Yorkshire's Historic Pubs E-Book

Peter Thomas

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2005

Seitenzahl: 218

Beschreibung

Peter Thomas's introduction to the county's pubs opens with a brief chapter about the history of brewing and pubs, and a short history of pub signs in Yorkshire. Most of the book is dedicated to a round-up of interesting inns - their history and architecture, ghosts and legends associated with them, and famous and infamous landlords and landladies.

Leseprobe

YORKSHIRE’S

HISTORIC

PUBS

PETER THOMAS

First published 2005

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

© Peter Thomas, 2005, 2013

The right of Peter Thomas to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 5429 7

Original typesetting by The History Press

Title page photograph: The pub sign for The Vine on the Headrow, Leeds.

Lupton and Mrs Whitelock with the car from which he lost his flute (see pages 74–7). It was he who transformed the pub into what we see today. (Photograph courtesy of Sarah Whitelock)

CONTENTS

         Introduction

1.      Yorkshire’s Historic Pubs

2.      Yorkshire’s Woollen Pubs

3.      Yorkshire’s TV Pubs

4.      Yorkshire’s Commemorative Pubs

         Acknowledgements

The impressive fireplace at the Bingley Arms, Bardsey.

The Chequers at Bilton in Ainsty; one of the examples of the sign believed to have originated in Roman times.

INTRODUCTION

Nothing is more English than the village pub, except perhaps a game of cricket. To have the pub facing the cricket field is sheer heaven, although if its wall provides the players with a boundary, ‘regulars’ would do well to park their cars out of the line of fire if damage and harsh words are to be avoided.

Tradition, or a handing down of customs from generation to generation, is strong and deep in this country. The tradition of a seat under the trees watching cricket with a glass of beer is far more, though, than a sentimental picture of continuing village life. Pubs have provided atmosphere, hospitality and fellowship for many hundreds of years; today’s meat and potato pie or fish and chips may be traditional, but that menu goes back a very short time compared with the days of the first drinking houses.

In the earliest days brewing was a domestic activity, mainly carried out by women, or ‘brewsters’. Local applications at ‘brewster’ sessions for the granting of licences in the twenty-first century recall this early custom of the brewing and selling of ale.

Of course, some brewsters’ products were more popular than others, attracting more customers to their homes where villagers could meet, drink and socialise. From this came the ‘public’ house as we know it, at a pub which is also a home, with the publican as a host and the customer a guest.

The brewing of ale from barley had been going on for centuries before the Romans came in 55 BC, but the brew did not develop into beer containing hops until after 1400, when the first hopped version arrived in England from Flanders. Gradually, as its popularity grew, the ‘new’ beer was brewed more widely and hops were being grown in England for beer production. Today the terms ‘ale’ and ‘beer’ mean much the same, although strictly speaking ale is a brew containing just a small trace of hops.

We have good evidence to suggest that when the Romans came they established drinking places in their settlements and particularly on their military roads, which were both long and hard. These tabernae (from which our ‘tavern’ comes) must have been a very welcome sight; they identified themselves with a bush in the form of a bundle of vine leaves hanging outside. Wine was a universal drink, although ale was also usually on sale.

As well as the bush outside, travellers might see the ‘chequers’ sign on a board or wall, which showed that games like draughts could be played there. It is a commonly used sign today; in Yorkshire we have it for example at Bilton in Ainsty near Wetherby and at Ledsham just north of Castleford. Bush and vine are both hard to find, although the vine sign can be seen on the Headrow in Leeds. Rare too is a painted bunch of grapes kept on display over the front wall of a pub; look for it on the front of the King’s Head in the Market Place at Richmond.

Roman tabernae on military roads must have served quite small numbers of travellers, but in later centuries, as the movement of people began to increase, the need for places for rest and refreshment became more and more important and encouraged the setting up of inns for those on the roads. Places of pilgrimage such as Canterbury attracted large numbers of pilgrims who needed rest on the way; it became a profitable business for the monasteries ready and able to open inns for those on pilgrim routes or on Church business.

One of Yorkshire’s fascinating examples is the Bingley Arms at Bardsey near Leeds. Mentioned in Domesday Book, it was known as the Priests’ Inn from AD 953 until 1780, when it was renamed. The inn was connected with Kirkstall Abbey and offered rest and hospitality for monks travelling to St Mary’s at York. A priest’s hole in the chimney is on view, an exciting glimpse of the past life of the building. We even know the name of the brewer here in 953: one Samson Ellis.

The growth of trading centres and markets brought drovers and merchants across the country and even from overseas. To meet the growing need of wayfarers on foot or on horseback, inns in market places and out in the countryside grew in number and quality. Large country estates also provided places of refreshment for their workers whose earnings often included ale; many village pubs today recall this with their signs showing the arms of the lord of the manor or important landowner, such as the Yorke Arms at Ramsgill in Nidderdale, now advertising itself as a restaurant with rooms.

The Kings Head in the Market Place at Richmond with the bunch of grapes above the main entrance.

But of all the influences on the development of pubs, the most outstanding was the introduction of coach services: from 1657 onwards the growth of such travel was enormous, encouraged by the establishment of turnpike trusts that improved roads and charged vehicles for their use. Coaching inns not only had to provide food and accommodation for passengers, but in addition needed to organise stabling for horses, which had to be changed about every 15 miles. All the activity would have taken place in a courtyard, access being through an archway alongside the inn. This pattern becomes quite familiar on important routes such as the Great North Road, where the Golden Lion at Northallerton was a well-known stage. After Thirsk it was the next stop northwards, serving both private coach services and the mails. More remote routes needed stage stops too, and these inns became popular as a result; an example is the King’s Arms at Askrigg in Wensleydale. It served as a coaching inn on the Richmond to Lancaster run and more recently played as the Drovers’ Arms in All Creatures Great and Small.

The golden age of the coaching inn inevitably came to an end with the development of the railways, but it was not to be too long before car travel opened up new opportunities for well-managed country pubs, while town pubs also changed to meet changing social needs. Eating out has become increasingly popular and menus show the influence of foreign travel. The power of the large breweries has meant the loss of independence of many pubs and the closure of some, unable to cope with competition and rising costs. No doubt the extension of licensing hours has played a part in this and has added pressure on landlords.

Pub signs and their meanings

Going back to the Middle Ages and beyond, few people could read or write and had to depend on sign language in many ways for even their most basic needs. Shopping was a good example: signs were necessary to tell the public what a shop had for sale and streets in towns were lined with symbols of various kinds. Visit Half Moon Court at York Castle Museum to see some of these. The barber’s pole has survived in many places and occasionally one still sees a so-called American Red Indian standing outside a tobacconist’s shop.

While the bush, or bundle of vine leaves hanging outside, identified drinking places in this country in Roman times this did nothing to meet later needs when travel developed and the number of ale houses or pubs began to increase. It became important for publicans to be able to distinguish their houses from those of competitors by a prominent sign easily recognised by everyone, the more colourful and eye catching the better. Some signs became ‘standards’, like the Red Lion and the Rose & Crown; many have fascinating connections or origins. Some have become landmarks and are listed as bus stops.

The majority of signs are painted on hanging boards or are fixed to the front wall; much skill and imagination are required on the part of sign painters to capture the spirit of the chosen name of the pub. There are many framed in decorated wrought iron; the most extravagant of these is at the Three Swans at Market Harborough in Leicestershire.

The Old Starre Inne at Stonegate.

Spectacular, but all too rare examples are the strangely named ‘gallows’ signs that extended right across the whole road. Their drawback was the danger they created for passers by; eventually the law forbade new ones from being erected. One timber arch that stood the test of time for many years crossed the A140 Norwich road at Stonham in Suffolk outside the Magpie. The bird stood on the centre of the cross bar, but in recent years it was wrecked by a large goods vehicle. After a long delay and much bureaucratic discussion its restoration was agreed and tradition triumphed; it looks magnificent again. York has a famous and handsome version in Stonegate at Ye Olde Starre Inne. A glimpse of York Minster can be detected in the distance.

1. YORKSHIRE’S HISTORIC PUBS

Where can you find a pub that overlooks a medieval battlefield, or keeps a flood marker in the bar, or takes its name from a famous racehorse? Read on and you will find them among the collection of Yorkshire’s historic pubs in this book.

The variety of locations, from remote Ribblesdale to city centre Ripon, from the coast at Staithes to industrial Spen valley, is matched by a huge difference in the age and style of pub buildings. The licensees (more often landladies than in the past) and their regulars – all have a story of some kind to tell.

Food has been a revelation: from cordon bleu to the spectacular! The good old standards are there: fish, chips and peas and Yorkshire pudding and gravy. It would be an exaggeration to say that there are as many different recipes for meat and potato pie as there are pubs, but the variety is enormous. Pressed to say which dishes have been the most memorable, one has to confess carrot and coriander soup with Cheddar twist, and chips topped with melted cheese and bacon. Inventive, tasty and filling, both of them.

The only possible answer to the question how were the pubs in the book chosen? is good friends and sheer luck. Yorkshire pubs reflect the rich and multi-faceted county in which we live and should appeal to readers from Yorkshire – and, we hope, anywhere. If there is any single conclusion that can be drawn from the whole experience embraced by the pages that follow, it is the considerable number of pubs that have not appeared here and deserve to do so.

The door to Whitelocks, Leeds.

ALDBOROUGH: Ship Inn

Aldborough: A1M to J48 then follow signs to Boroughbridge. From St James’ Square take the Aldborough road.

Aldborough owes its existence to the Romans, who founded a settlement here close to a crossing of the river Ure. Called Isurium Brigantium, it was linked by Roman roads to York and Hadrian’s Wall; it became so important as a centre of government that it was pre-eminent in Yorkshire.

But why the Ship? Far from the sea here, of course, but possibly the pub took its name from the Ure crossing and the historic importance of river traffic. The licensees point to the extensive use of ships’ timbers in the pub, particularly in and around the bar, as influencing the choice of name.

Standing across the road from St Andrew’s Church, the pub may, in its earliest days, have been a house of shelter for travellers, but there is no positive evidence of this and the Ship is only one of many pubs in England close to the parish church. It is more likely that the first building on the site was a farmhouse, believed to date from 1392. In those days the farm was probably a beer house as well; the first use of the name Ship seems to have been in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Many farms were also beer houses and had a brewery of sorts for their business use.

In the early nineteenth century two cottages stood by the roadside close to the Ship, separated from the pub by a narrow cart entry. Ducks and chickens wandered around freely. A sale notice in May 1870 described the Ship as an inn or public house with brewhouse, wash house, cart sheds, stables and garden. Also listed were the two cottages with stables, piggery and excellent garden. Some time after this sale the cottages were demolished, allowing the Ship to use the land, which is now the car park.

The Ship Inn, Aldborough.

The beamed bar at the Ship.

The front of the Ship has two bay windows; these and its hanging sign would make the pub visible in Low Road among the dwellings close by. A glazed vestibule forms an entrance in the corner of the L-shaped building with a further doorway made of very old timbers leading to the bar. Tables in the dining area by the roadside windows are popular and there is a thirty-seat restaurant in the rear of the pub. A nautical atmosphere has been maintained: a ship’s wheel is on the wall of the dining area and prints of ships as well as views of the Ship, past and present, are in the restaurant.

Aldborough is heavy with history and the Ship is well placed as a base for overnight visitors as well as those making day trips. Traces of the town’s Roman walls are to be seen in a number of places and the museum has a fine collection of Roman pottery and coins. The parish church is believed to have been built on the site of a former Roman temple. Just beyond at the road junction is a tall monument commemorating the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 when King Edward II defeated the Earl of Lancaster; it was moved to its present position in the nineteenth century.

No visitor to Aldborough should miss the interest of a short walk to the green with its massive maypole. Around the green are some of the handsomest cottages to be seen in Yorkshire and at the top is the Old Court House with a plaque recording its history; until 1832 MPs were elected here for what was then a so-called rotten borough. Below the plaque is a blue and white memorial to the crew of a Lancaster bomber who died in 1944 in a crash nearby that, but for their efforts, could well have been on Aldborough itself.

Old Court House, Aldborough. Note the steps to the upper floor and the memorial.

It is astonishing that this small peaceful place should have figured in a period that spanned the arrival of the Romans in the second century and the Second World War in the twentieth.

BAINBRIDGE: Rose & Crown Hotel

Bainbridge: A1M north to Leeming Bar then A684 west via Leyburn.

From Semerwater the Bain, reputedly England’s shortest river, flows into Bainbridge, one of the most attractive villages in the Dales. The massive green, bordered by trees, is overlooked by the fifteenth-century Rose & Crown, with the fells behind. Once the site of a Roman fort on Brough Hill, Virosidum controlled a road east to Aldborough and Boroughbridge in Yorkshire. Westward a road connected with the fort at Ribchester on the river Ribble in Lancashire.

There are few local customs that have been observed ‘from time immemorial’, but this was true in the case of the Bainbridge Forest Horn. Until recent years three blasts of the horn were blown at nine o’clock every night ‘from Holyrood to Shrovetide’. The horn was blown on the green to guide back to shelter travellers lost in the forest of Wensleydale. There is now no forest, of course, and no one is likely to be lost on the modern signposted roads of the Dale, but for generations Bainbridge folk could set their clocks by the horn.

The Rose & Crown, Bainbridge.

Sadly the custom has now ceased, but the last horn used is on display at the reception area in the Rose & Crown. There were earlier horns that have been lost and a very old one, said to be the original, is at Bolton Castle. The horn at the Rose & Crown is of buffalo horn and was brought into use in 1864. The hornblower of Bainbridge was traditionally a member of the Metcalfe family who were powerful and whose ancestral home was Nappa Hall. Now a farmhouse, it was fortified as a protection against Scottish raiders.

If you are looking for legend, this is where you will find it. The most famous story about Semerwater tells how a beggar arrived on the shore asking for food and water. The beggar was really an angel and the only kindness shown him came from an elderly couple. By the next day everyone except the couple had been drowned in the lake. Remains of a 3,000-year-old settlement have been found, no doubt giving rise to a legend relating to some distant tragedy. Since then generations of story telling and common belief have ensured its survival.

BECK HOLE: Birch Hall Inn

Beck Hole: A169 Pickering–Whitby road. After Saltersgate fork left for Beck Hole.

Beck Hole is one of the unlikeliest candidates in Yorkshire to be included in a list of industrial villages – so tiny that it hardly qualifies as a village at all.

Birch Hall Inn stands close to the 1873 stone bridge over the Eller Beck, and whether going in the direction of Goathland or Whitby the visitor is faced by a strenuous and challenging climb uphill. On the Whitby side of the bridge is the green with its quoits pitches and most of the dwellings, while the Birch Hall and its neighbours are on the Goathland side.

No doubt in idyllic days, when time mattered less, travellers would have stopped for rest and refreshment here, but it was not until the nineteenth century that Birch Hall opened officially as a pub, serving also as a village store and occupying two stone cottages. These are conspicuously white next to the extension built by the landlord for some of the families who in the middle of the century arrived to work in the quarries, newly opened ironstone mines and smelting furnaces. The pub today has two small bars (although one is called the ‘Big Bar’) with flagged floors. Above the pub and shop two tenements remain with bedrooms reached by a wooden passageway.

Birch Hall Inn, Beck Hole.

The interior of Birch Hall Inn.

The building of a railway to serve Beck Hole’s industry and to link Whitby with the south brought even more workers, but by the 1870s the village’s brief ‘industrial revolution’ was over. Soon evidence of it all began to disappear as buildings were demolished and their stone was put to other uses. The workers left to seek employment elsewhere and village life became peaceful once more.

Beck Hole once had its own station on George Stephenson’s railway line between Whitby and Pickering, but a steep incline brought about a serious accident and a re-routing in 1865 closed Beck Hole’s station. Today the North York Moors Railway between Pickering and Grosmont still gives passengers spectacular views of the Esk Valley and Newton Dale.

Licensees must enjoy Birch Hall and Beck Hole; certainly they seem reluctant to move. Perhaps the record is held by Mrs E.M. Schofield who was there for fifty-three years from girlhood to retirement. She is credited with putting up a notice behind the bar that offered ‘Ale tomorrow for nothing’.

BEVERLEY: White Horse Inn (Nellie’s)

Beverley: M62 and A63 to the Humber Bridge, then A164 north.

Nellie’s stands in Hengate, opposite St Mary’s Church, with buses squeezing past down a narrow one-way system towards the bus station. So close is it to St Mary’s that the land was probably originally church property and an inn here could have served the builders of churches in the town. Close to the Saturday Market, it must always have shared with several other pubs in the area the business that a market would bring.

The White Horse Inn, Beverley.

The historic interior of Nellie’s.

Sketch of the bar by P. Kitchen.

The Saturday Market had been established by the twelfth century; by this time Beverley had become a commercial centre and exported woollen cloth across the North Sea. The market’s importance led to the growth of the town, particularly in the market area, so it is not surprising to find such a fine church as St Mary’s there. Close to the church are the handsome Memorial Gardens; Hengate reflects the development of Beverley into a social centre with attractive houses mainly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Nellie’s is earlier, from the seventeenth century, timber framed and brick fronted, differing from its neighbours by the elegant White Horse across and above the door. Inside, nothing seems to have changed for generations and it is claimed to be the best example of an unaltered nineteenth-century interior in the country. The main bar has a haphazard cluster of small rooms and narrow passages around it; all have boarded floors, plain wooden tables and other old furniture. Open fires and gas provide heating and lighting.

In spite of everything, perhaps because of everything, including the food, Nellie’s has a considerable and loyal following. It is evident that atmosphere is all-important and here socialising goes on as it has always done in successful pubs over the centuries. Apart from the regulars, everyone asks ‘Why Nellie’s?’ Nellie was the daughter of a tenant, Francis Collinson, who bought the pub in 1928. Following her father, she became landlady until 1976, gaining such a reputation that her name became universally used rather than the one above the door.

BEVERLEY: Beverley Arms

Beverley: From Hull (Humber Bridge) A164 north.

Before 1794 there was no pub called the Beverley Arms, as earlier than that date it was known as the Blue Bell. Old records show that as far back as 1686 there was a Bell Inn at Beverley and this may well have been the Blue Bell.

Although information on the Blue Bell and the early years of the Beverley Arms is sketchy it seems that the Blue Bell had a sign of the ‘gallows’ type, using posts and a bar to carry the sign over all or part of the road. Few of these remain today; in Yorkshire Ye Olde Starre Inne at York is a survivor. The present hanging sign of the Beverley Arms is more conventional; its pillared entrance and elegant rooms suggest a definite move up-market away from the status of a posting and coaching inn of 200 years ago to that of a first class hotel today.

As an inn serving numbers of eighteenth-century road travellers there would have been the customary courtyard with space for stables, coaches and possibly a brewhouse. The eighteenth-century version of ‘fast food’ would have been served as changes of coach horses took place.

The coming of the railways changed all this and in common with other hotels in Yorkshire market towns the Beverley Arms needed to provide its own transport to and from the railway station. The development of car travel and tourism brought other changes, including a new kind of visitor who was resident rather than just an overnight guest. More than ever, special functions became an important part of the hotel’s business, requiring space and facilities to match the demands of the age.

The exterior of the Beverley Arms.

Successive alterations were made over the years to modernise the bedroom accommodation and the public rooms. Such work often results in a loss of character, but fortunately the Georgian architectural style of the hotel that is in harmony with so much of Beverley was not swept away. Today’s façade is eighteenth-century in style, but the spirit and tradition of the Beverley Arms strongly recalls its predecessor, the Blue Bell.

BILTON: Gardeners Arms

Bilton: Leave Harrogate on A61 Ripon road. At Skipton roundabout turn right A59. In one mile turn left on Bilton Lane.

Suddenly modern houses and bungalows on the north-eastern fringe of Harrogate give way to real countryside; neat front gardens are replaced by open fields and grassy valleys. Without warning the sign for the Gardeners Arms appears round a bend of Bilton Lane and a handsome sign it is, showing the gardener at work, flanked by maidens carrying the fruits of his labour. Below are the words ‘In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eate thy bread’.

Exterior of the Gardeners Arms.

Below and behind the sign stands a little stone-built pub dating, it is thought, from 1698, with mullioned windows in the traditional style. Everything here testifies that small is beautiful, although the lawned gardens to side and rear are exceptionally large and obviously popular, with many tables and seats. A background of trees and a narrow beck add to its attraction.