Halifax People

29/05/2026

Nothgate End Unitarian Chapel and the demolition behind the De Luxe Theatre

29/05/2026

Wow thanks to every one of you - and they are just the page. More on www.halifaxpeople.com

29/05/2026

I'd really like to do away with the annoying google ads on halifaxpeople.com but they pay for the costs to host the website and for memberships to sites that content ideas come from.
However, I am more than happy to remove all google ads if local businesses want to advertise instead. Choose any page on the website for just £10 a year (I can design your advert if required) - Home page = £100 per year. Only 1 advert will be allowed per page - simply choose your page. www.halifaxpeople.com

Explore Halifax's hidden history Victorian stories, village guides, historic pubs, walking tours and heritage photos. 50,000+ visitors guided by Harry Facks.

29/05/2026

29th May in history

29/05/2026

WHAT HAPPENED TO HIGH STREET? (NEW BOND STREET), HALIFAX

There’s a Halifax “hidden history” story here that’s genuinely hard to believe until you read it.
A lot of people know the name High Street… but locals also talk about New Bond Street — and it wasn’t just a name. It was a real street with its own character: narrow, cobbled, and closed off at one end.
Here’s the part that stops you in your tracks:

The original account says it had heavy wooden gates blocking vehicles — and when a funeral procession needed to pass through, someone had to get a key from a nearby keeper to open the way.
By the 1960s, the King Cross Street area was being cleared and changed. The Beehive and the Cross Keys pubs were still standing at the time — but much of the surrounding street life was being wiped away in the name of “progress”.
And then… the promised future didn’t quite arrive either. A “smart” redevelopment was proposed later — but it never fully became what people expected. So the old street vanished, and the replacement vision faded.
If you’ve got memories of New Bond Street / High Street, the Beehive, the Cross Keys, or that whole King Cross Street corner — drop them in the comments. Names, stories, dates, anything. This is how we rebuild the real Halifax timeline.

26/05/2026

🏰 THE BEAUTY AND THE TRAGEDY: The Dark History of Castle Carr’s Water Gardens 🌊
Did you know that the Luddenden Valley once boasted water gardens so magnificent they rivaled Derbyshire’s famous Chatsworth House? Today, Castle Carr is a haunting ruin, but the story behind its creation is one of breathtaking ambition mixed with a cruel twist of fate.
In the late 1860s, Halifax merchant Joseph Priestley Edwards set out to build a grand estate. Its crowning glory was an intricate network of reservoirs and a gravity-fed fountain that could shoot water over 100 feet into the air.
But this Victorian masterpiece was built on immense human cost...
💔 A Week of Double Tragedy
In August 1868, the estate was struck by two devastating events just days apart:
1️⃣ August 20, 1868: Joseph Priestley Edwards (the man funding the entire project) and his eldest son, Augustus, were tragically killed in the Abergele rail disaster in Wales—at the time, the worst train accident in British history.
2️⃣ August 27, 1868: Just one week later, as the estate abruptly passed to the second son, Lea Priestley Edwards, disaster struck the construction site itself. Heavy timber scaffolding collapsed at the Compensation Basin, instantly killing two local workmen: James Lock (aged 30) and John Shaw (aged 40).
By the time the estate was finished, the family's joy was gone. By 1874, the entire estate and its grand water gardens were put up for auction.
📸 Swipe through the images:
Top Left: The original 1874 sale catalogue sketch from the Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society.
Top Right: A digitally enhanced, lifelike recreation of how that grand courtyard and fountain looked in its prime.
Bottom Left: An artist's tribute to the engineers and stonemasons who built the basin.
Bottom Right: A reimagining of the legendary Castle Carr fountain firing high into the Yorkshire sky, with the mansion in the background.
A stark reminder that behind our local historic landmarks lie the real lives, sweat, and sacrifices of those who came before us. ✨

21/05/2026

Skircoat Moor

19/05/2026

Marjorie Christine Bates (19 May 1886 –20 December 1962) was an English landscape painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and in Paris.

She achieved a moderate living from her paintings. I have 4 of her drawings in my possession as can be seen below.

I have added the enhanced versions just to highlight the faded colours

18/05/2026

Godley Cutting: Halifax’s 60-Foot ‘Gulf’ on the A58 Overview - see 1st comment

18/05/2026

Old Original Masons' Arms, 119 New Bank.
aka Masons' Arms, Halifax.
Opened in 1869 and closed on the 28th December 1937.
This was originally a beer house and became a Whitaker pub.

The landlord i 1927-30, Herbert Seston, became the advertising figure, Doc Shire, for Whitaker's Brewery.

16/05/2026

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