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Somerset House

The hidden treasure

For many years now people have walked along Rawson Street oblivious to the fantastic town centre mansion partially hidden behind the shop fronts.

The mansion was originally known as Royd's House or Royd's Mansion and was erected in 1766. The owner of the mansion was John Royd, a merchant banker and trader who was born in Soyland. It was designed by John Carr, the renowned Yorkshire architect. The imposing symmetrical building, also had well maintained grounds which extended as far as Powell Street and the Victoria Theatre.

As well as being a home for the Royd family, the building acted as the premises for John's mortgage, banking and insurance business. The firm financed many of the local clothiers and merchants. The cloths and yarns produced in hillside cottages were brought down to be stored in the mansion warehouse, from where they were later transported for sale.

Many notable people who visited Halifax in the 18th century, were guests of the Royd family, including King Christian VII of Denmark and the Marquis of Rockingham, a former prime minister.

John Royd died in 1781 and other members of the family left Halifax for London and Bath. The Rawson family established their banking business at Royd's House in 1811. With the merger of their Halifax and Huddersfield branches, Rawson's Bank became the Halifax and Huddersfield Union Bank-known as the Union Bank.

In 1898, the Union Bank moved to new premises. Following this, the five easternmost bays of the mansion were demolished. The east wing was then rebuilt, 50 yards further up the street, thereby losing the symmetry.

The name Somerset House was apparently given by one of the General Manager's of the Union Bank, a J H Finlayson. It is said he renamed it after an interest he had in a Somerset county paper mill.

By 1850 the Post Office had a branch in the building. The Huddersfield Building Society took over part of the building in 1928 and in the 1950's undertook some major renovation work.

One of the most striking aspects of the interior of the building, which has still retained much of its former glory is the beautiful, ornate carved plasterwork on the walls and ceiling of the first floor salon. Royd had commissioned the Italian, Guiseppe Cortese to carve the plasterwork, much of which represents members of the Royd family. The commission took 10 years to complete at a cost of £2000.

Halifax Civic Trust proposed restoring the mansion to its former glory back in 1998. It then became one of the key projects of the Halifax Renaissance Programme and work eventually commenced on the restoration in 2007. The scaffolding has now come down, the building has been cleaned, repointed and the windows replaced and once again it fronts directly onto Rawson Street and is now a licensed venue for civil weddings and civil partnership formations. See Venue: Somerset House .

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