Bankfield Museum. Bankfield Museum is a grade II listed historic house museum, incorporating a regimental museum and textiles gallery in Boothtown, Halifax, England. It is notable for its past ownership and development by Colonel Edward Akroyd, MP, and its grand interior. When Edward Akroyd bought this building in 1838, on his engagement to Elizabeth Fearby of York, it was a much smaller eight-roomed house, built ca 1800. He and his brother Henry were working for their father Jonathan Akroyd, a rich worsted mill owner, and living at Woodside Mansion in Boothtown. Jonathan died in 1848, and it was possibly Edward's inheritance which paid for the development of Bankfield which began around this time. Edward encased the 18th century building in fairfaced stone and added two loggias, a dining room, Anglican chapel and kitchens. By 1867 Akroyd was Member of Parliament for Halifax and obliged to entertain on a grand scale. When the future Edward VII visited Halifax to open the town hall in 1863, the royal party ate lunch and dinner with the mayor who had more space at Manor Heath, although the prince did visit the Akroyd family business at Haley Hill Mills. For this reason, the 1867 wing, designed by John Bownas Atkinson of York at a cost of E20,000, was spacious and decorated to impress. It had a porte-cochere, saloon, drawing rooms, library and billiard room. At its busiest, the mansion had 25 servants. 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. By 1887 the business was in decline and Akroyd was dying. He sold the building to Halifax Corporation for E6,000 and retired to St Leonards-on-Sea where he died. 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. The building has now been restored as far as possible. 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. Meanwhile 25,000 natural history specimens were transferred to Leeds City Museums in 1990 and the archaeology collections loaned to Kirklees Museums in 1979. A number of collections, in particular a large textile collection, were listed in 1999. 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. It was again partly closed to complete phase two in 2008 and reopened on 11 November 2008, after receiving further Heritage Lottery Fund grants. The museum shows the history of the regiment from its beginnings in 1702 as the Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot to its demise, when it was amalgamated with the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and The Green Howards to form the Yorkshire Regiment on 6 June 2009, using accounts from serving soldiers and interactive displays. The regiment comprised the combined 33rd and 76th foot Regiments, which were linked in 1881, as the 1st and 2nd battalions and based at Wellesley Barracks. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was colonel of the 33rd, named after him when he died. The 76th served in India and carried two stands of Queens and Regimental colours, one which was an honorary stand awarded by the East India Company, so the combined regiment carried four colours on parade. The regiment's headquarters and archives are at Wellesley Park in Halifax. In 1860 Edward Akroyd paid for and recruited the 4th Yorkshire West Riding Rifle Volunteers, absorbing the 7th battalion formed in 1959. In 1883 the title of the regiment changed to the First Volunteer Battalion West Riding Regiment. A further change took place in 1908 when it became the 4th Battalion West Riding Regiment. In 1938 it changed name and role once more to the 58th Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery. Following several more mergers of battalions in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment it eventually became part of the 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Volunteers. In 2006 they became part of 4th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. As MP he supported the establishment of the Regimental Depot in Halifax. The Bankfield Museum assists with research and educational activities in connection with this department. The Regiments' Battle Honours range from the Battle of Dettingen to the Battle of the Hook, Korea and then to a Theatre Honour in the Iraq War, together with many other unrecognised actions.