Editing Edward Akroyd (section)

{{Short description|British politician}}
{{More footnotes|date=July 2021}}
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[[File:Edward Akroyd ( Hering NPG Ax8616).jpg|thumb|Edward Akroyd bt Henry Hering]]
[[File:Sir Edward Akroyd, Halifax.JPG|thumb|Statue of Edward Akroyd at [[All Souls Church, Halifax|All Souls Church]], Haley Hill]]

Lieutenant Colonel '''Edward Akroyd''' (1810–1887), English manufacturer, was born into a [[textile manufacturing]] family in 1810, and when he died in 1887, he still owned the family firm.  He inherited "James Akroyd & Sons Ltd." from his father in 1847, and he became the owner of one of the country's largest [[worsted]] manufacturers.

He established mills at Haley Hill in [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]] and then at [[Copley, West Yorkshire|Copley]], two miles or so to the south.  He proved to be a very successful businessman, and his firm made him very prosperous.  At Haley Hill, not far from his mills, he extended a large [[mansion]], [[Bankfield Museum|Bankfield]], and then went to live there.

Akroyd was well read and concerned about the fortunes of Halifax and the terrible social conditions that grew out of the [[Industrial Revolution]].  He funded and supported a local allotment society and many institutions for the working classes, a school for child labourers, a workers' pension scheme, several churches (he was a staunch [[Anglican]]) and a cemetery. He founded a Working Men's College, the first outside London.

In the mid-1850s, he helped found the [[Yorkshire Bank|Yorkshire Penny Bank]] (to encourage workers to save), and he worked closely with the Halifax Permanent Building Society (later the [[Halifax Building Society]]) to promote home ownership through his [[model village]] [[Akroydon]].  This was built after his initial housing development, which he had undertaken with his brother at Copley, to show people how housing conditions could be improved. He was partly responsible for bringing the railway to the town.

Edward Akroyd became a Lieutenant Colonel of the [[Duke of Wellington's Regiment|4th Yorkshire West Riding (Halifax) Rifle Volunteers]] in 1861, and served as a member of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]].

Akroyd's kindness was well known, and many had cause to be grateful to him. They felt his problems as keenly as their own when some of his overseas investments failed and he suffered great financial loss.  The unkindest cut of fate, however, was when he fell from his horse and received severe head injuries.  After this, his failing health caused him to leave Halifax for a secluded life at [[St Leonards-on-Sea]], attended by only one manservant, and it was there that he died in 1887.  At his funeral, 15,000 mourners crowded outside [[All Souls Church, Halifax|All Souls' Church]] and many businesses closed for a few hours as a mark of respect.  On his death, he left an estate of [[Pound sterling|£]]1,234 1s. 10d.

Now that the Akroyd business empire has passed well into history, what remains of it in Halifax is something of the architectural heritage to remind one of the scope of Akroyd's vision. The small church at Copley survives (without the colossal mill which stood nearby). At Haley Hill the mill survives in multiple occupation as part of the Dean Clough business park; the Akroyd mansion, [[Bankfield Museum|Bankfield]], which has been a municipal museum for many years still stands on the edge of the gothic-style, stone-built model village, which survives more or less intact. The crowning feature of the scheme, Sir George Gilbert Scott's white limestone [[All Souls Church, Halifax|All Souls' Church]] (1856-8) still dominates the area, its lofty spire reaching 236 feet into the Yorkshire sky: the second tallest in the county ([[Wakefield Cathedral]] has the highest spire). Both [[St Stephen's Church, Copley|St Stephen's Copley]] and All Souls itself are now vested in the Churches Conservation Trust, All Souls' having been rescued from demolition by a continuing programme of restoration initially organized by a board of Trustees assembled for the purpose. No regular services have been held at All Souls' Haley Hill since 1977.

A [[blue plaque]] commemorating Akroyd was erected by the [[Halifax Civic Trust]] at Dean Clough.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.halifaxcivictrust.org/blueplaqueslist.html|title=List of Blue Plaques|publisher=Halifax Civic Trust|accessdate=30 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430165856/http://www.halifaxcivictrust.org/blueplaqueslist.html|archive-date=30 April 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{Infobox COA wide
|image = Akroyd Achievement.png
|escutcheon = Azure a chevron and in base a stag’s head erased Argent on a chief of the last two stags' heads erased of the field.
|crest = In front of a stag’s head proper three spear heads Sable encircled by a wreath of oak
|motto= In Veritate Victoria (Victory in Truth)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://heraldryonline.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/bookplate-edward-akroyd-mp-jp-dl-of-bankfield/ |title=Bookplate: Edward Akroyd MP JP DL of Bankfield |date=9 February 2012 |accessdate=30 June 2019 |publisher=Stephen J F Plowman}}</ref>}}