Description and History of Site:-
L-shaped 3-storey brick warehouses situated between the new Calderdale Library and Burger King, now a museum. Now open on a regular basis it covers all aspects of the District's industrial development. The building was originally a wool warehouse constructed in about 1896 from brick to match other buildings in the Square estate, of which only the nearby Square Chapel remains. The associated single-storey brick office and sample room which stood in the yard beside the main road was recently demolished as part of the adjacent library construction. By 1905 the warehouse was occupied by Roscoe & Cockroft, underclothing manufacturers, and it became known as Albion Works. Other occupiers over the years included an engineering firm, a blouse and underclothing factory, and Rhodes Rawling boot and shoe manufacturers. In later years Walco leather stores, who had 2 shops in Halifax and 18 around Yorkshire and Lancashire, used it as a warehouse. From 1973 to 1981 Stirks Machine Tools used the premises as a store for wooden patterns which were used in the production of foundry castings for machinery manufacture. The building was later purchased by Calderdale Council and converted for use as an Industrial Museum which opened in 1985 to show and demonstrate the wide variety of industries that flourished in the town. The Museum was extremely successful for many years, but declining visitor numbers and a need by the Council to save money meant its closure in 1998. The bulk of the collection however remained in-situ inside the building and in 2011 the Calderdale Industrial Museum Association (CIMA) was formed by a group of interested individuals to work with the council in order to enable them to reopen the museum once again, using their volunteers. An agreement was signed at the end of Spring 2016 and it is now open on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.

Further Reading and References:-
W. J. Thompson Ed., Brief Guide to the Industrial Heritage of West Yorkshire, AIA, 1989.
http://calderdaleindustrial.co.uk

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Key Words :- museum warehouse wool clothing underclothing shoes leather engineers patterns

Viewing the Site :- May be viewed from Square Road

Address :- Square Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 1QG
Grid Ref :- SE 09600 25100
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.722220 , Long -1.855995
Local Authority :- Calderdale Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Site conserved and open to the public
Site Dates :- 1896 -
Record Date :- 5 May 2015

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Nick Nelson