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Blue Plaques of Halifax & Surrounding Villages
Since the 1990s, the Halifax Civic Trust has installed blue plaques on buildings across Halifax and surrounds to commemorate influential figures in politics, science, the arts, and industry.
These plaques highlight the deep history of the area and the remarkable people who shaped it.
Use this guide to explore Halifax’s rich past. We have included the address and postcode. See if you can find them all!
Industrialists & Philanthropists
Col. Edward Akroyd (1810–1887)
📍 Bankfield Museum, Boothtown Road, Halifax, HX3 6HG
A textile magnate and reformer, Akroyd was ahead of his time in improving workers’ welfare. He created two “model villages” for mill workers — Copley and Akroydon — complete with churches, schools, and housing. He also co-founded the Yorkshire Penny Bank and supported technical education. Akroyd built a large Italian-style mansion – Bankfield – which is now the Bankfield Museum.
John Crossley (1772–1837)
📍 Dean Clough Mills, Halifax, HX3 5AX
Founder of the world-renowned Crossley Carpets, he turned Halifax into a global hub for carpet manufacturing. Dean Clough became one of the largest carpet factories in the world. His legacy includes not just economic growth but significant employment for the town’s residents.
Click to see this short article about John Crossley and his three sons
John Mackintosh (1868–1920)
📍 Bailey Hall Mill, Albion Mills Complex, Halifax, HX1 1YP
Nicknamed "Mr. Toffee," Mackintosh and his wife Violet, who was Halifax-born, invented a unique blend of toffee and caramel that became a household name. His factory grew into a global confectionery business, later merging with Rowntree and becoming part of Nestlé.
Nathaniel Waterhouse (1586–1645)
📍 Waterhouse Homes, Harrison Road, Halifax, HX1 2AF
A wealthy 17th-century merchant, Waterhouse was known for founding schools, almshouses, and hospitals. He and his wife had no children, and they left their fortune to the town to educate poor children and provide housing for the elderly. His philanthropy created a legacy that lasted centuries.
John Henry Whitley (1866–1935)
📍 Brantwood, Stafford Road, Halifax, HX3 0NR
MP for Halifax and Speaker of the House of Commons (1921–28), Whitley worked to improve labour relations and industrial democracy. His proposals laid groundwork for today’s industrial arbitration and works councils.
Click here for a profile of John Henry Whitley
Arts, Literature & Culture
Dr. Phyllis Bentley (1894–1977)
📍 Halifax Playhouse, 8–10 Wards End, Halifax, HX1 1BX
A novelist best known for Inheritance, Bentley brought Yorkshire’s industrial heritage to life through fiction. She was also instrumental in promoting local theatre and was a funding member of the Halifax Thespians, who sponsored her plaque.
Emily Brontë (1818–1848)
📍 Law Hill House, Southowram, Halifax, HX3 9TR
One of the Brontë literary sisters of Haworth, the author of Wuthering Heights lived at Law Hill House, Southowram from September 1838 to April 1839, where she taught at sisters Elizabeth and Maria Patchett's school for girls, following Maria's departure. Emily almost certainly worshipped at St Anne's Church in the village. The plaque was erected at Law Hill to mark the bicentenary of her birth.
Jocelyn Horner (1902–1973)
📍 Green Hayes, Savile Park Road, Halifax, HX1 2XH
One of Yorkshire’s most respected sculptors, Horner created bronze busts, figures, and memorials. Her house doubled as a studio and creative space throughout her life. The plaque was sponsored by Lawrence Funeral Services, who now occupy Green Hayes.
Follow this link for a short profile of Jocelyn Horner on the Art UK website
Anne Lister (1791–1840)
📍 Shibden Hall, Lister’s Road, Halifax, HX3 6XG
A diarist, landowner, industrialist, mountaineer, and trailblazing woman, Lister has been called ‘the first modern lesbian’. We know about Anne Lister's extraordinary life from her 5 million word diaries, which have been designated by UNESCO as part of the memory of the world, and which have been made accessible through the researches of Helena Whitbread and Jill Liddington. Her journals (partially in code) revealed her business dealings and relationships with women. Her story inspired the BBC series Gentleman Jack, written by award-winning West Yorkshire writer Sally Wainwright.
This profile of Anne Lister contains more information on her extraordinary life
Eric Portman (1901-1969)
📍 20 Chester Road, Akroydon, Halifax, HX3 6LS
Stage and screen actor, who played a variety of stage roles in London and New York, and starred in many films from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was educated at Rishworth School, Ripponden, and first appeared on stage for the Halifax Light Opera Society.
William Priestley (1779–1860)
📍 Victoria Theatre, Fountain Street, Halifax, HX1 1BP
Founder of Halifax Choral Society in 1818 following a meeting of Priestley and friends at his home in Lightcliffe, Priestley was a wool merchant, a musician who played the oboe and clarinet, an antiquary and a scholar who translated musical works into English and wrote out both vocal and instrumental copies. The plaque was erected at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, to mark the Choral Society's bicentenary, making the Halifax Choral Society one of the oldest in the world. Priestley and his wife Eliza were friends and neighbours of Anne ‘Gentleman Jack’ Lister and her partner, Ann Walker.
This is a link to a short profile of William Priestley
Science & Innovation
Sir Oliver Smithies (1925–2017)
📍 Copley Primary School, Wakefield Road, Halifax, HX3 0TP
Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine, Smithies pioneered gene targeting — a breakthrough used in treating inherited diseases. Halifax-born, he graduated from Oxford University following his school years at Copley Primary, where his Blue Plaque is displayed, and Heath Grammar School (now Crossley Heath), and spent most of his career at Universities in the USA.
This is a link to a long biography of Sir Oliver, from the Royal Society
Percy Shaw (1890–1976)
📍 Boothtown House, Boothtown Road, Halifax, HX3 6HG
Inventor of the cat’s eye road reflector, Shaw revolutionized nighttime driving safety worldwide. He founded Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd at his home and factory here in Boothtown, where he was born and raised. He was said to have come up with the idea of the cat’s eye reflector when driving one foggy night in the 1930s, down the steep road from Queensbury to his home in Boothtown, when his car headlamps reflected off the eyes of a cat by the roadside.
Follow this link to a biography of Percy Shaw, inventor of the Catseye
Politics, Reform & Suffrage
Dinah Connelly (1879–1969)
📍 Kwik Fit, Pellon Lane, Halifax, HX1 5SP
Born in Keighley, Dinah Connelly was a suffragette who formed the Halifax branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She was arrested and jailed for campaigning for women's votes. In a Halifax Borough Council by election in November 1918 Dinah Connelly became the first woman to vote in an election in Halifax, casting her vote at the only polling station at the Pellon Lane Board School. Plaque at the Kwik Fit depot, Pellon Lane, on the site of the long-demolished School.
The Women’s Suffrage website provides information and links, featuring notable suffragettes. This is the listing for Dinah Connelly.
Adela Pankhurst (1885–1961)
📍 Queen’s Rd & Battinson Rd, Halifax, HX1 4RL
Daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, and sister of Sylvia and Christabel, Adela Pankhurst was a prominent suffragette who campaigned in Halifax in 1907. She moved to Australia in 1914 where she lived for more than 50 years, co-founding the Communist Party of Australia, and later the nationalist Australia First movement. The plaque marks a rally site that drew attention to women's voting rights.
This is Adela’s Wikipedia entry, which tells some of the story of her extraordinary and turbulent life.
E.P. Thompson (1924–1993) & Dorothy Thompson (1923–2011)
📍 Holly Bank, Whitegate, Siddal, Halifax, HX3 9AD
E.P. Thompson, author of The Making of the English Working Class, was a key figure in social history. He wrote the book while living in Siddal, while working at the University of Leeds. His wife Dorothy was a leading feminist historian. Together they shaped 20th-century leftist thought. The plaque was sponsored by the Lipman- Miliband Trust, and the Society for the Study of Labour History.
This is a 2024 profile of EP Thompson in The Guardian to commemorate the centenary of his birth. This link goes to a long essay by EP and Dorothy Thompson on Halifax as a Chartist Centre.
Laura Annie Willson (1877–1942)
📍 Elmwood Street, Halifax HX1 3EX
Laura Annie Willson’s early days were as a mill worker, trade union leader, and activist in the suffragette movement. During the First World War, she mobilised and supported women in engineering, earning her an MBE for her service. She went on to co-found the Women’s Engineering Society, serving as its President from 1926 to 1928. After the war, she turned her attention to the housing crisis, building over 800 affordable and high-quality homes, many of which still stand today. She became the first woman to join the National Federation of Housebuilders.
This profile of Laurie Annie Willson is from the Women Who Mean Business website.
Benjamin Wilson, (1824–1897)
📍 Standard of Freedom pub, New Lane, Skircoat Green, Halifax HX3 0TE
Benjamin Wilson was a Chartist who was born, lived and died in Skircoat Green. He was an active supporter of parliamentary reform and the People’s Charter. After a Chartist meeting at Skircoat Moor in 1842 the Chartist meeting place, the Waggoners Inn, became known as the Standard of Freedom, and the Chartist flag was kept there.
Religion
Reverend Oliver Heywood, (1630–1702)
📍 Ebenezer Cottage, 13-19 Towngate, Northowram, HX3 7DN
Rev. Oliver Heywood was a steadfast Presbyterian Dissenter whose ministry shaped the religious landscape of the North of England. Suspended from his post at Coley Chapel in 1662 for nonconformity, Heywood continued his ministry across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Nottinghamshire, often facing persecution. Despite these challenges, he persisted in preaching and supporting his community, leaving a lasting impact through his diaries, autobiographical writings, and published works. The plaque was sponsored by the Northowram Historical Society and the Northowram Scarecrow Committee.
John Tillotson (1630–1694)
📍 Old Haugh End Cottage, Sowerby, HX6 1DE
Tillotson, the son of a Puritan clothier in Sowerby, rose from rural Calderdale to Archbishop of Canterbury, 1691 - 94. He held influential positions through a period of turmoil in English history, which included the Civil War, the Restoration and the 1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’, and married Elizabeth French, niece of Oliver Cromwell.
This links to the announcement of John Tillotson’s Blue Plaque in the Halifax Courier, from 2021
Sports & Entertainment
Halifax Town A.F.C. (Founded 1911)
📍 Corner of Russell Street & Market Street, Halifax, HX1 1PB
Formed after a meeting at the Saddle Hotel, Halifax Town brought professional football to the town. The plaque commemorates the club’s beginnings in the heart of Halifax. The original Halifax Town went into administration in 2008, and reformed in their current incarnation, FC Halifax Town. The Shaymen have spent most of the time since then in the National League, the fifth tier of English football.
Andrew Watson (1856–1921)
📍 Crossley Heath School, Savile Park, Halifax, HX3 0HG
The world’s first Black international footballer, Watson played for Scotland, the country of his father’s birth, in 1881-82. He attended Heath Grammar School, now Crossley Heath. He was described by the founder of the Scottish Football Museum as "the most influential black footballer of all time. There is nobody that comes close."
This is how BBC News reported Andrew Watson’s Blue Plaque in March 2025
The Beatles (1964 Visit)
📍 Holdsworth House Hotel, Holdsworth Road, Halifax, HX2 9TG
The Fab Four stayed here during a tour in 1964. Their short visit is a fond local memory and a part of Halifax’s pop culture history.
This BBC News article from 2023 tells the story of the band’s stay at Holdsworth House in 1964
📌 Plan Your Route
Many plaques are clustered, making walking tours easy:
Dean Clough Area: Crossley, Mackintosh
Boothtown: Akroyd, Shaw, Portman
Town Centre: Priestley, Bentley, Town A.F.C., Pankhurst
Outskirts: Shibden Hall (Lister), Southowram (Brontë), Copley (Smithies), Skircoat Green (Wilson), Tillotson (Sowerby)
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