Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England.
The Economy
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 at Dean Clough, on the banks of Hebble Brook.
The family was philanthropic and Joseph and Sir Francis Crossley built and endowed almshouses for their workers, which exist to this day and are run by volunteer trustees.
Halifax is also home to Suma Wholefoods, which was established in 1975 and is the largest workers” co-operative in the UK.
Culture
The Duke 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 former Wellesley Barracks is located within the Bankfield Museum on Boothtown Road. The former barracks was converted into an educational school in 2005.
Former regimental 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 the Battle of Waterloo and the Crimea.
The 1981 stand of colours, was taken out of service in 2002. They were marched through the town from the town 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 the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Dr Ingrid Roscoe BA, PhD, FSA and the Mayor of Halifax Cllr Colin Stout making a total of eight stands of colours within the Regimental Chapel.