The second building on the University of Huddersfield’s £250 million National Health Innovation Campus is to be named after a pioneering woman who championed health, wellbeing and equality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A groundbreaking ceremony has heralded the start of work on the Emily Siddon Building, which is expected to open in December 2025.

As the first building – the Daphne Steele Building – welcomed staff and students for the first time, construction work will start on an adjacent site in Southgate.

Emily Frances Siddon (1844-1923) was a pioneer in healthcare and equality and never moved far from her home in Honley.

Miss Siddon held many prestigious roles that were often reserved only for men. She campaigned for children’s homes that had better conditions than the workhouse and was also one of the first women to be a Poor Law Guardian in 1883. She was also the first female magistrate in Huddersfield and only the second in the country.

Miss Siddon was a governor of Huddersfield Technical College and was also appointed as the only female member of the main executive committee at the Huddersfield Infirmary from the late 19th century into the 20th century.

She was also vice-president of the Council of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

Guests at the groundbreaking included Prof Tim Thornton, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor, Brendan Brown, chief executive of Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust and Daniel Doherty, regional director of Kier Construction North & Scotland.

 

From L-R: Daniel Doherty, regional director Kier Construction North & Scotland, Prof Tim Thornton, University of Huddersfield deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Jane Owen-Lynch, pro vice-chancellor (teaching and learning), Brendan Brown, chief executive of Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Trust and Harpreet Uppal, MP for Huddersfield.

 

Prof Thornton said: “We are delighted that work is well underway on this vital new facility. The Emily Siddon Building will help to enable courses that are vital to meeting the needs of the country’s healthcare workforce, and be a home for innovation with major NHS partners including the Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, as well as others in the private and voluntary sectors.

“Being named after Emily Siddon, a true pioneer in healthcare and equality in the Kirklees area, the building encapsulates our ambitions for this next exciting stage in the development of the National Health Innovation Campus.”

The ground floor of the Emily Siddon Building will host a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), in partnership with Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust. This is a unique partnership, and the first of its kind on a university campus.

The CDC will provide access to thousands of additional diagnostic tests for local people including MRI and CT scans, in the heart of Huddersfield. It will be the second Community Diagnostic Centre for the Trust, which recently opened its first CDC in central Halifax.

Other floors of the building, designed by architects AHR, will contain specialist clinical teaching facilities which will also be delivered in partnership with the Trust, including new course areas relating to the work of the CDC, such as Diagnostic Radiography.

Work with other partners will allow for further developments, such as a course in Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy.

The Emily Siddon Building will also be home to a Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre for local entrepreneurs or start-ups and organisations looking to benefit from locating with the university on the campus.

The centre is supported by the West Yorkshire Mayor and Combined Authority through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It will be operated by the award-winning team responsible for the university’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre.

Brendan Brown said: “Having the new facility on the University of Huddersfield campus will allow us to give greater choice to our patients closer to home, whilst also increasing the number and breadth of tests we can carry out.”

Dan Doherty, regional director of Kier Construction North & Scotland, said: “This is a fantastic project to be a part of.

“Not only are we building a state-of-the-art healthcare facility for the people of Calderdale and Huddersfield, but we are also helping to inspire and nurture the healthcare workforce of the future.”