Village history.

One Street 16

This is the top of Long Lane, my One Street in the village of Harden. At the top you can see the road leading to the hamlet of Ryecroft (Ryecroft Road) off up the hill to the right.

Straight on at the top Long Lane becomes Hill End Lane, passing Hill End Farm, now developed into houses, just visible at the top of the picture and on for about a mile to the next village of Cullingworth.

My reason for taking this particular shot is that the house at the bottom of the picture, belonging to our friends, was once a hotel. It was the Black Bull Hotel. One of many pubs in the village in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
See old photo here, which now hangs in our friends kitchen

It was unusual as the entrance to the hotel and the pub were separate. The lower entrance, now behind the large gates went into the public bar, and the upper entrance was through a door now blocked off to the left of the one storey extension led into the hotel. The only way the two parts of the building were connected were through the top floor which was a ballroom!

You can see where this door was in this close up where there is also a stone plaque dated 1831. Also in this shot you can see where there was once a bigger window at the end of the extension, which can be remembered as a window that opened as a Sweetie shop.

In front of the big gates there was also a petrol pump at one time.

Not sure of the dates of all these things but many of them are within living memory of local residents. The painted gable wall covers a painted sign stating Black Bull Hotel which was still visible until quite recently.

Inside can be seen cupboards where doors used to be and the position of the bar etc are known by the current owners, it certainly makes it a very interesting place to live.