Recycled Lintel in Otley

[Si]

...now you don't.

[Si]

One of Tasa's 1890s maps also shows the cottages on the edge.

[Si]

This one is from c.1889. The road was even narrower then, and the place has almost a village feel, rather than a town. Unfortunately, the lintel building is just out of view.Apparently, the cottages were demolished in 1933.        

[Leodian]

Si wrote: This one is from c.1889. The road was even narrower then, and the place has almost a village feel, rather than a town. Unfortunately, the lintel building is just out of view.Apparently, the cottages were demolished in 1933.         Fascinating photo Si. There looks to be a ghostly image of possibly a person near the bottom left corner. I guess he/she moved during the posing period needed to take the photo. The people look safe though as it was not 'Rush Hour' (or perhaps it was in those days! ).

[iansmithofotley]

Hi Si,I had a look in the church yard this afternoon. The inside of the boundary wall is about 15' from the nearest old graves. The pavement outside the boundary wall, where the benches are, is quite wide. My son, Giles, who you know, has spoken to someone who informed him that the cellars from the houses and shops are still there under the pavement. This picture shows that the buildings were not very deep:http://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N ... 23750163/I also looked at the inscribed lintel in Mercury Row. It seems a weird place to put it as it is in such an obscure place, if it was anything to do with the builders, who constructed the building, or the people that originally inhabited the building, it would have been more appropriate if it had been placed in the part of the building on Kirkgate where it would be easier to see. It looks to be an inscribed stone on top of a lintel. I have learned a lot about old Otley from your post and all of the old photographs.Ian

[Si]

My pleasure, Ian.It's a learning curve for me too. I didn't know much of this until I started digging.

[Si]

I saw something on telly the other day (can't for the life of me remember the programme - might have been the Antiques Roadshow), but there was a discussion about initials carved on lintels, etc.Apparently, when the letters are arranged in a pyramid fashion (as in the Otley lintel) the top letter stands for the surname, and the bottom letters stand for the husband and wife's first names, respectively.However, on closer inspection of the Mercury Row example, to my eye, it looks like it may have been altered. The lower range of letters are cut in a deeper rectangle, which does not fit symetrically in the shallower rectangle - following me? It's as if there may have been an earlier inscription there, which was carved to the same depth as the B on the top line. Strangely, the B isn't centred either.I can think of another carved lintel I've seen in Bradford, where an earlier inscription has been ground down, leaving just the end letters visible - an A and an M - and a bogus looking 1601 carved into the altered portion.I've posted the pic of the Otley lintel again for reference.(Click on the cross/paperclip to view.)

[Si]

I've recently found another old picture of the Bondgate/Kirkgate junction, taken before the row of cottages in front of the church were demolished.

[Si]

I found this c.1840 print of Otley All Saints parish church recently.Of course, drawings are always subject to the artist's licence, but it does suggest that there were earlier cottages on the same site as the ones shown earlier in this thread. The buildings in the foreground appear to be different to what's there now, and the church itself has undergone serious alteration. I'm intrigued by the gate and steps in the centre of the picture, as they don't conform to today's topography at all.