[1] He and his brother Henry were working for their father Jonathan Akroyd, a rich worsted mill owner, and living at Woodside Mansion in Boothtown.

Edward encased the 18th-century building in fairfaced stone and added two loggias, a dining room, Anglican chapel and kitchens.

[2] Akroyd extended his influence beyond Haley Mills and Bankfield by building Akroydon close by: a model village of gothic terraced houses, allotments, park, cooperative, stables and All Souls’ Church, all designed by George Gilbert Scott.

The house was immediately turned into a museum and branch library, but over time the original features were neglected, and some elements were lost; however the building was listed grade II in 1954.

[2] Calderdale Council has done this because "Together Akroydon and Bankfield symbolise the importance of the textile industry to Victorian Britain and the central role that Halifax played in this story.

[6]The museum was partly closed for phase one of a refurbishment in 2005, and was reopened on 22 October 2005 by Lady Jane Wellesley the daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington.

In 1860 Edward Akroyd paid for and recruited the 4th Yorkshire West Riding (Halifax) Rifle Volunteers, absorbing the 7th battalion formed in 1959.

The pillared and enclosed entrance lobby was originally an open porte-cochere, or covered entrance-way for carriages, which would drive under the stone canopy for the passengers to disembark.

The grand staircase is marble, and the decorations are inspired by the frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum, although the wall-design at the bottom of the stairs appears to be Egyptian revival.

The saloon was also the grand hall, reception room, picture gallery and ballroom, with a little furniture at the sides, many oil paintings and gasoliers.

The ceiling is heavily painted, gilded and sculptured in an eclectic manner, taking its general design from classical sources.

The background is cream, but there is much use of Pompeiian red, an earth colour which gained popularity in Victorian England after the renewed excavations by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1860.

Small panels feature clearly painted classical motifs and portraits with distressed backgrounds, to look like pieces of ancient frescoes.

All the spaces on the cream background are filled with illustrations imitating the original maiolica style, featuring stylised goats and fauns, cornucopia, grapes, birds and flowers, but also angels and putti in the centre.

The inlay features the White Rose of Yorkshire, possibly in Parian marble, which is repeated on the carved corinthian columns on the fire surround.

The mantelshelf is massive enough to support three lifesized marble busts: Edward Akroyd on the left, his father Jonathan in the centre, and his wife Elizabeth Fearby (d.1884) on the right (by the Florentine sculptor Niccolò Bazzanti (1802–1869)).

On the wall of the stairwell are low relief plaster sculptures of Night and Day after works by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.

These collections of curios were acquired from their Grand Tours and travels for business and military purposes; they were objects of geology, natural history, anthropology, the arts, as well as oddities from around the world.

It was not appropriate for him to take home one of these stone babies which were images intended to bring luck to childless women, but Clayton convinced the jūshoku to allow him to have one, after insisting that he was not a missionary.

So in 1887 yet another image of a baby was added to the number already in Bankfield House's decorations while the childless Elizabeth Akroyd was still alive and her husband had died the same year.

There are regular events, including talks for the public, and workshops and drop-in activities for children,[15] plus Key Stages 2 and 3 education programmes.