The Akroydon model housing scheme is a Victorian-era model village at Boothtown, Halifax, in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It was designed in the Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott in 1859 for the workers at the mills of Colonel Edward Akroyd, who had bought, in 1855, the 62,435 acres (25,267 ha) of land on which the houses were to be built.
As Scott's original plan to have dormer windows in the cottages was unacceptable to members of the Akroyd Town Building Association, Akroyd employed a local architect – W. H. Crossland – under the supervision of Scott, to come up with an acceptable design. The plan was for a quadrangular arrangement of 350 houses, but only 90 were actually built.
In the middle of the quadrangle, known as The Square, [1] Akroyd had a monument called the Victoria Cross built in 1875 and dedicated to Queen Victoria. Its inscription includes a long quotation from William Wordsworth's poem The Excursion . [2] The monument, similar in style to an Eleanor Cross, has been described as "a monument to the British constitution". [3]
According to Walter L Creese, this "suburb on the moors" was Akroyd's attempt "to justify contemporary upheaval, to rationalize for himself and others the improvement and purpose of the factory system as it was replacing the cottage industries". [2]
It was to be a model village not only in the architectural sense but also in a social sense, as the houses were built in various sizes for people from all economic classes, who were offered low cost mortgages to buy them. [3] [nb 1] The village was to be managed by a committee of residents. There was a working men’s college for self-improvement. [3]
Eric Portman, stage and film actor, was born at 71 Chester Road, Akroydon, in 1901. [4]
John Reginald Halliday Christie (the serial killer of 10, Rillington Place, London) was born in Northowram in 1899 [5] and lived with his parents at Chester Road, Akroydon. [6]
Brighouse is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Halifax. It is served by Junction 25 of the M62 motorway and Brighouse railway station on the Caldervale Line and Huddersfield Line. In the town centre is a mooring basin on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The United Kingdom Census 2001 gave the Brighouse / Rastrick subdivision of the West Yorkshire Urban Area a population of 32,360. The Brighouse ward of Calderdale Council gave a population of 11,195 at the 2011 Census. Brighouse has a HD6 postcode.
Mytholmroyd is a large village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hebden Royd, in the Calderdale district, in West Yorkshire, England, 2 miles (3 km) east of Hebden Bridge. It lies in the Upper Calder Valley, 10 miles (16 km) east of Burnley and 7 miles (11 km) west of Halifax. The village, which has a population of approximately 4,000 is in the Luddendenfoot Ward of Calderdale Council.
Copley is a village in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England, south of Halifax and east of Sowerby Bridge. It is situated by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation canal.
Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the upper river flows, while the actual landform is known as the Calder Valley. Several small valleys contain tributaries of the River Calder. The main towns of the borough are Brighouse, Elland, Halifax, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge and Todmorden.
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally physically separated from them and often consist of relatively high-quality housing, with integrated community amenities and attractive physical environments. "Model" is used in the sense of an ideal to which other developments could aspire.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Akroyd (1810–1887), English manufacturer, was born into a textile manufacturing family in 1810, and when he died in 1887, he still owned the family firm. He inherited "James Akroyd & Sons Ltd." from his father in 1847, and he became the owner of one of the country's largest worsted manufacturers.
John Reginald Halliday Christie, nicknamed "Reg" by acquaintances, was an English serial killer and alleged necrophiliac active during the 1940s and early 1950s. He murdered at least eight people—including his wife Ethel—by strangling them inside his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. The bodies of three of his victims were found in a wallpaper-covered kitchen alcove soon after he had moved out of Rillington Place during March 1953. The remains of two more victims were discovered in the garden, and his wife's body was found beneath the floorboards in the front room. Christie was arrested and convicted of his wife's murder, for which he was hanged.
Victoria Theatre in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, is a large theatre and concert hall that opened in 1901.
Shelf is a village in Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north-east of Halifax and 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Bradford, on the A6036 road. In 2001 it had a population of 4,496. At the 2011 Census Shelf was measured as part of the Calderdale ward of Northowram and Shelf.
Boothtown is a suburb of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, which falls within Town Ward, one of the 17 wards of Calderdale.
Halifax is a minster and market town in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woollen manufacture. Halifax is the largest town in the wider Calderdale borough. Halifax was a thriving mill town during the Industrial Revolution. In 2011, it had a population of 88,134.
Stainland is a village in the civil parish of Stainland and District, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The village is part of the Greetland and Stainland ward of Calderdale Council and is approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Elland, 3.5 miles (6 km) south of Halifax and 4.3 miles (7 km) north-west of Huddersfield.
Holywell Green is a village in the civil parish of Stainland and District, in the Calderdale, district, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated approximately 1.4 miles (2 km) south-west of Elland, 3.3 miles (5 km) south of Halifax and 3.9 miles (6 km) north-west of Huddersfield. Holywell Green is part of the Greetland and Stainland Ward of Calderdale Council.
Halifax Town Hall is a grade II* listed, 19th century town hall in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It is notable for its design and interiors by Charles Barry and his son, Edward Middleton Barry, and for its sculptures by John Thomas. The town hall is also the headquarters of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.
Bankfield Museum is a grade II listed historic house museum, incorporating a regimental museum and textiles gallery in Boothtown, Halifax, England. It is notable for its past ownership and development by Colonel Edward Akroyd, MP, and its grand interior.
North Bridge, Halifax is a Victorian iron and stone bridge at Halifax, West Yorkshire, in northern England. It crosses the valley of the River Hebble, connecting the town to roads to Bradford and Leeds. Replacing an earlier six arch stone bridge, it was raised to allow the subsequent construction of the Halifax and Ovenden Joint Railway beneath it, including North Bridge railway station. Opened in 1871 amid chaotic crowd scenes it carried increasingly heavy traffic until it was by-passed by the Burdock Way in 1973. It remains in use for local traffic.
Borough Market is a Victorian covered market in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The market occupies a town centre site between Southgate, Albion Street and Market Street. The glass and wrought iron covered marketplace, surrounded by stone built shops and accommodation, was built between 1891 and 1896 and opened by the future King George V and Queen Mary. The design included three public houses on the Market Street side and fishmongers' shops on Albion Street with the remaining exterior shops all being butchers' shops. The award-winning market is open six days a week with some 125 market stalls.
All Souls Church, Halifax, is a redundant Anglican church in Haley Hill, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church is open to visitors at limited times.
William Swinden Barber FRIBA, also W. S. Barber or W. Swinden Barber, was an English Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts architect, specialising in modest but finely furnished Anglican churches, often with crenellated bell-towers. He was based in Brighouse and Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. At least 15 surviving examples of his work are Grade II listed buildings, including his 1875 design for the Victoria Cross at Akroydon, Halifax. An 1864 portrait by David Wilkie Wynfield depicts him in Romantic garb, holding a flower. He served in the Artists Rifles regiment in the 1860s alongside Wynfield and other contemporary artists.
Media related to Akroydon at Wikimedia Commons