The Talbot Hotel - Woolshops

The Talbot Hotel, Woolshops sketched by Arthur Comfort

For more than 150 years, The Talbot Hotel, down Woolshops was the main meeting hall in town. It had accommodation for holding meetings and was notorious for it's cockfighting there in the 18th century.

The Halifax Assemblies, exclusive balls and parties were held here and it was at one of these assemblies that a duel was arranged to be fought on Beacon Hill.
Until the building of the Assembly rooms on Harrison Road, the room at the Talbot was the largest in town. Many local societies held their meetings here including the time when Lord Rockingham came to meet the justices of the town to try to stop the practice of 'Coining' in the district and to assist in discovering the murderers of William Dighton, a supervisor who was shot when attacked by a gang of Coiners in Bull Close Lane.

The Talbot Hotel pictured in the top picture was replaced by the New Talbot (pictured above) in 1926.

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