Wainhouse Tower, King Cross, Halifax (2016)

A little about Wainhouse Tower, which is a folly in King Cross, an area of Halifax, West Yorkshire. It rises 275 feet, making it the tallest folly in the world. It has 403 steps from the bottom to the lower viewing area and took 4 years to build, being completed in 1875. The tower is open to the public on bank holidays and costs just a few pounds to enter, with outstanding views across the Calder Valley as a reward.

 

The tower was originally built to provide a chimney for the Washer Lane Dye Works, but when the works manager bought the works, he did not want to pay for the tower, so John Edward Wainhouse decided to add viewing platforms to it, and the local tale of the Tower of Spite began. The tale goes that Wainhouse had a long-standing feud with neighbour Sir Henry Edwards, who was said to have the most private estate in Halifax, with Wainhouse adding the viewing platforms so that Edwards could never claim privacy again. The tower cost £14,000 to complete (£1.129428,00 at 2017 prices).

 

The chimney came under the ownership of the Halifax Corporation in 1919, was used as an observation post during World War II, and became the property of Calderdale Council in 1974.

 

These pictures were taken on various dates during the year 2016. They were taken using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera.

The tower pictured from Albert Prom, or The Rocks as it's known locally.

The large building to the front is Halifax Bank's Copley Data Centre, built in the 1980s. The data centre is due to close in the next few years.

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.