Halifax Minster is the minster church of Halifax, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. Formerly the parish church of the town, it was granted minster status in 2009. Halifax Minster is one of three churches in the county of West Yorkshire to be given this honorific title; the other two are Dewsbury Minster and Leeds Minster. Halifax Minster, which stands on the site of an earlier Norman church, was built during the 15th century, although the Rokeby and Holdsworth Chapels were not completed until around 1530. The organ was built by John Snetzler in 1763 and installed in 1766. Other notable features of the church include a medieval font cover, Jacobean box pews, and the tombstone of 19th-century diarist Anne Lister. History The first church on this spot, thought to date from around 1120, was owned and operated by the Cluniac monks of Lewes Priory. Some portions of the stonework of this church have been incorporated into the present building – most notably the carved chevron stones in the north wall of the nave and elsewhere. It has been suggested that one section of the north wall was actually the south wall of the Norman church. Several early medieval grave covers also survive. The present church was built in the fifteenth century, apparently fulfilling a need for "more spacious accommodation for the growing population of the parish". The nave and chancel were completed around 1450. At some time between 1455 and 1480, the eastern wall was made higher to accommodate a clerestory. Work on the church tower began in the 1440s; it took over three decades to complete, as it was still under construction in 1482. The Rokeby and Holdsworth Chapels, built at the expense of former vicars William Rokeby and Robert Holdsworth, were completed around 1530. William Rokeby's heart and bowels are buried beneath his chapel, as stipulated in his will. Jacobean box pews are a prominent feature of the Minster, and most of those in the nave date from 1633–4. A pew in the centre aisle bears the remains of a memorial brass to John Waterhouse, who died in 1539/40. The carved arms of Richard Sunderland of High Sunderland, who died in 1634, are attached to another pew. Several ancient pew nameplates may be seen attached to a board on the inner north wall of the tower, the oldest dates to