A Proper Yorkshire Thank You: Why You Lot Mean Everything to Us

Pull up a chair, get yourself settled by the fire, and let’s have a proper chat.

When you run a place where the earliest records date all the way back to 1307, you tend to get a fairly unique view on time. These thick stone walls carry an incredible amount of history. As Yorkshire Live picked up on not so long ago, our roots are deeply tied right back to the early Yeoman Clothier, Robert of Brigge of Soyland, the very man whose descendants went on to leave such a mark on our patch, building many fine houses across the area including Somerset House down in Halifax.

Fast forward through the centuries to our own family, and now the keys are in our pocket, marking four generations of us keeping the cellar cool, the hearth lit, and the ale pulling sweet. People often ask us about the secret to keeping an ancient inn going through all of that, through centuries of trade, changing times, and world events. They reckon it must be down to the historic name, the heritage, or the old timber beams.

A pub isn’t made of lime mortar, old deeds, slate, and flagstones. Without the folk who step over the lintel, our inn could be seen as just a cold, draughty museum. What actually breathes life into this house and what keeps the brass polished, the pumps working, and the embers glowing, quite simply it is you lot. Our fabulous customers!

It’s the folk who walk in on a foul, sideways-raining Tuesday night, shaking the damp off their coats, heading straight for their usual corner stool before I’ve even reached for their glass. It’s the walkers collapsing by the hearth with worn boots, peeling off wet wool layers with a grin because they’ve finally spotted our pub over the ancient cobbled bridge and through the mist. It’s the families gathering for a Sunday roast, sharing stories, clattering cutlery, laughing till their sides hurt, and making memories right where folks have gathered for over seven hundred years.

We don’t say it nearly enough in Yorkshire, we’re not always the quickest to dish out flowery speeches when a warm nod and a freshly pulled pint usually does the talking, but truth be told, we are endlessly reet grateful for every single one of you. In a world where everything feels rushed, plastic, and increasingly online, you choose to spend your hard-earned brass and your precious spare hours sitting under our roof, sharing your lives with us, thank you!

Running an independent, historic inn in this day and age takes a rare amount of graft, as anyone in hospitality will tell you. But every early morning barrel run, every late-night clean-down, and every bitter winter morning is worth it the second the latch clicks open, the first laugh echoes across the middle bar and the banter starts flying across the bar. Be mindful not to swear though, a £1 a swear and three strikes an ya owt!

You aren’t just customers to us. You’re our neighbours, our community, our critics when something’s amiss, our champions when times get lean, and the very heartbeat of this place. Robert of Brigge and the old clothiers might have laid the foundations, and my family might be the ones keeping the fire stoked today, but you are the ones who make it a pub.

So, from the bottom of our hearts, and on behalf of every generation of our family who’s ever called time at the end of a long night: thank you. Thank you for your loyalty, your tales, your laughs, and for keeping this grand old house very much alive.

The fire’s on, the beer’s kept right, and your stool is waiting. See you at the bar :-)