The Moot Hall, Halifax. Unveiling of the Information Board, Saturday 22nd April 2023.

The land that is now Halifax lay within Edward the Confessor’s exceptionally large manor of Wakefield. The manor was probably granted in 1106 by Henry 1 to William de Warrenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and son of the first William de Warrenne who had fought with William the Conqueror at Hastings. The de Warrenne earls built a castle at Sandal, and thus Wakefield became the centre of manorial administration.
The moot was an Anglo-Saxon legal institution that survived through the Norman conquest, and the Wakefield court rolls tell us that by 1274 the manorial court was sitting twice a year in the Halifax Moot Hall. Civil and criminal cases were dealt with, and Halifax’s Gibbett Law was administered here until the last executions in 1650.
The legal use of the Moot Hall ended in the 18th c. After use as a joiner’s workshop from the 19th c., occupation ended in the 1940’s and the building was demolished in 1957, leaving the reconstructed walls you see today.
Halifax Civic Trust has worked to draw attention to this remaining evidence of Halifax’s medieval history, and we have secured the necessary permissions to install a fine information board on one of the remaining lower walls.
This Information Board was unveiled by the Mayor, Cllr. Angie Gallagher, at 3 pm on Saturday 22nd April 2023.
Opening the event was the Chair of Halifax Civic Trust Alan Goodrum. Presenting the background to the Moor Hall and the project was David Witcher.

[@beana666]

Many thanks and congratulations to the people who made this happen!👏

[@halifaxcivictrust3568]

Thank you for your nice comments. We are all volunteers so your feedback is kindly appreciated.

[@heartofoak45]

Well done to you all. I can't resist, however, saying that if the late Duke of Edinburgh had been present, and he was an expert unveilor, he would have said after about five minutes,"Oh for God's sake unveil the bugger". That is the milder version.