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

Random Times :Riding Off Into The Shipley Sunset In A Bentley

"Random History" is what happens when you mix together a newspaper archive, a random number generator and a man with too much time on his hands. Today our random-driven time machine takes us back to SATURDAY 21 JULY 1934, and the West Yorkshire town of Shipley. The front page of the Shipley Times and Express … Continue reading Random Times :Riding Off Into The Shipley Sunset In A Bentley

Pigeons In Ruperra

This is an intriguing little photograph (just six by four centimetres) from a tiny album of photographs I bought on what we in Yorkshire call t'internet. All the photographs date from 1931 and 1932 and were taken in and around Ruperra Castle in Wales. At the time, the castle was owned by Evan Morgan, 4th … Continue reading Pigeons In Ruperra

Mechanical History

During the 19th Century there was a great tradition of building Mechanic's Institutes in the towns and villages of the industrial north of England. Not only were these centres for adult education, cultural enrichment, and political debate; they were also fine buildings in their own right. A small number still pursue their original function, but … Continue reading Mechanical History

That’s History For You

It started as the Wheatsheaf, way back when. The current building is part of Halifax Borough Market and dates from the 1890s, but it seems that a Wheatsheaf pub was on Market Street before that. In the 1970s, the pub name was changed to The William Deighton, in memory of the excise officer murdered by … Continue reading That’s History For You

Random History : A Dying Man And A Missing Girl

Historical events are not random: each follows from a series of previous events and leads to a range of future events. Causes and consequences hold history together like the threads of a spiders' web. Sometimes, however, the best way to examine these limitless connections is to jump into history at random: one day, one year, … Continue reading Random History : A Dying Man And A Missing Girl