Our house: Drinking in that cottage charm

Dec 22 2009 by Emma Davison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

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WHEN Kieron and Amanda Stead were looking for their new home, they didn’t have to look far to find the perfect place.

Business development manager Kieron had grown up in Fenay Bridge and knew Brewery Yard particularly well as he’d rented a terraced house there when he was younger.

He loved the style of the row of properties and wife Amanda too soon fell for the charms of one unique cottage there.

“I love character in a property and this one had a huge amount. It was very quirky with uneven floors and the doors were different sizes,” said Kieron.

“The house also had a great open plan lounge and dining space and a fantastic roof terrace.

“This sociable aspect really suited the lifestyle of my wife and I when we first moved in and it was just the two of us.”

The couple’s home is believed to have been built in the mid-1800s and, unsurprisingly given the name, is connected to a once working brewery in the area.

Kieron says: “I don’t think any of the beer making process actually took place in our home!

“But when we moved in we were given an old picture which shows a massive building directly opposite which I believe was the brewery.

“So the row of cottages across the road from it where we now live would I imagine have once been the homes of the workers.

“It’s a nice story. I’ve heard all sorts of things about the house. There’s a parking space that’s supposed to have been lost during a card game!”

The grainy picture given to the Steads by their home’s previous owners shows a large building on the right-hand side across the road from their property, which no longer exists.

The building, on Fenay Lane, has a very industrial feel and evidence of the old pulley system which would have been used to carry the beer.

Kieron and Amanda’s home formed part of a row of cottages which were converted by a local builder in the 1970s.

Two of the properties were knocked into one to form the main house, while another cottage was converted into a garage with a superb sun terrace built onto it.