Time, please to rediscover valley’s rural pubs of yesteryear

It’s still quite easy to picture how large swathes of the Yorkshire countryside looked a century ago.

Much of it is well preserved compared to other parts of England. But there’s one very obvious change: the golden age of the country inn has long gone.

They used to be everywhere, sometimes three or four to a village and often brewing their own beer, or they stood in remote locations high on the old drover’s roads which ran between dales.

It was common for a farmer to supplement his income by opening a room for any passer-by who had a thirst to quench. Sometimes business was so good that serving drinks became the farmer’s main occupation.

Most of these rural pubs are no more. Yorkshire is not alone in this and closures have increased dramatically in recent times. According to figures from the Campaign for Real Ale last month, 16 pubs close across Britain each week, although these were not only in rural areas.

A report by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) into the social value of community pubs has highlighted the need for a radical change in Government policy that recognises the important community function many pubs perform.

This is much too late for a dozen in the Washburn Valley, but those that have gone are not forgotten and now the history of their local hostelries is being celebrated with a special exhibition.

Sepia-coloured photographs, hand-me-down stories and memorabilia from the 16 ale houses and inns that once flourished through the Washburn valley are on display at the new Washburn Heritage Centre at Fewston Church.

Hostelries with names like the Moorcock, the Dresser’s, the Penny Pot, the Dolphin & Anchor and The Besom served their last pint decades ago. But four have survived – the Timble Inn, The Sun, The Hopper Lane and The Stone House.

Robin Noakes, the exhibition’s coordinator, says that some began life as inns around the 1770s. Others were farms where beer was brewed and sold initially for their own labourers. The workforce would come in, have something to eat and drink, and then go back to work.

“It was all quite informal. We have found census records for The Stone House in which the tenant was described as both farmer and innkeeper.

“As the economics of agriculture changed, some of these farms evolved into hostelries, sometimes with an adjoining tearoom for non-alcoholic drinkers, which is another strand we have discovered.

“Whether for religious or personal reasons, you had tearooms or upstairs rooms set apart from where beer was being consumed.”

Of the Washburn pubs that are no more, the Gate Inn is perhaps the best-known since it was demolished as recently as the late 1960s.

The Gate was near the village of West End, most of which vanished when Thruscross Reservoir was constructed.

It stood on what used to be the main thoroughfare from the top of the Washburn Valley down to Blubberhouses and Fewston.

One of the old Washburn families, the Hardistys, built The Gate in 1699, and it was later run by another famous innkeeping family in the valley, the Peels.

As so often happened in rural areas, the pub fulfilled several different functions.

In the case of The Gate an upstairs room was the venue for Women’s Institute meetings. Washburn’s Heritage Development Officer, Anne Wigglesworth, recalls being driven out from Otley when she was a child and stopping at the Gate for ham-and-egg teas.

A well-remembered feature was its pub sign in the shape of a farm gate, hanging from a tree outside.

On the gate was inscribed a verse: “This gate hangs well and hinders none, Refresh and pay, and travel on.”

Another demolished inn, often recalled because it stood next to the now busy Yorkshire Water car park on the A59 at Blubberhouses, was the Frankland Arms.

It was built in the early 19th century by local landowner Sir Robert Frankland to serve the growing number of workers in the area attracted by jobs at the huge West House flax mill across the road. Robin Noakes says the Frankland Arms’ disappearance is a typical example of how inns reflected the ebb and flow of industry and agriculture in the valley.

“The growth of the textile industry had a huge impact on the Washburn, with some very big mills being built here.

“These impacted on the valley’s social life, with many new workers drawn by the jobs, and ale houses sprang up to satisfy the demands of this enlarged population.

“And then as the industry’s trends changed in both England and Europe throughout the 19th century, these mills closed and the labourers moved elsewhere in search of work. Some of the inns were left with few customers.”

Other long-gone hostelries include the Butcher’s Arms and The Ivy at West End, thought to have disappeared beneath Thruscross Reservoir; the Naked Man and the Seven Stars at Norwood; the Besom Inn at Timble Ings; the Manor Arms at Blubberhouses; Dresser’s Arms at Cockbur Bank; and the Smith’s Arms at Fewston.

Clive Robinson, the Washburn Society’s exhibitions and walks coordinator, says the Smith’s Arms is the one he regrets losing the most.

It was marked on the 1850s Ordnance Survey map, along with a smithy and the church to which the Washburn Heritage Centre is annexed.

It closed in the early years of the 20th century and very little is known about it.

The site is now a walled off triangle of land with trees across from the church. Although some locals say the foundations can still be traced, the dense undergrowth makes them impossible to find.

If all 16 hostelries in and around the valley had survived, says Clive, they would have made quite a pub crawl.

“As it is, we’ve got four left that would perhaps be a bit beyond some folk to visit in one trek, especially if alcohol is consumed.

“So we have arranged some shorter walks that will take in some of the lost pubs of Washburn as well as those that remain.”

The Hostelries of the Washburn Valley exhibition runs until April 15. Sundays only until April, then Saturdays and Sundays. The Washburn Valley Heritage Centre HG3 1SU. Approach from either the A59 Harrogate-Skipton road or B6451 Otley-Pateley Bridge road and follow signs for Fewston.

On the pub trail in Washburn

Special pub walks take place on February 14 (less than four miles, finishing with a Valentine’s Day lunch); March 21 (4.5 miles then lunch, taking in the Sun Inn and sites of the Seven Stars and Smith’s Arms); and April 19 (4 miles in the upper Washburn, visiting sites of the Gate Inn, Dresser’s Arms and Butcher’s Arms.)

For details of all events run by Washburn Heritage Centre visit www.washburnvalley.org

Booking for all events is essential. Phone 01943 880794 or email [email protected]