Scammonden Motorway at Dusk.

 Just a single shot picture for this post taken on the 4th August 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR.

Taken from Scammonden Bridge looking eastwards towards the reservoir - Leeds bound motorway direction. This was a first attempt at long exposure by me, I think it turned out ok

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

The picture remains the copyright of Colin Green.

Halifax Bus Station May 2018 and a Ghostly Tale.

The first bus station to be opened in Halifax was to be found at Ward's End, opposite the Victoria Theatre. Opened in the 1940s, it was nothing like a modern-designed bus station, offering only limited stops. This was soon obsolete due to increasing bus travel, and in 1954 Halifax was to gain its first (proper) bus station at Cross Fields, an area of slums recently cleared known as the City.

In the 1980's, Halifax's bus station at Cross Fields had outgrown the site it occupied, with many buses now stopping in the town centre with their passengers never visiting the station. The local authority targeted a site nearby to develop between Northgate and Winding Road, and in October 1989, at a cost of £2 million, the new bus station was opened, with the former Sion Sunday School, Congregation Church, and Jubilee Hall being incorporated into its development.

This bus station was recently demolished to allow for the development of a new bus station on the site. At a cost of £17.7 million, a new bus station serving Halifax will open in 2023.

A couple of recent stories to feature the bus station include the discovery of bones during its recent redevelopment and an interesting ghostly tale from a waiting passenger; this can be read at the bottom of the pictures.

These pictures were taken in May 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. They can be seen below and on Clickasnap in full size, resolution, and unwatermarked.

The frontage and remains of the Sion Congregational Church, Jubilee Memorial Hall. The hall was opened in 1866 and offers an impressive eastern entrance top the bus station.

The former Sion Congregational Church Building, it is part of the bus station and used to have a burial ground nearby. The church was closed in 1959.

Sion Sunday School opened in 1846, the frontage was moved and incorporated in to the bus station when it was developed in 1989.

As I alluded to earlier, there is a story about the bus station being the subject of ghostly happenings. A man waiting for his bus to depart saw two women approaching the bus weighed down with shopping. Upon them preparing to embark, he looked away for a moment, and when he looked back, they had disappeared completely from view on the bus and the surrounding station.

These pictures were taken on May 27, 2018. I'm not sure how much of this bus station still exists as the redevelopment works are still ongoing, with a plan to open the new bus station sometime in 2023.

Thanks for looking; please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Copley Viaducts, December 2018

 Copley is a small village to the south of Halifax, West Yorkshire widely known for the 2 railway viaducts that cross the valley to the west of the village, there is actually 3 railway viaducts with the third crossing the River Calder to the east of the village. The pictures below show the 2 more widely known viaducts at Copley taken on the 9th December 2018.

The 23 arch Copley Viaduct is the more commonly known viaduct, it's the youngest of the 3 having been completed and opened in 1852. It completed the first direct link between the Sowerby Bridge Railway Station and Halifax Railway Station, trains having reversed up from Greetland Railway Station to Halifax when the branch line connecting them opened in 1844.

The viaduct passes over or nearby to the River Calder, Copley Cricket Ground, Calder & Hebble Navigation Canal and the A6026 Wakefield Road.

Both the viaducts can be seen here in this picture taken from Norland. The smaller and older Copley 3 arch viaduct was built by George Stephenson for the Manchester and Leeds Railway. The viaduct carried the first line to pass through the Copley Valley when opened in 1840. The line was closed to passenger trains in 1970, the odd diversion or excursion train using the now mainly freight route. Plans to close the line between Milner Royd and Heaton Lodge Junctions were discussed a number of times before being abandoned completely in the 1980's. In 2000 Brighouse station reopened and passenger trains regularly passed over the viaduct once again.

These 2 pictures were taken on the 9th December 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. The picture below shows the third Copley Viaduct and was taken on the 25th February 2019.

This viaduct crossers the River Calder to the east of Copley village, near to Old Rishworthians sports ground. Opened along with the line in 1840 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway line passes the bottom of North Dean Woods. I have previously posted about this viaduct here in a post called Copley Viaduct (the lesser known one)

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Square Independent Chapel and Congregational Church Spire, Halifax

Square Independent Chapel opened on the 24th May 1772 taking it's name from the area of Halifax it was built in. The chapel is constructed of red brick and is 60ft square and when opened was the largest independent place of worship in the country. The chapel cost a fortune for the time £2000 to build and the red brick is said to contain bulls blood to highlight the red. 

The chapel held it's last service on the 12th June 1857, when it became the Sunday School for the newly constructed Square Congregational Church, which had recently opened next door. In 1939 the Army took control of the building for the war effort and the Chapel was given Grade II listed status on the 3rd November 1954. The local Council purchased the building in 1969 with a plan to demolish it, the Victorian society getting the building on the listed for preservation register in 1970. In 1985 Calderdale Council once again had a plan to demolish the building, again this never came to fruition before the Square Chapel Building Trust bought the building for £25 in 1989 spending over £3million in the refurbishment of the building which was to become the Square Chapel Arts Centre in 1992.

Square Congregational Church opened on the 15th July 1857 as the replacement for Square Independent Chapel. When built the church had the second tallest spire in Yorkshire at 235ft until Edward Akroyd had the nearby All Souls Church built with a spire that was just 1ft taller. Local legend suggest this was deliberate as Akroyd had a rivalry with the Crossley Family who had contributed to the construction of Square Church. The church held services until 1970, a year after it had merged with the United Congregational Church. 

Square Congregational Church was granted Grade II listed status on the 2nd March 1950. The church became a target for vandals after closure and the main body of the church was devastated by a large fire on the 3rd January 1971, and a further fire and gale before 1973. In 1976 the church was demolished saving the spire and foundations and becoming a rest-garden area until it was closed off in 2005 after the spire had become unsafe. Around this time workmen who had checking the spire structurally became convinced there was a ghost inhabiting an inaccessible area near the top of the spire, this was after photo's they had taken showed a shape that they claimed could not be explained.

The spire remained closed off for a number of years with some members of Calderdale Council requesting its demolition, before the town decided a new library was needed and this was constructed including the spire as a and rose window as a central part of the new building which opened in 2017. The spire with the new library now forms a welcoming part of the new eastern entrance to the Piece Hall.

The Rose Window seen to the left of the spire is based on the east window at Selby Abbey.

The new Halifax Library Building can be seen built around the spire.

These pictures were taken on the 27th October 2019 with a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. They can be seen on Clickasnap full size, resolution and un-watermarked.

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.