In August 1882, The Yorkshire Agricultural Society held its annual show at Saville Park, Halifax. The event drew considerable publicity, not just from other parts of the County, but from wider afield as well. The Illustrated London News - if you are not familiar with the publication, think of it as a bit like The … Continue reading A View Over Halifax, 1882
Category: Old Halifax
Statues, Cousins And Bill Bailey
The Duke Of Wellington’s Regiment Memorial, Halifax, by Andrew Sinclair, 2019 Sculpture belongs in towns, on the streets, in the squares; not stuck away atop bronze horses in distant parks. It needs to be touched and spoken to. It needs to be a repository of thanks, of memories, and of empty coffee cups. The Empty … Continue reading Statues, Cousins And Bill Bailey
The Halifax Court
The 1851 Great Exhibition Of The Works Of Industry Of All Nations was an attempt to celebrate the advances in science, technology and manufacturing in the new, Victorian era. The exhibition, which was housed in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, featured areas devoted not only to different fields of science and manufacturing, but also … Continue reading The Halifax Court
Cleaning Up The Town Hall
In dating pictures of old Halifax, there are certain events that - rather like the destruction of the dinosaurs in geological times - mark the changeover between major epochs. One such event was the stone cleaning of Halifax Town Hall, bringing about its transition from soot-black to golden-stone, in 1972.
Old Photo, Old Lane, Old Tom
I must have taken this photograph of the Old Lane Inn, Halifax in the mid 1960s, by which time it had already closed (it briefly came back to life as Dicky Mints 20 years later). The monumental bottle of beer painted on the gable wall should have been listed and saved for posterity. The illustration … Continue reading Old Photo, Old Lane, Old Tom
St Thomas And The Gasworks
Someone asked me the other day how many pictures of Halifax I had taken over the years. I couldn’t give an answer, but it’s a lot: and that is not because I am an exceptionally prolific photographer, it’s just that I’ve been around for a good few years. Many of the subjects are repeat offenders: … Continue reading St Thomas And The Gasworks
The End Of Chapeltown
My image today is based on a Halifax Courier photograph of the demolition of the Chapeltown area of Halifax in 1939. Chapeltown, near the bottom of Pellon Lane, was an area where a large number of common lodging houses were located - along with the town’s dungeon.
Halifax Post Office
I have several vintage postcards featuring Halifax Post Office in my collection, which is only right and proper as it is a fine looking building. The building - and the postcards - date from a time when there was a degree of local pride in such public buildings, and post offices were seen as a … Continue reading Halifax Post Office
Set The Night On Fire
To mess, or not to mess, that is the question. Whichever one you choose, it shows the railway viaduct, part of the Bailey Hall factory of Mackintosh's, and a mill chimney (Clark Bridge Mills, perhaps) with a relatively bare Beacon Hill filling in the gaps between the blackened stone. It is Halifax, of course, and … Continue reading Set The Night On Fire
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