Toffee Town

For some reason I've never had or made a chance to potter around Halifax until today. I've been to a wedding or two there, passed through on the train or in the car, visited Eureka! and Shibden Park, but not spent any time exploring the town centre.

After another bout of knee physio at St. Luke's, I took the train over and then just roamed, seeing what caught my eye. I spotted this window sign on a first floor window, but I only learned its significance when I was looking at the exhibition on the history of local confectionery manufacture in the Piece Hall. Halifax is famous for toffees, with Mackintosh being the big name, later part of Rowntree Mackintosh and now absorbed into Nestle who still have a plant in the town. (And as my sister has commented, every After Eight mint in the world is made in Halifax.) There is a John Mackintosh blue plaque on the Nestle factory, commemorating his influence on the town.

I don't know if this was a former Mackintosh building, or if perhaps the windows had been reclaimed and re-used. It seemed odd that the sign was to be read from indoors rather than out, which made me think it might be part of someones refurbished apartment.

Another discovery was a great little veggie/ vegan cafe, Ginger. I'm not normally one for food reviews, but I had a lovely soup with fresh bread and a very special vegan fridge cake.

The final find of the day was, after many months, my first gold post box. This one for Hannah Cockcroft, gold medalist in the T34 100m and 200m at the Paralympics.

Overall, I was favourably impressed with the town, and will want to return again on a fine day to photograph the stone buildings, and to sample more of Ginger's menu.