Halifax panorama

I walked with a friend recently, from the Piece Hall in Halifax to Shibden Hall (see HERE) and back. It's a strenuous climb out of the town and up over the hill. You do, however, get a splendid panoramic view of Halifax if you look back. 

It was a bit hazy but you might be able to pick out a few landmarks. Looking south west:

The Wainhouse Tower was built as a chimney for a dyeworks in the 1870s, with the intention to combat pollution. The works were sold before it was finished and it was never actually used, but became a folly and a landmark. You can climb 403 steps to the top, should you wish! It is 275 feet tall. 

In front of that is a large, black, modernistic office block, built in 1973 as the head office for Halifax Building Society, now part of the Lloyds group. 

I've labelled The Piece Hall, that amazing Georgian wool market (see HERE) and in front of that is the spire of the demolished Square Chapel, now part of Halifax Library (see HERE). 

Down at the front of the photo is Halifax Minster, its stone still blackened from years of pollution (see HERE). (The grime of the Industrial Revolution has been sandblasted off most public buildings in our northern towns.)

Looking due west (and zoomed in a bit) you can see the huge bulk of the Dean Clough mill complex. I'll be posting some more photos and information about that soon, as I visited there separately a couple of weeks ago. In front of the mills is a red painted Victorian bridge known as North Bridge, over the River Hebble. It is now dwarfed by the concrete flyovers built across the valley in the 1970s to try to alleviate Halifax's traffic problems.

I don't know about you but I love being up high and looking over a view like this, trying to pick out the familiar places seen from a different angle. It was, however, freezing cold so we didn't linger too long before setting off again on our walk, at a brisk pace to warm ourselves up.