Northerns Home Base

This was because nobody wanted to be caught and convicted of a crime in either Hull or Halifax as both towns made use of the Gibbet, of which a reconstruction of the Halifax Gibbet can be seen to the right, and obviously nobody wanted to go to the other place.

The 'privilege' (right) of a gibbet is believed to have been vested in Halifax around the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, although the earliest reference to it dates from 1280. At that time, there were said to be one hundred other places in Yorkshire that similarly enjoyed this distinctive honour. In the case of Halifax, however, its notoriety stemmed from the fact that the custom of the Gibbet Law continued long after it had been abandoned elsewhere.

The Laws of Halifax were administered from the Moot Hall (demolished 1957) which stood on a site near the Parish Church in Nelson Street. It was from here that the Lords of the Manor held their court and imposed fines and punishment for a wide variety of offences. Early records show that John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, held court here in 1286. In the same year, the Earls of Warren were granted by the Crown the 'Royalty' to execute thieves and other criminals, from which the Halifax Gibbet Law developed. It was in that first year that John of Dalton was decapitated, the first known victim of the Halifax Gibbet, although formal records of victims did not begin until 1541.

Which can be seen as you enter the town from the Leeds and Bradford directions. A former carpet mill owened by John Crossley & Sons was to become a dominant and, by 19th Century standards, beneficent force in the region. Crossley carpets became a byword for excellence, furnishing royal houses across the world while its mass production facilities made it a prime force in "democratising the carpet".

At its height John Crossley & Sons employed over 5,000 people and the site - stretching to nearly 2/3rds of a mile - was one of the largest carpet companies in the world. By the late 1970's the economic climate was very different, and by 1982 the factory lay closed and deserted.

In 1983 the musician and entrepreneur Ernest Hall and his son Jeremy bought the site. Major companies like The Halifax and Royal & Sun Alliance have made their homes in the complex, together with numerous start-up companies that have either developed on site or moved on as their business expanded.

At the same time the Halls have pursued a policy of combining commerce with the arts and education. Besides eight galleries and a theatre, Dean Clough has attracted a variety of charities, including the Design Dimension Educational Trust, various theatre companies, arts, music and media groups, and the Dean Clough artists - a 20 strong co-operative of visual artists, many of them internationally recognised.

The Piece Hall, located in the centre of Halifax, between the main shopping centre and Eureka! The Museum for Children, is a Grade 1 Listed Building.

It consists of a large courtyard, surrounded by galleries in the style on three levels.

As a town square it compares well with any other in Europe and is a monument to both the woollen textile and stone masonry industries. The Piece Hall is one of the most significant and complete Georgian buildings in Britain. It was first opened on January 1st, 1779, as a market place for 'pieces' (hence the name!) of woollen and worsted cloth made by the handloom weavers in the area around Halifax.

Each Saturday, handloom weavers from all over the district would bring pieces of cloth into the Piece Hall to try to sell them to merchants between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. At this time a bell would be rung to signal the end of trading. Anyone buying or selling cloth at other times would be fined five shillings.

It was not used for this purpose for very long. The growth of the Factory System led to a decline in trade and the Piece Hall began to be used for political and religious meetings, fireworks displays and other events. In 1868 it was given to the Corporation of Halifax and was converted into a wholesale market for fish, fruit and vegetables. The South door was enlarged and the huge iron gates added at that time. It remained in this use for about one hundred years until the late 1960s.

At that time, most of the towns in the region were undertaking programmes of renewal and modernisation. A plan was brought forward to demolish the area around and including the Piece Hall, to allow the building of a shopping centre. There was a great deal of local opposition to this scheme, and the Council decided instead to restore the Piece Hall for use as a centre for arts, crafts and entertainment. The courtyard was cleared and resurfaced and the galleries around it were converted to shops

It has been seen in many documentaries and feature films and TV productions, including the much praised 'Brassed Off'.

Piers Gough and Adam Hart-Davis have both focused TV documentaries on the architectural and heritage importance of the Piece Hall.

Over the years the Piece Hall has become home to a wide range of speciality shops(**), the Piece Hall Art Gallery has developed into a very popular and well-respected exhibition space and the events programme brings thousands of visitors to see a great variety of entertainment in this glorious setting.

Which is at the opposite side of town as you come in from the Lancashire Halifax can boast the best folly in the county, one of the finest in the whole country: Wainhouse's Tower, also known as Wainhouse's Folly or the Octagon Tower. John Edward Wainhouse (1817-1883) was someone whose preoccupations resemble those of R. H. Watt in Knutsford, Cheshire. Both started their building activities late in life, both built a remarkable factory tower (although the Wainhouse one stands supreme) and both threw some quaintly decorated cottages into the bargain.

It all started with the Smoke Abatement Act of 1870. Wainhouse owned, together with a large fortune from an inheritance, the Washer Lane Dye Works in southern Halifax, which was run by a manager. After the Act came into force, it became necessary to build a tall chimney to carry the smoke out of the valley in which the works were built. In 1871 plans were drawn up by the architect Isaac Booth for a chimney that would be fed with the smoke from the factory by means of a pipeline. In 1874 Wainhouse sold the works to his manager, who refused to bear the tremendous costs incurred in finishing the chimney.

Wainhouse decided to keep it himself and convert it into a tower which he proposed to use as 'a general astronomical and physical observatory'. The tower was finally completed in 1875 by the architect Richard Swarbrick Dugdale at a total cost of £14,000, and in such an elaborate style that not even a pocket telescope could have been fitted in between the orgy of finials, pillars, buttresses and balustrades. The very slender tower rises 275 feet high, its shaft decorated with gothicisms and the ornate top in a perverted but well-proportioned neo-renaissance style. The result of the four years' work is a belvedere tower by a medieval watch tower out of Chateau Chambord.

The Victoria Theatre, or Victoria Hall as it was then known, opened on 8th February 1901.

The hall was purchased in 1960 by Calderdale Council who undertook an extensive repair programme, following which the Victoria Hall was renamed The New Victoria. Ten years later this name was changed to the Civic Theatre and then following a council restructure in 1992, the Civic was renamed the Victoria Theatre.

The Victoria Theatre is still owned by Calderdale MBC. It has a seating capacity of 1,568 and for a standing concert 1,860 and offers a wide variety of entertainment.

Eureka! The Museum for Children is the first and foremost hands-on children's museum in the UK and is designed especially for 0 - 12 year olds.

With more than 400 must-touch exhibits and a full programme of events and activities, you'll be amazed at the fun things you can do!

Find out how bodies and senses work, discover the realities of daily life, travel from the familiar 'backyard to amazing, faraway places around the globe and explore the science behind sound, rhythm and performance - it's all in a day's play!