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Hell, Hull and ...
Aug. 20th, 2024 06:14 pmOur return from Shropshire was altogether more leisurely: taking a reasonably direct route and breaking it almost exactly halfway would allow us to spend a day in Halifax. How could we resist?
But first, we visited a friend who lives in Wem, which is still in Shropshire. Shropshire is a large county; the largest of the shires without a coastline. (And the County Flower is the Round-leaved Sundew - though Wem is the home of the Sweet Pea.) We had such fun, and were made so welcome, that what we had intended as dropping in for coffee turned into a very leisurely lunch, we hit end-of-day traffic and barely reached our hotel in time for dinner.
I had wanted to visit Halifax - specifically, I had wanted to visit the Piece Hall - ever since J. told me about her visit. Somehow it had been just out of range when we spent our week in Saltaire, but now my chance had come. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting: I knew it was connected with the wool trade, J. had enjoyed shopping there, so I pictured something along the lines of Salt's Mill.
Actually, Halifax does have something very much like that, but it's not the Piece Hall, it's Dean Clough, which also looks worth a visit. The Piece Hall belongs to the previous generation of the textile industry, before the huge mills when weaving was still farmed out to individual handloom weavers, and the lengths ("pieces") of woven cloth were traded at this immense market place. Each clothier had an individual room, a little cell arranged in arcades around a vast open square, and these are now occupied by independent businesses, mostly arty crafty shops and cafés.
This is impressive, but pretty much impossible to photograph. In addition, it is used as an occasional summer music venue, and on the day of our visit was set up for a concert, with a marquee in one corner, and random barriers scattered about. So it wasn't looking its best overall, but there were still plenty of details to entertain us: the arcades, the displays about the history of the Piece Hall, the truly magnificent cast iron South Gates (newly restored), and yes, I admit it, the shops...
One thing that puzzled us was a church spire looming above the arcades. It must be very close outside the Piece Hall: was it the Minster? We asked a couple of staff members for directions, and they warned us that Anne Lister's grave wasn't easy to find; so we explained that we hadn't actually been thinking of Anne Lister, we were just intrigued by the spire. That, they told us, wasn't the Minster, it was the Square Chapel. Most of the Chapel had been demolished and incorporated into the arts centre (pointing to a big copper cube - and now that I've read a bit more about it, I wish that I'd looked more closely) but the spire had been built into the library. We were a bit startled at this, but yes, they said, really, it's in the library, you can go and look. So we did.
And the next day we came home, via Booths in Ripon.
But first, we visited a friend who lives in Wem, which is still in Shropshire. Shropshire is a large county; the largest of the shires without a coastline. (And the County Flower is the Round-leaved Sundew - though Wem is the home of the Sweet Pea.) We had such fun, and were made so welcome, that what we had intended as dropping in for coffee turned into a very leisurely lunch, we hit end-of-day traffic and barely reached our hotel in time for dinner.
I had wanted to visit Halifax - specifically, I had wanted to visit the Piece Hall - ever since J. told me about her visit. Somehow it had been just out of range when we spent our week in Saltaire, but now my chance had come. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting: I knew it was connected with the wool trade, J. had enjoyed shopping there, so I pictured something along the lines of Salt's Mill.
Actually, Halifax does have something very much like that, but it's not the Piece Hall, it's Dean Clough, which also looks worth a visit. The Piece Hall belongs to the previous generation of the textile industry, before the huge mills when weaving was still farmed out to individual handloom weavers, and the lengths ("pieces") of woven cloth were traded at this immense market place. Each clothier had an individual room, a little cell arranged in arcades around a vast open square, and these are now occupied by independent businesses, mostly arty crafty shops and cafés.
This is impressive, but pretty much impossible to photograph. In addition, it is used as an occasional summer music venue, and on the day of our visit was set up for a concert, with a marquee in one corner, and random barriers scattered about. So it wasn't looking its best overall, but there were still plenty of details to entertain us: the arcades, the displays about the history of the Piece Hall, the truly magnificent cast iron South Gates (newly restored), and yes, I admit it, the shops...
One thing that puzzled us was a church spire looming above the arcades. It must be very close outside the Piece Hall: was it the Minster? We asked a couple of staff members for directions, and they warned us that Anne Lister's grave wasn't easy to find; so we explained that we hadn't actually been thinking of Anne Lister, we were just intrigued by the spire. That, they told us, wasn't the Minster, it was the Square Chapel. Most of the Chapel had been demolished and incorporated into the arts centre (pointing to a big copper cube - and now that I've read a bit more about it, I wish that I'd looked more closely) but the spire had been built into the library. We were a bit startled at this, but yes, they said, really, it's in the library, you can go and look. So we did.
And the next day we came home, via Booths in Ripon.
