Bankfield Museum facts for kids
Bankfield Museum, Halifax, West Yorkshire
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| Established | 1887 |
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| Location | Boothtown Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England HX3 6HG |
| Type | Textiles gallery, Historic house museum, Regimental museum. |
| Public transit access | Halifax railway station First West Yorkshire (buses) Arriva Yorkshire (buses) Halifax Joint Committee (buses) |
Bankfield Museum is a super cool place in Halifax, England. It's an old, fancy house that's now a museum! It has a special section about the local army regiment and also shows off amazing old fabrics and clothes. The building itself is very important and has a rich history, especially because of a famous person named Colonel Edward Akroyd who used to own it.
Contents
The Story of Bankfield Museum
When Edward Akroyd bought this house in 1838, it was much smaller. It only had eight rooms and was built around the year 1800. Edward and his brother Henry worked for their dad, Jonathan Akroyd, who owned a big factory that made worsted fabric (a type of wool).
After his father passed away in 1848, Edward used his inheritance to make Bankfield much bigger and grander. He covered the old building with nice stone and added new rooms like a dining room, a chapel, and kitchens.
A Grand Home for a Member of Parliament
By 1867, Edward Akroyd was a Member of Parliament (an MP), which means he was a person elected to represent his area in the government. This meant he had to host many important guests. Even though the future King Edward VII visited Halifax in 1863, he had lunch elsewhere because Bankfield wasn't big enough yet!
So, in 1867, Edward added a huge new part to the house. This new section cost a lot of money – about £20,000! It had a special covered entrance for carriages, a big hall, drawing rooms, a library, and a billiard room. At its busiest, Bankfield had 25 servants working there!
Edward Akroyd also built a special village nearby called Akroydon. It was a model village with cool Gothic revival style houses, gardens, a shop, and a church.
From Home to Museum
By 1887, Edward Akroyd's business wasn't doing so well, and he was getting sick. He sold Bankfield to the town of Halifax for £6,000. Soon after, he passed away.
The house was quickly turned into a museum and a library. Over the years, some of its original fancy features were lost. But in 1954, it was recognized as an important building. Today, the local council has worked hard to bring Bankfield back to its former glory. They say it shows how important the textile industry was to Britain long ago and how Halifax played a big part in that story.
Some of the museum's older collections, like natural history items, were moved to other museums. But Bankfield still has many amazing things, especially a large collection of textiles.
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment Museum
This part of the museum tells the story of a famous army group called the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. It was partly closed for updates in 2005 and 2008, thanks to grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The museum shows the history of this regiment from its start in 1702 all the way to 2009. That's when it joined with other regiments to form the Yorkshire Regiment. You can learn about their history through stories from soldiers and cool interactive displays.
A Regiment's History
The regiment was made up of two older groups: the 33rd and 76th Foot Regiments. They joined together in 1881. The 33rd was named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a very famous general. The 76th served in India and had special flags called "colours." Because of this, the combined regiment carried four flags when they marched in parades!
The main office for the regiment is still in Halifax. Edward Akroyd even helped create a local volunteer army group in 1860, which later became part of this regiment. He also helped set up the regiment's main base in Halifax. Bankfield Museum helps with research and learning activities related to this army history.
The regiment has fought in many battles, from the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 to the Iraq War in 2003. During the First and Second World Wars, soldiers from this regiment also served as tank crews, artillery gunners, and engineers. Since 1945, they have also served with the United Nations in different operations.
Inside Bankfield Museum
Outside the Museum
The museum building looks a bit like an Italian house with its wide eaves and nice stone. The main entrance, which is now enclosed, used to be an open area where horse-drawn carriages could drive under a roof so people could get out without getting wet.
The house has a unique shape because of all the parts Edward Akroyd added over time. It has two stories with arches, especially in the newer 1867 section. It has a big roof made of slate tiles and looks like buildings from 14th or 15th century Italy.
Inside the Museum
The grand staircase is made of shiny marble. The decorations around it are inspired by ancient Roman paintings found in places like Pompeii. The bottom of the stairs even has designs that look like ancient Egyptian art!
The dining room is now used for special temporary exhibitions. It has a fancy marble fireplace and a plaster design showing the royal coat of arms. The Regimental Museum is in what used to be the drawing room. Below the library was the billiard room, where people played pool.
The 1867 part of the house had a clever heating system with warm air coming through vents near the floor. There's a story that the hot air might have even come from the nearby Haley Mill! The floors in the marble gallery and the chapel lobby have beautiful patterned tiles.
The Saloon
This big room is now the entrance hall and museum shop. It used to be the grand hall, a reception room, a picture gallery, and even a ballroom where people danced! It had fancy oil paintings and gas lights hanging from the ceiling.
The ceiling has special rooflights and painted plaster decorations in a classical style. The marble fireplace has two cute little angel-like figures called putti holding trumpets. These putti also appear on the grand staircase ceiling. It's thought they might have been a sad reminder that Edward and his wife Elizabeth didn't have children.
The Library
This room is now called the World of Textiles gallery. The museum's fabric exhibits are displayed in the original oak bookcases! It was a very bright room with three large windows on the north and east walls. The top parts of the windows have etched glass designs that match the patterns on the ceiling. One of the bookcases even shows off beautiful silver items made by a Halifax jeweler named Charles Horner.
The Library Ceiling
The library used to be a smoking room, so it's amazing that the original painted ceiling survived and could be fully restored! The ceiling is very colorful, with lots of paint, gold, and sculptures. It takes its general design from classical art. The background is cream, but there's a lot of reddish-brown color, which became popular in Victorian England after old Roman ruins were dug up again.
Small panels show clear classical pictures and portraits that look like old wall paintings. Four round pictures show famous poets like Shakespeare and Milton. All the spaces on the cream background are filled with designs that look like old Italian pottery, showing stylized goats, fauns (mythical half-human, half-goat creatures), cornucopias (horns of plenty), grapes, birds, and flowers. There are also angels and putti in the center. The decoration around the edge even has a "Green Man" design, which is a face made of leaves.
The Library Fireplace
The fireplace is made of red, cream, and black marble, with colorful pieces of semi-precious stones like green malachite inlaid into it. All these materials came from other countries. The intertwined initials of Edward and his wife Elizabeth are right in the middle of the fireplace, and the year 1867 is clearly shown.
The design also includes the White Rose of Yorkshire, which is repeated on the carved columns of the fireplace. The mantelpiece is big enough to hold three life-sized marble statues: Edward Akroyd on the left, his father Jonathan in the middle, and his wife Elizabeth on the right. The statue of Elizabeth is amazing because it looks like she has a veil over her face, even though it's made of stone! The tiles in the hearth (the area in front of the fireplace) are similar to famous Mintons tiles but were probably made locally.
The Back Staircase
On the wall of this staircase, you can see plaster sculptures of Night and Day. These are based on works by a Danish sculptor and are meant to show the division between the sleeping areas upstairs and the daytime rooms downstairs. The wooden railing has carved balusters and brass lion-shaped decorations, because Elizabeth's family symbol was a lion.
The ceiling has many carved squares, and there are windows all around the top of the stairwell with a large glass chandelier, making it very bright. In fact, the stairwell is built as a separate tower just to allow for so many windows!
Interesting People Connected to the Museum
The Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society was started in 1830 by a group of local people who wanted to study science and arts and create a museum. They collected interesting objects from their travels, including rocks, natural history items, art, and strange things from around the world.
Their museum eventually closed in 1895, and their collections were given to Halifax museums, including Bankfield. Some of these old items are still shown today to give you an idea of what Victorians liked to collect.
Lemuel Clayton was a local council member and silk spinner who helped start Bankfield Museum in 1887. He had traveled the world and collected many interesting things, which were some of the first items displayed in the museum. One of his curiosities was a stone carving of a baby that he got from a temple in Japan in 1886. It was meant to bring luck to women who wanted children. It's interesting that he brought this baby statue to Bankfield House, which already had many baby figures in its decorations, especially since Edward and Elizabeth Akroyd didn't have children.
Henry Ling Roth was an expert in anthropology (the study of human societies and cultures) and was the curator (the person in charge) of the Halifax museums from 1900 to 1925. He wrote many articles about anthropology. He was known for turning a small, confusing museum into an important place for learning and research. Before him, the museum just displayed random "curiosities." But Roth organized the displays to teach people about different cultures and times. He was especially interested in textiles, so he showed off old textile machines and fabrics from all over the world.
Edith Durham was another anthropologist who collected textiles from the Balkans (a region in Southeast Europe). She gave her collection to the museum in 1935. It's thought that the museum got this important collection because of the good reputation Ling Roth had built for it. Her collection was displayed at Bankfield in a special exhibition in 1997.
What's Happening at the Museum?
Bankfield Museum often has new and exciting temporary exhibitions. For example, in 2009, they had a show about textiles inspired by Chinese art. They also have regular events like talks for the public and fun workshops and activities for children. Plus, they offer special educational programs for school groups.
Images for kids
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The exit of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment Museum.
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A section showing the early history of the regiment.
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