkshire – one of the largest manufacturing bases in the UK, with 6,000 businesses employing 117,000 people and generating over £7billion a year.”

(Source: Business Kirklees: Manufacturing)

Kirklees Council says it best, and is even more effusive in their Invest in Kirklees document, which says:

“Kirklees also offers a great quality of life to those who build their lives here. Our impressive industrial heritage, quality schools and colleges complement a unique mix of thriving town centres, picturesque countryside and iconic villages – including Slaithwaite, judged ‘Best Place to Live’ in the North & Northeast by the Sunday Times, partly due to the local entrepreneurial spirit.”

So much so that Metro called Huddersfield “The unexpected town where everyone wants to live in 2024” (Source: Metro: The unexpected town where everyone wants to live in 2024).

This is down to several factors, according to property expert Verona Frankish, CEO of estate agent, Yopa, who told Metro that:

“Huddersfield offers a lifestyle with county walks and cosy pubs, but it also boasts good schools and a thriving social scene. What’s more, it’s within easy reach of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield meaning the buzz of city life is also on your doorstep if you want it, but without paying the higher property premiums associated with these locations.”

Did you know that Huddersfield is “also steeped in LGBTQ+ history, as the UK’s first national Pride event took place here in 1981.”

Huddersfield is also a booming student town, thanks to Kirklees College, and Huddersfield University attracting students from across the globe.

So, as a business both deeply embedded in the creative and digital industries, and in the local community and wider West Yorkshire region too, Bnode wholeheartedly applauds and endorses this sentiment – we’re proud to call amazing Huddersfield, Kirklees and West Yorkshire our home.