HALIFAX:
Chris Berry discovers a mill town with character, that even moved a Poet Laureate to wax lyrical about its architecture.
WHILST many old Yorkshire mill towns can give the impression of being dark and sometimes dismal, with blackened buildings providing a depressing facade, Halifax stands tall. Somehow its architecture is brighter and less oppressive than the rest.
The Piece Hall, the magnificent Georgian masterpiece that was opened in 1779 recalls the town’s rich heritage in cloth and woollen manufacture when its cotton, wool and carpet industries led the Industrial Revolution. Today it is quite simply a treasure that is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands every year and is now the town’s leading attraction.
Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman felt the same as I do today when in 1979 he said: “Halifax is full of character and hidden beauty. The Piece Hall is symbolic of its hidden and great worth. The skyline of Halifax, its churches, chapels, mills and warehouses, is something never to be forgotten and gives Halifax its identity.”
Everywhere you look in the town there are magnificent buildings and if you think the Town Hall bears any similarity in design to the Houses of Parliament in London there’s a very good reason, because it was designed by the same man, Charles Barry.
There’s a sweetness about Halifax that you don’t seem to find in the same way in other South Pennine towns too, maybe that has something to do with its renowned confectionery manufacturer. Since I’m a sweet tooth it particularly appeals to me.
The town is home of the Rolo, the Toffee Crisp and Quality Street all children’s and family favourites for many years. Husband and wife John and Violet Mackintosh opened their toffee shop in 1890 and their status as the ‘Toffee King and Queen’ led to their son Harold building the successful business that eventually merged with Rowntree in York before being purchased by Nestle in 1988. The white tower at today’s Nestle factory in Halifax is one of the town’s most familiar landmarks.
Mackintosh wasn’t the only confectioner to have a factory in the town either, there was also Riley’s Toffee Works. Whilst there is a Nestle Visitor Centre in York it would be nice to see some form of recognition of the Mackintosh toffee and chocolate business commemorated in Halifax either by visitor centre or museum.
One of my personal favourite places in the town has to be the 1,500-plus seat auditorium of the Victoria Theatre, which was once known as Victoria Hall. It attracts national and international singers and touring shows as well as being home to reputedly the oldest continually operating amateur choral society in the world.
Theatre and the arts play a large part in today’s Halifax with the Square Chapel Theatre, once a Congregationalist church, providing the town with perhaps its most creative outlet for drama and dance. The town is also home to Barrie Rutter’s excellent Northern Broadsides Theatre Company that prides itself on producing classic drama in northern dialect. The company is located at Dean Clough, a refurbished worsted-spinning mill that also houses several other art and drama studios.
Halifax is of course a proud rugby league town. The glory days of the turn of the 20th-century and the 1960s, plus a last