On that trip to Halifax we ended up at the Piece Hall. We both thought at first it would be Peace Hall but of course it wasn’t. It’s a Georgian building in the shape of a quadrangle and dates from 1779.

We visited in November hence the Christmas sign:-

One side (the north one?) is higher than its opposite. You can see this if you compare the number of floors on the side to the left below compared to the one on the right:-

As can be seen from the photo below Halifax lies in a bowl of surrounding hills:-

The Piece Hall was used as a market for fabric, mostly woven wool. The spaces where individuals sold their cloth are now taken up by a variety of traders including sweets, toys, antiques, books, clothes, curios, art reclamations etc.

This is one of the four colonnades:-

Pre-Christmas entertainment was provided by a brass band:-

The massive and elaborately decorated pair of iron gates at the Piece Hall’s entrance were made by the Sun Foundry in Glasgow. When we were there they were set back against the wall to allow entry to the Hall so were difficult to photograph but they can be seen here along with more photos of the Piece Hall.

While at Rochdale we were taken on a day trip to Halifax.

On the M62 we passed Hollingsworth Lake:-

And under this elegant bridge:-

And in Halifax parked near these two contrasting bridges. Old and new:-

Marks & Spencer and Halifax, Parliament Street and the Pavement, York.

The M&S has two entrances, one in Parliament Street, York, the other to the right here on The Pavement. The corner is occupied by the Halifax (a branch of HBoS)

Strong verticals on the Halifax building and also note the narrow windows on the right just beside the green fronted M&S.

This is the view from The Pavement. Good strong verticals, subtle pastel outlining.

This is a building on Picadilly, York, which houses Argos and Ladbrokes among others. The lower stonework has good detailing.

This side is more deco as regards the windows, especially th elong narrower one on the lower right.

Almost the first interesting building we came across in and around the town centre was shielded behind hoardings but it was obviously a once important institutional building. It turns out it used to house the Gloucester College of Art and Technology. It’s not really bent, I couldn’t get far enough back for one shot so this is a stitch. I only just caught this one. It had signs on it saying it was about to be demolished. Such a pity that a use couldn’t be found for it.

I have found another picture of the building at Panoramio.

This site shows some of the detailing.

Also check out here which shows a few of the internal features.

The good lady thinks it’s a scandal that it’s all to go. So do I.

Gloucester was further well served in an Art Deco sense by a full-on Deco Debenham’s. It’s on a corner with a long frontage down the side street. Impossible to get in one shot. (Or a decent stitch.)

We also found a Marks & Spencer (again I couldn’t get far enough back for anything but a side shot)

and a Halifax – very minor deco, and those wires in the way!

Four Art Deco buildings, one an absolute belter, one a particularly sad sight, and we were only there for an hour!

On our recent trip I seem to have passed through, or close to, a fair few towns in England that have or had teams in the Football League, which gave me some idea of their geographic proximity. Starting with Sheffield, we went on through Derby, bypassed Mansfield, then headed back up to Chesterfield where I photographed the famous crooked spire which lends the nickname Spireites to the local side.

Cheterfield had a large street market on the go the morning we were there. It made the place seem thriving though whether it truly is or not I have no idea.

After that it was up north through Huddersfield and Halifax on our way to Haworth again.

Yet in all these travels I caught sight of not one single football stadium – though I had seen a road sign for Brammall Lane in Sheffield.

The reason for going to Haworth this time was we hadn’t seen as much of it as we would have liked when we were there before.

This certainly wasn’t there in the Bronté’s time. It’s now a stop on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway – one of those preservation railways which reflect the British love of nostalgia but are an important reminder of our industrial heritage.

We didn’t do the Bronté Parsonage this time but explored the old street more. There were more shops open this time including the old style sweetie shop where we bought something called Yorkshire Tablet – as sweet as Orkney Fudge but a bit softer – and had a browse round two second hand bookshops we don’t recall from two years ago. The good lady bought three books and I got a hardback of Tricia Sullivan’s Lethe; goodness knows when I’ll get round to reading it.