Halifax Houses
The number of yeoman houses in Calderdale
is unrivalled in the north of England. Yeomen used the wealth
they accumulated from farming and textiles to build houses that
reflected their position at the top of local society.
Building began around 1500 and lasted for
another 250 years. Architectural historians call their distinctive
regional style "Halifax" houses.
The earliest of these houses (see above, click
for details) have a characteristically uniform plan with a housebody
open from ground to roof and aisles providing extra width. Aisles
are functional and reveal their builders source of wealth rather
than their search for greater comfort. Aisles create a lower
room giving additional space in a working household where a clothier
might set up looms or store wool and pieces ready for market.
 From
the 1580s to the early 1700s local architecture was influenced
by fashion. The extraordinary wealth of the district was expressed
in many fine houses of spacious proportions. Built from blocks
of dressed stone their recognisable features are long mullioned
windows, often transomed, and circular rose windows above the
doorway in double storey porches.
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