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KNOTTINGLEY
IN 1968
14th November 1968
'SOCCO VOCE' WRITES ABOUT COLOURFUL INNS
BOTH PAST AND PRESENT
Mention
in ‘The Express’ recently of Knottingley Inns past and present evoked
for a former Knottingley resident memories of many of the old inns and
their individulistic and colourful contributions to the local scene.
He
wrote about this world of inns which, though it may be known to other
Knottingley elders, revives again in a special way the smaller, ‘closer’
Knottingley in which "everyone was known by everyone" –
landlord’s especially. Our correspondent can even list most of the
landlords who were long identified with those inns in his younger days. So
it was that Knottingley characters and people stamped themselves on the
mind and the memories.
The
inns themselves seem to have had their characteristics, too. As examples
of entertainment or activity, the writer recalls that the one time Anchor
Inn, in Anchor Yard, (Taylor’s Yard) in Aire Street, had a skittle alley
behind it, and he remembers the cobblestones in Anchor Yard, and how they
stretched away to be the frontage of Anchor Cottages, (also now
demolished) beyond. And at the Wagon and Horses, still in Aire Street, Jim
Holgate had the town’s first cinema shows.
"Of
Course", he added, "I was too young to go, but the films, as Jim
would call them, were broken many times before being run through finally.
Still that was the beginning..."
The
mention of pickled snails reminds him that they were a ‘speciality’ of
the Lime Keel Inn, which stands almost opposite the Bendles, near Cow Lane
Bridge. The snails were sold for the Hospital Sunday Fund, and the writer
says: "The money for the sale of them was wrapped in coloured paper,
I believe, and pinned to the beams of the taproom until the collection at
the year end." He remembers Knottingley’s pride in its Hospital
Sunday effort: "The late Mr. George Reynolds, who was then secretary,
I think, set out to create a record of £400 and did so; but in later
years left the figure far behind."
Of
inns once connected with sailors and the sea he recalls the Jolly Sailor,
Sailor’s Home, Boat and Anchor, and probably one on the former Island
Court (Aire Street) whose name he cannot remember, but which he associates
with a licensee named Raddings. Incidentally, Raddings is a well-known
Knottingley name connected with seafaring. (If a mere lad dare put a word
in here, it would be for the Roper’s Arms, off Cow Lane. Knottingley had
for many years a ropery at Stocking Lane where boys watched the slow
machine twisting the strands as it passed along a long length of rail and
the very name ‘Ropewalk’ suggests that there was once a ropery in that
area. Again a thought of sailors and the sea.
Our
correspondent sets out - with the exception of the newer ones south of the
railway - all the Knottingley inns as he remembers them in the older part
of the town. The list runs:-
Red
Lion (Fearnley Green); Beehive (near Shepherd’s Bridge); Lamb, (in its
original position between Racca Green and Fearnley Green, Weeland Road );
the new ‘Lamb’ (being opposite); Boat and Jolly Sailor, (on opposite
sides of the canal between Shepherd’s Bridge and Cow Lane Bridge);
Cherry Tree, (Marsh End); Buck, Anchor, George, Royal Oak, (Aire Street’s
south side); Aire Street Hotel, Wagon and Horses, Sailors Home, (north
side); two Commercials, (one in the Bendles, the other opposite Station
Road); Greyhound, (almost opposite Police Station in Weeland Road); Anvil,
(near Anvil Bridge );
Along
Hilltop on the South side were the Rising Sun, Bay Horse, L & Y and
Railway Hotel (both Station Road); Duke of York and Potter’s Arms, (the
Holes area) and the picturesque old Swan, (between Gaggs Bridge and the
Town Hall).
No
doubt it is a fair exercise for absent former residents to remember how
many of those inns are gone or no longer inns and how many remain, but a
start on the past one at least, today, can be made with the Beehive, the
Old Swan (as distinct to the new Swan south of the railway) Greyhound,
Anchor, George, old Lamb, Jolly Sailor, Royal Oak, Boat. Of course south
of the railway, there are the Winston, the Green Bottle and the Wall
Bottle.
Yes
a great deal of history and old associations can be recalled by the
patchwork of the inns of any town both by those who frequented them and
those that did not.
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