The Minor Family of Somerset

Halifax Parish Register Marriage of James Kinge & Agnes Drake 1
6 May 1552
Halifax from http://www.stockdill.freeserve.co.uk/halifax/
If you search for Halifax on the internet you will be directed t
owards Halifax PLC, Halifax Nova Scotia and Halifax County, Nort
h Carolina. But the town of Halifax in the West Riding of Yorks
hire is the mother and father of them all.
Halifax stands on the rivers Calder and Hebble in the Pennines
, south-West- of Leeds and Bradford and virtually equidistant fr
om both the Yorkshire and Lancashire coasts.though is has exis
ted since medieval times, like so many nearby towns andcitie
s it owes its growth to the Industrial Revolution. In 1802 ther
e werefewere than 9,000 inhabitans whilst toDay there are ove
r 90,000. Nevertheless I have heard it described as the larges
t village in England, you can't domuch out of the ordinary with
out it being common knowledge in no time. The Halifax grapevin
e could still teach the internet a few things about speed of com
munication!
One grows up thinKing that what one knows is the norm. As a chi
ld I took for Granted what I now realise is very much a unique p
lace - the stone buildings, the steep hills, the magnificent vie
ws, the bleakness of the nearby moors and the Victorian and Edwa
rdian legacy.
Forty or fifty yearsago Halifax was still an active industria
l centre where the quality of lifehad been much improved by th
e legislation which outlawed the filthy air of earlier times. T
extiles, carpets, machine tools, toffeess and chocolates (Qualit
y Street) were produced. toDay much of that has gone save som
e specialised businesses which have been able to find niche mark
ets. Halifax has had toreinvent itself and is not maKing so ba
d a job of the task. The biggest employer now is the Halifax PL
C, formerly Halifax Building society, the biggestin the world
. What began in 1853 as a mutual society created to help hous
ebuyers is now a bank with town centre Headquarters opening i
n 1973 of a style typical of the architecture of the time. Don'
t ask. The words incongruousand firghtful come to mind. Betjem
an would better describe it than I can.
In fact architecturally Halifax has so much to offer despite th
e civic vandalism of the '60's and '70s. The Town Hall was desi
gned by Barry who also designed the Houses of Parliament at West
minster. The Borough Market is a triumphof stone and ironwork
. The Parish Church of Saint John the Baptist dates from the fi
fteenth century and reflects Halifax's pre-industrial past. Th
e hospitals, civic buildings, banks and even factories and works
hops show what giants the Victorian fthers of these norhter indu
strial towns were.
But perhaps the greatest jewel is the Piece Hall, the only survi
ving cloth hall in Yorkshire and covering 10,000 square yards
. This, opened in 1779, was the market for local handloom weave
rs and merchants who brought their 'pieces' of cloth for sale he
re. Around a central quadrangle are galleries with tuscan and R
ustic columns accommodating over 300 lock-up rooms. After the i
ndustrial Revolution had left the Piece Hall stranded like a bea
ched whale, it was allowed to deteriorate physically and in th
e 1970s was on the verg of bing pulleddown. One vote save it
! Can you believe what philistines the civic authorities were i
n those Days! Now the Piece Hall has new life as a museum and g
allery with shops selling antiques and collectables and the cent
ral area is used for concerts. Again it is appreciated for it d
istinctive beauty and at the same time it has a purpose. It is
, of course, now a listed building. It was so nearly a pile o
f rubble.
Between the 13th and 17th centuries Halifax had aGibbet, a guill
otine used to execute those who stole animals or cloth drying o
n tenters (haning, of course, on tenterhooks). It must have ha
d a deterrent effect. From Hull, Hell and Halifax, Good