One of my favourite pubs
that I enjoyed visiting in the 1960’s is The Wheatley Wells in Halifax. Known locally as the ‘Well Hole’,
it was once a row of weaver’s cottages. The licensees were Ronnie and Phyllis Pearson, who were often assisted by their
daughter June, served excellent Whitakers beers.
It was The Tap Room in which I spent a lot of the time, especially Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes, in a
smoky atmosphere with the traditional sound of dominoes being banged down and the thud of darts going into the dart-board.
The raucous laughter and chatter of men enjoying good beer and a woodbine added to the ambience of the place.
Of course, as in most good taprooms, there was a waiter, sometimes the landlord, who kept the ale coming
so as not to hold up the card games or the dominoes. Also beer was cheaper in the ‘tap room’ 1’5/7’d(about
8 pence) against 1’5/1’8 in the best room. Happy days.
Recently I received a text on my phone inviting me to an afternoon session. ‘’Only £3.50, drink
as much as you like, and everyone will be half-naked, interested? , then call this number now.’’ Curiosity got
the better of this cool cat, so I rang the given number, and a voice at the other end replied, “Good afternoon, Spenborough
swimming baths, how may I help, how may I help?’’
On a recent visit to Dewsbury, I popped into a bar. It was early afternoon and the young girl
behind the bar was doing a spot of cleaning. As she bent over to wipe the bottom shelf, I noticed that she had a tattoo on
her lower back. It was an arrow pointing down with the words, “this way to the pleasure beach.’’ My first
thought was that the tattooist must have been from out of town, as all the words were spelt correctly.
Don’t think I’m knocking people in Dewsbury, they are great people. But last week in
the main street a woman went into a butchers shop and asked , “is that a pigs head in the window, my man?’’
“No dear’’, the butcher replied, ‘’It’s a mirror!”
On a very cold morning just before Christmas, some friends and I boarded the train for Stalybridge. On
the train we’re some more friends who had boarded earlier. It was a foggy morning and the fog was freezing. Going through
Slaithwaite and Marsden the fog seemed to be thickening. We entered the long tunnel at Standedge and coming out at the Cheshire
end, we ran into bright sunny weather, which certainly seemed a lot warmer.
In the bar on the station it was pints all round and a toast was proposed to a friend of ours who sadly
passed away earlier in the year. After a warming lunch and more ale, it was on the train back to Huddersfield and more freezing
fog but we were soon warmed up in both The Station Tavern and the Head of Steam.
Carrying on with our pub crawl, we took the train to Leeds and we’re welcomed at the Scarborough
Arms by landlord Toby. After a few pints and a fond farewell to our friends from Leeds, it was back on the train to Brighouse
to finish off the splendid day.
I was once invited to The Large Bore and Small Arms exhibition at Bisley. Unfortunately, I won first prize
for largest bore and second prize for smallest arms. I won’t be going back there again!
