Edward Akroyd

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.