Business documents dating from the 1860s have been unearthed among rubble in the loft of The Allied pub in Church Street, Honley.
The sign over the well-known hostelry says it was founded in 1854.
Receipts for George Dodson, who was the occupier in 1863 and 1864, were for a wide range of goods.
Landlady Carron Blagbrough says: “It looks like George was running a grocery store along with the pub. It would be nice to find out if that was the case.”
Among the goods George was buying were baking powder, mustard, linseed, biscuits, bran, flour, malt and something called Newcastle soda.
They came from Wheatley and Higgins, wholesale druggists, opposite Huddersfield Parish Church, Jonathan Bilton, corn miller, of Kingsmill, Dysons, grocers, tea dealers, coffee roasters and hop merchants.
He also had items delivered from Liverpool. A publicity flier said: “George Dodson: Family grocer, tea and coffee dealer and general provision merchant. Church Street, Honley. Fine bottled and draught ales and porter. Superior foreign wines etc. Families supplied on the best terms.”
The present pub sign has four soldiers from different armies in the Crimean War which was between 1853 and 1856. It suggests they were allied troops.
The period is right but regulars recall the original pub sign was of a chap in a white apron. Perhaps this was a reference to George Dodson and the time he ran both a pub and grocery store from the same premises.
This was a period when the Co-operative movement was being established: could George have been running an allied co-operative?
