The Woolpack, Holbeck.

Old, disused, forgotten and converted pubs
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j.c.d.
Posts: 571
Joined: Mon 27 Jan, 2014 4:54 pm

The Woolpack, Holbeck.

Post by j.c.d. »

Don' remember too much about this pub except it was the only pub that my pals and I could get in aged17, ( 1953) . I think it was a Melbourne house in those days. there was a little front room with a microphone and a piano where on a Saturday night we would sing our heads off.
One evening there was a commotion in the Tap room, it seemed that at nearby Holbeck Feast "The largest White Rat in The World" had escaped and was discovered in someone's cellar. The local rat catcher, Nobby who also doubled up as the chalker upper in the Bookies on Elland Road. was drinking in the pub and was summoned to "See to it" Within an hour he was back, it seems he had taken one look at this animal and retreated rapidly with "Not bloody likely". Never did find out what happened to it, a Coypu I think but the Woolpack customers never let Nobby forget that night.

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buffaloskinner
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Re: The Woolpack, Holbeck.

Post by buffaloskinner »

Sorry JCD I can beat you there, used to go to the Travellers Rest at Hill Top with my dad at just 15 years old, and had a couple of pints and some fags. He once fixed me up with a girl he knew in there, she was about 10 years my senior. Needless to say it didn't last, but it was fun.

Anyway here's the Woolpack Arms in Holbeck, taken from Leodis.
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Image
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From Leodis: Looking across Town Gate at the junction with Meynell Street. The Woolpacks Inn can be seen on the left with the mock Tudor frontage. The brewery on the sign is 'Ind Coope'. Adjacent to the public house on the right are numbers 18 to 20 Town Gate where the Speight family had a bespoke tailoring business for many years. Thomas Nicholson Speight was listed there as far back as Robinsons 1899 Directory and a Doris Speight is listed at this address in the 1959/60 Directory.
Is this the end of the story ...or the beginning of a legend?

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liits
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Re: The Woolpack, Holbeck.

Post by liits »

Here’s anther pic of the Woolpacks looking at the other side of the building, the “new” side.
Image
This side of the building had been added in 1901, the original portion of the pub is the lower part shown in buffaloshinner’s pic.
The original premises had started off in the ownership of Cutler’s Saville Green Brewery before they sold out to Leeds & Batley Breweries [which were later bought out by Ind Coope]. Bentley’s Yorkshire Brewery later bought the premises [1894] and it was they who instigated the expansion of the building.
In the pic posted by buffaloskinner the roof of the building has “Free House” painted upon it. The pub was only free of tie from 9th Feb 1922 when it was sold by Bentley’s Yorkshire Brewery to Richard Rochester Saxton – who had been the licensee [and BYB’s manager] since 1921. Saxton stayed as the licensee until April 1925 before putting his own manager, Sidney Taylor Dobson, into the premises.
Saxton reached an understanding with Ind Coope in October 1924 and they became his sole supplier of beer until he sold out to them in October 1931.

j.c.d.
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Joined: Mon 27 Jan, 2014 4:54 pm

Re: The Woolpack, Holbeck.

Post by j.c.d. »

Thanks for the information chaps, There was a Bookies on the corner of Meynell Street where Nobby the ratcatcher worked afternoons. before Jim Windsor opened an office on Elland Road. funny enough he had a long pointed nose and a thin face so resembled in away the creatures he used to exterminate. (Not Jim Windsor)

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