Watch as they pass us, what a sight, the horses fit and fresh, the coachman has them all well in hand, they are going at a rare rate, the passengers outside all look content and happy, the sun is shining on them and another half-hour they will be having breakfast at the Pack Horse in Huddersfield. THE <strong>OLD</strong> THREE NUNS INN 11
CHAPTER 5 TOMORROW be ready in good time and we will go to as yet unexplored country, Hopton. As the older people say 'ovver 't 'river or 'ovver 't watter. Well, are you ready? Aye I see you are, so down Knowle Road and Doctor Lane, the big houses that you see in the process of being built are the first of a long series that seems to go on for ever, down between the fields on both sides of Sharpe Lane, we are near the bottom now, the old low deckers at the bottom and in front of the newly built Ings Grove Park, across the road another one between the Huddersfield Road and the river, a beautiful site, on the other side of the road and near what is now called the Railway Inn a busy place, the tailor's shop operated by Stocks Hirst, he usually employed nine or ten journeyman tailors and his clothes were the best. A lot of his trade was the making of clothes for the gamekeepers, bailiffs, etc. of the newly rich of the area in the newly efficient cloth trade. It would never do for the "Lord of the Rings" to invite his pals, who were similar to himself, for a day's shooting, and for his gamekeeper to appear with his 'britches arse out', so he forestalled this threat by providing him with a good suit, that would also enhance his own paternalistic image, the Keeper got his suit, and his boss's prestige as a father figure was assured and everybody was happy or nearly anyway, Incidentally, I think that this suit business could operate today with good effect, sometimes if you have time to watch the racing on television and in the pre-race parade you will be told how much this colt cost, 10,000 guineas perhaps, the lad who is leading him round looks as if he got his clothes from a 1900 nearly new shop. However we will get on with our exploring. The Council Offices are a cloth shop owned by a fellow called Barker, there are a set of farm buildings behind from which a big area of land was farmed including the now St. Paul's Road area. Once when I was a little lad I saw a drove of horses that had been Dublin Cab Horses they had walked over Standedge from Liverpool on the way to Lee Gap. Harry King bought one, a dun horse for £3. 10s. and wore him for years In his father's hay and straw carrying business, which he started when he ceased to be bailiff at the Three Nunn’s, he operated this business in the Black Bull yard near Ramsdens butchers shop for a long period. Before we get there though, we pass the Post Office, Jefferies Printers and Mackinels tinkers and tinsmiths .we next encounter Rhodes' chemist shop. Here they did everything you were likely to require, they would pull you a tooth, poison your dog, make your hair grow whether it would or not, cure your bad cold and toothache, cure your poorly horse or cow, in fact anything. My father did a lot of horse and cow doctoring at this time, and old Mr. Joe Rhodes was in league with him, they had an old greasy bottle filled with some concoction that my father called the "Kicking Mare Bottle", it would quieten anything, including fractious kids at bedtime, aye it would. At the corner where the Bank now is, we had Slaters Tea Stores, where the windows facing the Black Bull were full of the prizes you would get if you only bought enough tea. Across the road at the top of what is now Station Road we had the Lion Stores, always with millions of eggs outside in boxes packed with straw and shavings, lads used to say they were snake eggs, but they had to eat them just the same, usually about 36 for a shilling. Adjoining the Lion Stores, a boot shop, old Mr. Gauls, he sold the best boots in town. Rawnsley's had also a good boot shop near Rhodes' chemist shop. I nearly forgot, I once went to Rhodes' one Sunday dinner time (yes it was still dinner time in <strong>Mirfield</strong> at 12.30, people had not become so fancy that they had lunch at that time), of a tooth pulling, he nearly pulled my head off with a pair of pliers and then said I'd better go to a dentist, why my mother sent me on this trip alone I never knew, I had ten brothers and sisters, anyway, although he did not pull the tooth it never ached again. One hundred years ago Henry Lynas Cook started his fruit and greengrocery business down Station Road. The newly built station in 1865 attracted people in great numbers, it was unusual not to see a crowd back to the kiln wall on a Saturday night. Oranges would be 24 for a shilling and fruit in season would be few pence for a basket, a bit higher up the road another shop, Sam Willie Holts fish shop, Mrs. Thornton's next door, toys and sweets, altogether a very busy road on the other side of the road Crowther's new kiln. The biggest industry then in <strong>Mirfield</strong> was malting, the aroma of roasting malt would pervade the area for usually a few days a week. At <strong>Mirfield</strong> Feast time a row of stalls stretched from the Black Bull to Parker Lane and every house was open house, lumps of beef, legs of mutton, the set-pot was put on for plum puddings, it was really the Feast Week, I don't think anybody would get seriously into debt for this, most people were family providers and food was cheap. On the Sunday there was a concert in the Feast Ground, music provided by the Feast organ and then a fashion parade in the cricket field, all the girls in their new frocks and hats. We will go down the New Gate now, it is literarily the New Gate, the canal was cut in the year 1776. This area at this time must have been a very 12
Change language