Tag: Halifax

Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well known as a centre of England’s woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece Hall. Halifax is internationally famous for its Mackintosh chocolate and toffee (now owned by Nestlé), the Halifax Bank (formerly Halifax Building Society), and the nearby Shibden Hall.
The name is first recorded in about 1091 in the form Halyfax, possibly from the Old English halh-gefeaxe, meaning “area of coarse grass in the nook of land”. This explanation is now preferred to derivations from the Old English halig (holy), for example hālig feax (holy hair), first proposed by 16th century antiquarians. The incorrect interpretation gave rise to two local legends. One concerned a maiden killed by a lustful priest whose advances she spurned. Another held that the head of John the Baptist was…