Readers have made this a real nostalgia column.
Donald Summersgill, of Fenay Bridge, captured a flavour of the area down Chapel Hill between the wars when he got a list of the businesses between Milford Street and Folly Hall in 1922.
They included John Hayward, shopkeeper, Taylor Hobson Ltd., cabinet makers, Edwin Haigh, beer retailer, Ernest Sykes, pawnbroker, William Wright, saddler, T Brook and Sons Ltd, engineers, and George Holroyd, bootmaker.
Carl Woosnam, of Bradley, found a list of Huddersfield hotels, inns and pubs in a trade directory from 1876. These days, pubs seem to be closing at an ever increasing rate. Back then, the town had 86 licensed houses, plus five temperance hotels for those who preferred tea or coffee.
Many are long gone, some recently departed and a minority still survive. The list of past pubs includes the Acorn Inn in West Parade, the Boot and Shoe in New Street, Diana Inn in King Street, the Dog Inn in Kirkgate, the Packhorse Tap in the Packhorse Yard, Palace Inn in Princess Street, the Saracen’s Head at Shorehead, Weavers Arms in Leeds Road and the Wheatsheaf in Upperhead Row.
Among those still going or that survived until recent memory are The Albert, Boy and Barrel, Commercial, Crescent, Electrician’s, Fly Boat, Globe, Leeds Tavern, Plumbers Arms, Ramsden’s Arms, Rose and Crown, Shakespeare, Sportsman’s, Swan with Two Necks, Old Hat, Vulcan, West Riding, White Hart, White Lion, White Swan and The Zetland.
Where did they get all their customers from?
