Edward Akroyd

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 and then at 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, 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 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 4th Yorkshire West Riding (Halifax) Rifle Volunteers in 1861, and served as a member of 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 and many businesses closed for a few hours as a mark of respect. On his death, he left an estate of £1,234 1s. 10d.

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