| Halifax | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Coat of arms | |
  Halifax | |
| Population | 88,134 (2011 Census) |
| Demonym | Haligonian |
| OS grid reference | SE090254 |
| • London | 165 mi (266 km) S |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Areas of the town | List
|
| Post town | HALIFAX |
| Postcode district | HX1–HX4 |
| Dialling code | 01422 |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| UK Parliament | |
| 53°43′30″N1°51′47″W / 53.725°N 1.863°W /53.725; -1.863 | |
Halifax is a town in theMetropolitan Borough of Calderdale, inWest Yorkshire, England. It is in the eastern foothills of thePennines. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the oldWest Riding of Yorkshire, primarily inwoollen manufacture with the largePiece Hall square later built for trading wool in the town centre. The town was a thrivingmill town during theIndustrial Revolution with the Dean Clough Mill buildings a surviving landmark. In the 2021 census, the town was recorded as having a population of 88,134.[citation needed] It is also the administrative centre of the Calderdale Metropolitan Borough.
The town's name was recorded in about 1091 asHalyfax, most likely from theOld Englishhalh-gefeaxe, meaning "area of coarse grass in thenook of land".[1] This explanation is generally preferred to derivations from the Old Englishhalig (holy), inhālig feax or "holy hair", proposed by 16th-centuryantiquarians.[2] The probably-incorrect interpretation gave rise to two legends. One concerned a maiden killed by a lustful priest whose advances she spurned; another held that the head of SaintJohn the Baptist was buried here after his execution.[1]
The legend is almost certainly medieval rather than ancient, although the town'scoat of arms carries an image of the saint. Another explanation is a corruption of the Old Englishhay andley, as a clearing or meadow. This etymology is based on Haley Hill, the nearby hamlet ofHealey (another corruption), and the common occurrence of the surnames Hayley and Haley around Halifax.[3] The derivation fromhalig has given rise to thedemonym Haligonian, which is of recent origin and not in universal use.
TheEarldom of Halifax took the name of the town. Its first creation, in thePeerage of England in 1677, was forGeorge Savile, who was created Baron Savile of Eland and Viscount Halifax in 1668 and later became theMarquess of Halifax (this creation of the earldom became extinct in 1700).George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, (2nd order of the 3rd creation) became thePresident of the Board of Trade in 1748. In 1749 the city ofHalifax, the capital ofNova Scotia, Canada, was named in his honour.[4] TheHalifax River inCentral Florida, United States, was also named after him.
Halifax is not mentioned in theDomesday Book, and evidence of the early settlement is unclear.[5] By the 12th century the township had become the religious centre of the vast parish of Halifax, which extended fromBrighouse in the east toHeptonstall in the west.[6]Halifax Minster, parts of which date from the 12th century is dedicated to St John the Baptist. The minster's first organist, in 1766, wasWilliam Herschel,[7] who discovered the planetUranus. The coat of arms of Halifax include the chequers from the original coat of arms of the Earls Warenne, who held the town duringNorman times.[8]
Halifax was notorious for itsgibbet, an early form ofguillotine used toexecute criminals bydecapitation, that was last used in 1650. A replica has been erected on the original site in Gibbet Street. Its original blade is on display atBankfield Museum. Punishment in Halifax was notoriously harsh, as remembered in theBeggar's Litany[9] by poetJohn Taylor (1580–1654), a prayer whose text included "FromHull, from Halifax, fromHell, 'tis thus, From all these three, Good Lord deliver us.".[10]
The town's 19th-century wealth came from the cotton, wool and carpet industries and like most other Yorkshire towns, it had a large number ofweavingmills many of which have been lost or converted to alternative use.
In November 1938, in an incident ofmass hysteria, many residents believed a serial killer, theHalifax Slasher, was on the loose.Scotland Yard concluded there were no attacks after several locals admitted they had inflicted wounds on themselves.[11]
Halifax plc started as abuilding society, the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society, in the town in 1853. Today the bank operates as a trading name ofHBOS, part of theLloyds Banking Group.Yorkshire Bank, based inLeeds and known as theWest Riding Penny Savings Bank, was established on 1 May 1859 by ColonelEdward Akroyd of Halifax. Halifax istwinned withAachen in Germany. TheA58 has a stretch called Aachen Way.
The ancient parish of Halifax was divided into a large number of civil parishes in the 19th century. In Halifax, a body ofimprovement commissioners or town trustees was created between 1762 and 1823,[12] and the town became aborough constituency under theReform Act 1832. Halifax was incorporated as amunicipal borough in 1848 under theMunicipal Corporations Act 1835, and, with the passing of theLocal Government Act 1888, became acounty borough in 1889. Since 1974, Halifax has been theadministrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ofCalderdale inWest Yorkshire.
Topographically, Halifax is located in the south-eastern foothills of the moorland region called theSouth Pennines. Halifax is situated about 4 miles (6 km) from theM62 motorway, close toBradford andHuddersfield. TheA641 road links the town withBrighouse, Bradford and Huddersfield. TheHebble Brook joins theRiver Calder atSalterhebble.[citation needed]
In 2004[13] Calderdale had a population of 192,405, with 82,500 living in the Halifaxurban area. The main ethnic group in Halifax isWhite (87%), followed byBritish Pakistani (10%). Over 90% of people aged 16–74 were employed, mostly full-time. 64% of residents had qualifications. Halifax is home to a largeSouth Asian community mainly ofBritish Pakistanis from theKashmir region, which originally moved to the area for employment in the textile industry.
The majority of the community lives in the west central Halifax region of the town, which was previously home to immigrantIrish communities who have since moved to the outer suburbs. TheIllingworth andMixenden areas, in contrast to west central Halifax, consists mostly of white,Protestant residents. In the2001 census,[13] 5% stated they wereMuslim, 16.3% of no religion, and 63.8% ofChristian background. 12.8% did not disclose their religion. The population density of the Halifax urban area is 530/km2.
FromNew Year's Day 1779, manufacturers andmercers dealt internationally in such articles through its grandiose square, thePiece Hall. Halifax is known forMackintosh's chocolate and toffee products, includingRolo andQuality Street. TheHalifax bank was founded and has large offices in the town.Dean Clough, north of the town centre, was once one of the largest textile factories in the world at more than1⁄2 mile (800 m) long; today the building has been converted for office and retail use including a gym, theatre,Travelodge and radio station.
As well as the significance of the bankHalifax plc which, since 2008, is part of theLloyds Banking Group, the town has strong associations with confectionery.
John Mackintosh and his wife, Violet, opened atoffee shop inKing Cross Lane in 1890. Violet formulated the toffee's recipe. John became known as "The Toffee King". A factory was opened on Queens Road in 1898. A new factory at Albion Mill, at the current site near the railway station, opened in 1909. John died in 1920, and his son Harold continued the business, expanding it to its present size and range of confectionery. Their famous brands, includingRolo,Toffee Crisp andQuality Street of chocolate and confectionery have global popularity.
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In 1969John Mackintosh & Co Limited merged with theYork-basedRowntree Limited to formRowntree Mackintosh. This was, in turn, purchased byNestlé in 1988.Riley's Toffee Rolls were launched in 1907, made by "Riley Brothers".[14]
Halifax was a busy industrial town, dealing in and producing wool, carpets, machine tools and beer. The Crossley family began carpet manufacture in modest premises atDean Clough, on the banks ofHebble Brook. The family was philanthropic and Joseph andSir Francis Crossley built and endowedalmshouses for their workers, which exist to this day and are run by volunteer trustees. Halifax is also home toSuma Wholefoods, which was established in 1975 and is the largestworkers' co-operative in the UK.
Public bus and train transportation in Halifax is managed and subsidised byWest Yorkshire Metro. It was announced in January 2009 that Halifax was to have a direct rail link to London after a long campaign backed by many, including the local paper theCourier; the service began to run on 23 May 2010.[15]
Most of the bus services operate fromHalifax bus station.First West Yorkshire operate most services in the town,Team Pennine, part of theTransdev Blazefield group operating a small number of routes.[16]Arriva Yorkshire currently operate the 255 Leeds to Halifax route.[17] First operate bus services from Halifax to Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds. First also run services into other counties,Rochdale inGreater Manchester andBurnley inLancashire.
Halifax railway station is on theCalder Valley line, with services toManchester Victoria,York,Selby viaBradford Interchange andLeeds;Blackpool North; viaBrighouse toHuddersfield andWakefield Westgate and toLondon King's Cross viaWakefield Kirkgate. The London service is operated byGrand Central, the others byNorthern Trains.
Rail passenger representation is organised by the local users' group, the Halifax and District Rail Action Group (HADRAG).[18]
The railway leading from Halifax due north towardsKeighley (towardsSkipton,Morecambe andCarlisle) with a further branch to Bradford viaQueensbury saw its last through services in May 1955, although parts of the route, which was extremely heavily engineered with long tunnels and high, spectacularviaducts, have now been repaired and revived by Sustrans as a walking and cycle route. In 2018 a campaign was launched to save and restore the 2,501 yards (2,287 m)Queensbury Tunnel and add it to the walking and cycling network.[citation needed] A branch from Holmfield, on the Halifax to Queensbury section of the lines to Keighley and Bradford, served the west side of Halifax. It terminated atSt. Paul's. This short branch closed to passengers in January 1927 and to all traffic in June 1960.
Halifax is also served bySowerby Bridge station in the neighbouring town ofSowerby Bridge at the southwest edge of the town. It lies just to the south of theRiver Calder.
Calderdale's local radio stations areBBC Radio Leeds on 95.3 FM,Hits Radio West Yorkshire on 102.5 FM,Heart Yorkshire on 106.2 FM,Capital Yorkshire on 105.1 FM andPhoenix Radio on 96.7 FM, which has its studios in Halifax.[citation needed]
Sunrise Radio (Yorkshire) has been given permission by media regulator Ofcom to expand its FM coverage to Halifax.[19]
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC Yorkshire andITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from theEmley Moor TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter.[20]
Courier, Calderdale's local weekly newspaper, has its offices in the town.
The Halifax area is home to two selective and non fee-paying grammar schools, which arethe Crossley Heath School inSavile Park[21] andNorth Halifax Grammar School inIllingworth.[22] Both schools achieve excellentGCSE andA level results with both schools achieving a large proportion of A*to C grades at GCSE level. In 2005, the Crossley Heath School was the highest rankingco-educational school in theNorth of England.
Calderdale College is afurther education college located on Francis Street, just off King Cross Road, in the west of the town.The Maltings College opened in 2013 and offers a range of vocationalsixth form courses.
In December 2006 it was announced that Calderdale College, in partnership withLeeds Beckett University, opened a new higher education institution in January 2007 called 'University Centre Calderdale'.[23]
In 2019, Trinity Sixth Form opened in Halifax town centre, which provides 'outstanding' further education for pupils aged between 16 and 18. The school formed as a result of the closure of sixth forms within schools in the Trinity MAT. This allowed for a more 16-18 friendly education to be sought by pupils from the Trinity schools. This school, as with the above school, boasts excellent A-level results, with a consistently >98% pass rate since opening in 2019, as well as almost 200% growth in student numbers in that time.[24]
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TheDuke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) Regimental Association, previously based at Wellesley Park, on the junction of Gibbet Street and Spring Hall Road, in the formerWellesley Barracks is located within theBankfield Museum on Boothtown Road. The formerbarracks, having served as the headquarters of the schools' music service in the last few decades of the 20th century, became a school in 2005.
Formerregimental colours of the 'Duke's' are laid up in the Halifax Minster. These include the stand used by the 33rd Regiment between 1761 and 1771, which is one of the oldest in existence in England, plus those carried by the regiment during theBattle of Waterloo and the Crimea.[25] The 1981 stand of colours, was taken out of service in 2002. They were marched through the town from thetown hall to the minster, which at that time was still a parish church, accompanied by two escorts of 40 troops, the Regimental Drums and the Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai Band on Sunday 31 March 2007. The troops were then inspected by theLord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire,Dame Ingrid Roscoe DCVO DStJ FSA and theMayor of Halifax Cllr Colin Stout making a total of eight stands of colours within the Regimental Chapel. The regiment was presented with the "Freedom of Halifax" on 18 June 1945.
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Eureka! The National Children's Museum was inspired and opened byKing Charles III when he wasPrince of Wales andDuke of Cornwall in the summer of 1992 and is in part of the railway station.
Another cultural aspect of the town is its nightlife, centred around Georges Square and Bull Green. It is also home to Britain's oldest nightclub The Acapulco that opened in the early 1960s.[citation needed] The nightclub auctioned off its infamous 20-odd-year old grubby carpet, in square pieces, and surprisingly raised thousands of pounds.[citation needed]
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Dean Clough Mill, a redevelopedworsted spinning mill, was once the largest carpet factory in the world. It was built in the 1840s–'60s for Crossley's Carpets and owned by John Crossley. The corona chimney dominates over the mill complex and area, at a height of 297-foot (91 m), it is made from triangularcast iron plates and built in 1857.
It was converted into a business park in the 1980s bySir Ernest Hall. It was redeveloped again to host theNorthern Broadsides Theatre Company and the IOU theatre company as well as providing space for eight art galleries. The Artworks is a collection of artists studios, gallery space and an art school housed in an old mill complex just to the south of the town centre.[26]
The structure can be seen entering the town from the north and east and lower parts of Pellon. It would have been one of many that filled the Halifax skyline back in theVictorian age. There is also a smaller chimney that has been shortened, which is not much higher than the existing mills surrounding it.[citation needed]
The town has relatively successful sports clubs. Itsrugby league club,Halifax Panthers, plays in theBetfredChampionship. The town'sfootball team,FC Halifax Town currently compete in theNational League, the fifth tier of English football. Halifax also has awomen's football team,Halifax FC Women.
The Shay football ground has been the home of the town's football club since 1921. The ground was substantially redeveloped in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with money provided by theFootball Foundation and funds raised or provided by the local community and Calderdale Council.
Halifax Panthers is one of the most historic rugby league clubs in the game, formed over a century ago, in 1873. They have been Champions of England on 4 occasions and have lifted theChallenge Cup 5 times. Amateur clubs Boothtown Terriers, Greetland All Rounders, Illingworth, King Cross Park, Ovenden,Siddal and Stainland Stags are based in or near the town. The Siddal club is a leading member of amateur rugby league's flagshipNational Conference League. Greetland All Rounders and Ovenden are former members.
Halifax has several seniorrugby union clubs. They includeHalifax,Halifax Vandals (Warley),Heath (West Vale), Old Crossleyans, Old Rishworthians (Copley) andOld Brodleians (Hipperholme).[citation needed]
Halifax Hockey Club is afield hockey club that competes in theNorth Hockey League and theYorkshire & North East League.[32][33]
Motorcycle speedway racing has been staged at two venues in Halifax. In the pioneering days of 1928–1930 a track operated atThrum Hall. A Halifax team took part in theEnglish Dirt Track League of 1929.[citation needed] Speedway returned to Halifax at the Shay Stadium in 1949 and operated until 1951.[citation needed] The team operated as the Halifax Nomads in 1948 racing three away fixtures. The Halifax Dukes, the name they took once the Shay was opened, operated in the National League Third Division in 1949 before moving up to the Second Division in 1950. Riders including Arthur Forrest, moved on toBradford. The Dukes re-emerged in 1965 as founder members of the British League and operated there for many years before the team moved en bloc to Odsal Stadium, Bradford.[citation needed]
Halifax Swimming Pool[34] was opened in 1966 and designed by the borough architects FH Hoyles and JL Berbiers. It contains two ceramic murals byKenneth Barden on the theme of Britishpond life. By 2020 there was consideration that a new swimming pool should be installed within the existing North Bridge Leisure Centre, and that the current building should be listed as a significant twentieth century building.[35]
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The 15th-centuryMinster is dedicated toJohn the Baptist. The church did not achieve cathedral status when a new diocese was being considered for theWest Riding:Wakefield parish church became the cathedral in 1888 and was extensively altered and enlarged. Minster status was only conferred on the parish church in a ceremony on 22 November 2009.[36] There is a collection of rareCommonwealth white glass as well as a series ofVictorian windows. Another feature is the complete array ofJacobeanbox pews. The pair ofGothic organ cases byJohn Oldrid Scott now house the four-manual instrument byHarrison & Harrison. The belfry holds fourteen bells and anAngelus.
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, on the corner of Gibbet Street and Clarence Street, was built in 1839, rebuilt in 1864 and extended in 1924.[37] St. Alban's church, on Huddersfield Road, forms part of the same parish as St Mary's.[38]
TheSerbian Orthodox Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, in the Boothtown area, formerly the Mount CarmelMethodist chapel, was acquired in 1956 and after extensive refurbishment was opened in the 1965 by the town'sSerbian community. In 2015 the church celebrated its Golden Jubilee.[39]
The mid-VictorianAll Souls' Church by SirGeorge Gilbert Scott, standing part way up Haley Hill to the north of the main town centre, isredundant and vested in theChurches Conservation Trust.[40] It is grade Ilisted[41] and is open to visitors at limited times.[40] Its lofty 236-foot (72 m) spire and whitemagnesian limestone exterior stand as a very personal statement in 13th-century French style of the mill owner Lieutenant ColonelEdward Akroyd, who paid solely for its construction as the centre-piece of a purpose-built model village "Akroydon".
All Souls' has an unusually complete sequence of windows by the leading artists of the 1850s, includingWilliam Wailes, John Hardman andClayton and Bell. The large organ byForster and Andrews, inserted in 1868, ten years after the building was completed, is currently unplayable and many of its surviving parts are in storage awaiting restoration. The tower houses a ring of eight bells.[citation needed]
Other churches include theGeorgianHoly Trinity Church (which has since now been converted to office use) and theGothic Revival (1911) St. Paul's atKing Cross, by Arts and Crafts architectSir Charles Nicholson. St. Paul's is notable not only for its fine acoustics and massive west tower but also for an unusual and highly colourful west window, specified by Nicholson, showing the apocalyptic vision of the Holy City descending upon the smoky mills and railway viaducts of Halifax as it was beforeWorld War I.[42]
TheChurch of St Jude in Savile Park, designed by local architectWilliam Swinden Barber in 1888, is easily identified by the four large pinnacles on its tower.[43] There is also a more modernChristadelphian church, located on Balmoral Place.[44] As of early 2024 a newJehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall was under construction on Crown Road inBoothtown to replace the smaller hall located on Shay Lane inOvenden.[citation needed]
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