- Savile Town
Savile Town is a small area of
Dewsbury inWest Yorkshire ,England . It lies just to the south of the riverCalder and just north of a railway line. It consists of late Victorian housing, which varies between long terraces, semi-detached and detached housing. The mills on the banks of the Calder supplied employment to Savile Town for several decades; these were mostly woollen, but also some cotton. As the mills closed, the area became very run-down, and the banks of the Calder was, for a long time, the largest Brownfield site in the country. Recent regeneration has seen most of the units now reoccupied;Clinton Cards , the largest employer in Dewsbury, is based in the area.The area is named after
Thomas Savile - a local man who had given his name to the bridge that leads to the town centre as well as having founded Wakefield Cathedral and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. There are several roads inDewsbury ,Ossett andWakefield that have "Savile" in the name. There were also once two collieries named "Savile" - one on Owl Lane at the Dewsbury-Ossett border, and one nearMethley .Prior to 1910, Savile Town was part of the
Thornhill Urban District. In 1910, the district was abolished, and the area became part of the town of Dewsbury.Savile Town is perhaps most famous for its role in the British Muslim community. [http://mondediplo.com/2006/11/02ukmuslims http://mondediplo.com/2006/11/03ukmuslims http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article608138.ece] The area is "some 97-100% Muslim" [http://www.kirklees-pct.nhs.uk/fileadmin/documents/meetings/march_07/KPCT-07-42%20Report%20estate%20strategy.doc paragraph 4.3] , and is home to the
Markazi mosque , which is run byTablighi Jamaat . [ [http://www.zmo.de/muslime_in_europa/ergebnisse/reetz/index.html Muslime in Europa ] ] The mosque has caused a mixed reaction. Some claim that the mosque has added to racial segregation in Dewsbury. Its attached school, the Institute of Islamic Education, received low pass rates for several years. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/04/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/382_6013.stm BBC NEWS | Education | League Tables | Institute of Islamic Education ] ] It received a 2007 pass rate of 23% since major improvements after a damning Ofsted report. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/07/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/382_6013.stm BBC NEWS | Education | League Tables | Secondary schools in Kirklees ] ]One of the suicide bombers from the
7/7 attacks is said to have attended the Markazi mosque, but the mosque was subsequently found to have no relation with the attacks. Crime is Savile Town is generally low for an urban area. [ [http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/statistics/census-by-town/settlements/savileto.pdf Savile Town Settlement Profile ] ] Rageh Omar's Channel 4 documentary "Immigration: The Inconvenient Truth, Part 2" [ [http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/dispatches/immigration+the+inconvenient+truth/1933847 Channel 4 - News - Dispatches - Immigration: The Inconvenient Truth ] ] used eyewitness accounts to suggest that at least in the eyes of residents the area does not feel at all safe, although it was not always clear whether the witnesses were referring to Savile Town or to nearby Ravensthorpe. There is a Shariah arbitration court in the area, which deals with family issues. [http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/Muslims-accused-of-running-Islamic.2852441.jp http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/5817 ]References
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