A Grand Day Out

 As I seem to be on a roll when it comes to memories of commercial traffic on the cut in Yorkshire in the 1970s it's an opportunity to tell you about what I still consider, almost fifty years later, to be one of the best days out I've ever had, combining all three elements: Boats, Beer and Buses that this blog is supposed to be about.

One day, just before Christmas in 1972, with two friends who share my enthusiasm for declining forms of transport, we set off from Yeadon in the West Riding on a "West Yorkshire Road Car" bus to Leeds, where we had time to visit "Leeds Docks" and the Co-operative Society's wharf at the back of Leeds railway station, where coal was being unloaded by a steam-powered crane.

Coal being unloaded in Leeds City Centre

Then it was on to Castleford, this time on a bus belonging to the West Riding Automobile Company. Here we walked down to the canal. It had turned into a cold and foggy day, not ideal for hanging around canal towpaths, but we spent a wonderful hour or so at Castleford Flood Lock watching the boats looming up out of the fog

A Cawoods Hargreaves push-tow looming out of the fog at Castleford

Nearby was the Hargreaves depot and lay-by and more boats

Back in town and seeking somewhere for lunch, we chose the Canal Tavern, partly for its name and partly because it sold a beer we had never come across before. In those pre-CAMRA days local breweries existed in isolation, known only to the locals and a handful of knowledgeable beer enthusiasts, which didn't include us. The beer was "Darley's" and it was wonderful. So impressed were we by it that we wanted to know where it was brewed. But nobody knew - neither the customers nor the attractive barmaid, who herself has become part of the folklore surrounding the day!   We found out later that Darley's was brewed in Thorne. Sadly, it no longer is.

Darley's brewery on another occasion

After an hour or so there we moved on to Ferrybridge. This involved another "West Riding Automobile Company" bus. West Riding was once the largest privately-owned bus company in the UK, but by the time of our visit it was part of the National Bus Company. It was unusual, however, in operating a fleet of "Guy Arab" buses (would anyone use that as a model name today?) and it was on one of these that we made our way to Ferrybridge through the gloom.

A West Riding "Guy Arab" in Castleford bus station

Guy Motors built its buses in Wolverhampton, but the bodywork was more local, being a product of C H Roe & Sons of Leeds. Some, but not the one above, had "lowbridge" bodywork where the seats upstairs were in one row of four with a sunken side gangway. This allowed the overall height of the bus to be reduced - very handy in industrial areas with lots of low bridges - at the expense of inconveniencing the passengers and the poor old conductor.

Alighting from the bus at Ferrybridge the first thing we saw was "Edwin Pittwood"

Edwin Pittwood running empty under Ferrybridge bridge

Remarkably, this boat is still in existence, as an upmarket houseboat in London's Docklands. (Mr. Pittwood himself is famous for being the Mayor of Scunthorpe in 1949 but you probably knew that, didn't you?)

Our next call was at the power station, which was coal-fired and received its fuel supply by water.

Ferrybridge Power Station Wharf

Last call of an increasingly gloomy day was Knottingley, which we reached on a "Leyland Titan PD2" of the South Yorkshire Road Transport bus company, still an independent firm. Looking at the photo again, I realise that this was a "lowbridge" bus.

South Yorkshire Road Transport arriving to take us to Knottingley

Of waterway interest in Knottingley was Harker's Yard and Depot

and what the caption on the original slide mount records as a "Tar Barge in Knottingley" (I'm ready to be corrected).

The "Tar Barge" and (right) my companions for the day.

By the time we'd finished in Knottingley it was dark, so we repaired to a pub in the vicinity of the railway station. It's fair to say that we were about one-third the age of the rest of the clientele, who had a fondness for Jim Reeves if their choice of music on the juke box was anything to go by. But once again, we came across a beer that was new to us. Waiting at the bar, with its unmarked beer pumps, I noticed that most people seemed to be ordering a dark beer, which I assumed was the Mild. As we were Bitter drinkers we ignored it at first, but I was intrigued and persuaded the others to try some. I was surprised to find it cost more than the Bitter (Mild was traditionally a penny or two cheaper) so I asked what it was.  What it was, was Younger's No.3. In those days and for long afterwards a beer revered by beer enthusiasts and rightly so.

Eventually we tore ourselves away, putting six Jim Reeves records on the juke box before we did so as a "thank you", and made our way to Knottingley's Victorian gas-lit railway station (no photos seem to have survived) fo a train to Leeds and, after a few more pints, this time of Tetley's, we caught the last "West Yorkshire Road Car" of the day back to Yeadon.

Although it's nearly fifty years ago now my companions of the day and I often talk about it. Steam cranes, barges, lowbridge buses, gas-lit railway stations and two hitherto-unknown beers enjoyed on an atmospheric foggy day. If anyone ever invents a time machine it will be my first port of call.