Real Ale lovers take note!!

[simong]

Steve Jones wrote: Bar Work is just round the corner from my office but I must admit that i usually only go in for work do's. I will have to investigate further if it has that many ales. I've discovered Bar Work only recently and if it's not the most atmospheric pub in the world, it does do an interesting and constantly changing selection of real ales from Yorkshire and Lancashire, so it's worth a look it. It's handy for me as it's just across the road from the bus stop home!

[cnosni]

simong wrote: Steve Jones wrote: Bar Work is just round the corner from my office but I must admit that i usually only go in for work do's. I will have to investigate further if it has that many ales. I've discovered Bar Work only recently and if it's not the most atmospheric pub in the world, it does do an interesting and constantly changing selection of real ales from Yorkshire and Lancashire, so it's worth a look it. It's handy for me as it's just across the road from the bus stop home! MMM,you have caught my interest.

[arry_awk]

My old fella was a postman for 30 odd years,and he,along with most of the staff of the GPO inCity Square/ Infirmary St.and Quebec St, would adjournto the West Riding after (sometimes during!), work!It was well known as 'The Postman's Pub'!It was nicely placed for them,being so close onWellington Street, and also for the bus stops home(as quoted!).after a session.Why on earth did they change it's name to one of these idiotic contrived abominations? No wonder it lostit's 'atmosphere'. Folks passing probably think it's a shopand barfitters' establishment! It has had other names,Ibelieve (equally yukworthy). so why not revert back to'The West Riding'? At least it would keep alive a realname from Yorkshire's proud past!!    

[Trojan]

arry awk wrote: My old fella was a postman for 30 odd years,and he,along with most of the staff of the GPO inCity Square/ Infirmary St.and Quebec St, would adjournto the West Riding after (sometimes during!), work!It was well known as 'The Postman's Pub'!It was nicely placed for them,being so close onWellington Street, and also for the bus stops home(as quoted!).after a session.Why on earth did they change it's name to one of these idiotic contrived abominations? No wonder it lostit's 'atmosphere'. Folks passing probably think it's a shopand barfitters' establishment! It has had other names,Ibelieve (equally yukworthy). so why not revert back to'The West Riding'? At least it would keep alive a realname from Yorkshire's proud past!!     I wonder why it was called the "West Riding" Leeds after all was in the West Riding but not part of it? Could it have been named after the LNER London to Leeds/Bradford train of that name which ran into Leeds Central up to the sixties?

[simong]

Trojan wrote: I wonder why it was called the "West Riding" Leeds after all was in the West Riding but not part of it? Could it have been named after the LNER London to Leeds/Bradford train of that name which ran into Leeds Central up to the sixties? The only city in Yorkshire that wasn't part of a Riding was York, as the county capital. Leeds was a County Borough, as were most of the big towns and cities in the West Riding, but the West Riding County Council still ran a number of services across the county, including education and roads (I've still got a few pencils from a set that I was given as a school award when I was about seven - they're stamped 'W.R.C.C.' in gold), and I'm fairly certain that there would have been a county precept on the rates, so despite being a county borough, Leeds was still very much in and of the West Riding, and was of course the largest city in the county.

[Trojan]

simong wrote: Trojan wrote: I wonder why it was called the "West Riding" Leeds after all was in the West Riding but not part of it? Could it have been named after the LNER London to Leeds/Bradford train of that name which ran into Leeds Central up to the sixties? The only city in Yorkshire that wasn't part of a Riding was York, as the county capital. Leeds was a County Borough, as were most of the big towns and cities in the West Riding, but the West Riding County Council still ran a number of services across the county, including education and roads (I've still got a few pencils from a set that I was given as a school award when I was about seven - they're stamped 'W.R.C.C.' in gold), and I'm fairly certain that there would have been a county precept on the rates, so despite being a county borough, Leeds was still very much in and of the West Riding, and was of course the largest city in the county. No the County Boroughs ran their own education, fire, police, water and ambulance. If you had pencils etc stamped WRCC that would be because the Leeds local authority had sourced them through the WRCC County Supplies to benefit from their mass purchasing power, this organisation is now called "The Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation" and still performs this function for many local authorities in the North of England. The West Riding was a huge area stretching from Goole in the South East to Sedberg on the borders of Cumbria and from York in the extreme East almost to the Irish sea, with many large non county boroughs in it such as Morley, Pudsey, Batley, Ossett, Castleford, Pontefract, Goole, Selby etc.My wife worked in a County Borough Education dept., although not Leeds up to 1974-thats' how I know so much about it.I may be wrong about Leeds being in but not of the West Riding, but I don't think so.That's why "Scotland Yard" became a national name, because the smaller counties and county boroughs could not operate the forensic facilities that Scotland Yard and the larger forces (like the West Riding) could.

[Trojan]

West Riding County Council area

[simong]

Trojan wrote: I may be wrong about Leeds being in but not of the West Riding, but I don't think so. The city would have still been represented on the county council, and one of the reasons for the 1972 reorganisation was that the divisions between county and city were hard to reconcile - schools were run by the borough education department, but supplied by the county (I think you're right about the YPO, but I also think there was a county level school board that all the education authorities were represented on) but libraries were run by the county: the fire service was county-based but the police were city based. So it was never so clear cut, and to all intents and purposes, Leeds was the main town in the West Riding geographically if not politically.

[Trojan]

simong wrote: Trojan wrote: I may be wrong about Leeds being in but not of the West Riding, but I don't think so. The city would have still been represented on the county council, and one of the reasons for the 1972 reorganisation was that the divisions between county and city were hard to reconcile - schools were run by the borough education department, but supplied by the county (I think you're right about the YPO, but I also think there was a county level school board that all the education authorities were represented on) but libraries were run by the county: the fire service was county-based but the police were city based. So it was never so clear cut, and to all intents and purposes, Leeds was the main town in the West Riding geographically if not politically. Well in the sixties I was fairly politically active and the City of Leeds was a separate political entity from the West Riding - there were no County Councilors on the WRCC for Leeds, or for that matter Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Bradford, Halifax or Huddersfield.As I have said my wife worked for Wakefield City Council and up to 1974, although in the West Riding's political capital they were entirely separate from the West Riding Education Dept - there was similar friction when the two amagamated in 1974 - with obviously less serious conequences than the police but friction just the same. The confusion in Wakefield of course was that Kirkhamgate, Alverthorpe, Wrenthorpe, Outwood, Lofthouse were all part of the Wakefield UDC - which was part of the West Riding not the City - very confusing.There was in the late sixties however a West Yorkshire Police Force, but Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield forces were not part of it. Part of the problem with the Ripper enquiry was the clash in cultures between the old West Riding force detectives and the Leeds City force detectives, given that the first murder (Wilma McCann) occurred in Leeds in 1975 shortly after amalgamation.

[Steve Jones]

it was called the West Riding because it was next door to the Army Recruiting Office (now a gentlemens club) which at one time recruited for the West Riding Regiment I believe.