From Wagons to Welcome: The Beaumont Family’s Story of Grit, Graft and Strong Women

Our family’s story at the Old Bridge Inn is about much more than an old building. It’s about the people who came before us, the work they put in and the example they left behind. Before the Buck Inn at Malham and then the Old Bridge Inn pub, there was Beaumont Brothers Haulage in Ripponden. Before our days revolved around welcoming customers and looking after an ancient inn, our family’s livelihood was in transport.

And we couldn’t tell that story properly without talking about Grandma Betty and her mum, Marguerite Daisy Beaumont. Two stoic women. Hard grafters. The life and soul of the party, too. (One day I'll write about the Swinging Tit!)

That combination of strength, determination and knowing how to enjoy yourself has carried on through the generations. It’s as much a part of our family history as the Beaumont name itself. Before the pubs, there were the wagons and Beaumont Brothers Haulage was an important chapter in our family’s life in Ripponden.

Recorded as Beaumont Bros. (Halifax) Ltd., the business operated from Ripponden Garage. A contemporary report in Commercial Motor lists it among the haulage companies taken into public ownership in 1948, placing our family business within a significant period of change in Britain’s transport history.

But the part of the story we hold particularly dear happened during the war, when Grandma Betty left school to work in the family firm. Betty became an instrumental part of its work transporting ammunition during the war. That was a considerable responsibility to take on straight from school, and it’s something we remain immensely proud of. It took organisation, a clear head and proper grit. There’s no need to embellish her story. Leaving school and stepping into work of that importance says quite enough about the woman she was.

Grandma Betty: getting on with the job

When we think about Betty’s wartime work, it’s the responsibility that stays with us. This wasn’t simply a case of helping out in the family business. The work mattered, and she had an important part to play in making it happen. Her experience is a reminder that wartime contributions took many forms. Alongside those serving away from home were people keeping essential businesses working and supplies moving. Betty’s work in the family’s ammunition transport belongs to that story. For us, though, she wasn’t just part of a wartime history. She was Grandma and luckily Great Grandma Betty and no-doubt Aunty Betty to many who knew her!!

A strong woman and a hard worker, but certainly not someone whose personality began and ended with work. She had that wonderful combination of backbone and a love of life. Being dependable and determined didn’t stop her being the life and soul of the party including her 90th when she didn't fail us by asking the guitarist of the band to, "Rattle her bones later!" I definitely know where I get my personality from!! You could graft and still have a good laugh. Betty was proof of that.

Marguerite Daisy Beaumont: part of the roots of it all

Betty’s mum, Marguerite Daisy Beaumont, known to the family as Daisy, deserves her place at the heart of this story.

In our family’s account, Daisy’s earlier home was Park Field House, before Swift Place. Those places, together with the names of Daisy and her husband, Harry H Beaumont, belong to the family history behind the haulage business and the pub.

They’re more than names to add to a family tree. They help us remember the lives that came before our own chapter. Daisy also has a place in the recorded history of the Old Bridge. Local history records that she and Ian Beaumont bought the inn in 1963 and restored the building, beginning the family’s connection with the pub that continues today.

But records only tell part of a person’s story. They can give you a name and a date; they don’t necessarily capture what someone was like. Our family remembers Daisy as a stoic woman and a hard grafter, but also someone full of life. Like Betty, she could be strong and hardworking without losing her sense of fun.

That is how we want to remember them both. Not simply for what they did, but for who they were.

From haulage to hospitality

The move from Beaumont Brothers Haulage to the pub industry was a change of business, but the family values behind it feel very familiar. Taking responsibility. Working hard. Looking after people. Getting on with whatever needs doing. Creating jobs in communities.

Those qualities matter in a family business, whether you’re organising transport or opening the doors of a pub.

When Daisy and Ian took on the Old Bridge in 1963, they began another chapter in our family’s working life. Lindsay and Tim later took over in 2001, continuing that connection. Caring for an inn with a history stretching back to 1307 is a privilege, but it’s also a working life. Behind the welcome is plenty of everyday graft. Perhaps that’s why Daisy and Betty’s example still feels so relevant. They understood hard work, but they understood people and the importance of enjoying life as well. There’s something very fitting about that legacy finding its home in a pub.

The women who carried it forward

That spirit has carried on through Betty’s daughters, Lindsay and Josie (who has done a stint at the pub before her own successful career), and through Lindsay’s daughter, me - Carly.

Each of us have our own unique personality and our own story, but the family resemblance goes beyond a photograph. It’s there in the determination, the willingness to get stuck in and the ability to find some humour along the way. Daisy and Betty’s legacy isn’t something that needs a plaque on the wall. It lives in the example they set and the qualities their family recognise in themselves.

Strong women don’t all have to be strong in the same way. Every generation faces different challenges. But having women like Daisy and Betty in your family gives you something to draw on: a reminder of what came before, and a little encouragement when there’s a difficult day to get through. Most importantly they taught us how to pour a good pint and how to sup it!

And now there are my girls, Beatrix, Prudence and Wilhelmina, our next generation of strong women in the making. Their stories are still their own to write. They’ll have their own interests, ambitions and ways of doing things however what a family history to grow up with.

A great family tradition of women who worked hard, took responsibility and brought plenty of life to the room. Women who could be stoic when they needed to be, but who weren’t afraid to enjoy themselves.

We hope the girls carry that forward in whatever lives they choose: strength without losing warmth, determination without losing humour, and the confidence to be themselves.

A family story worth raising a glass to

We’re proud of our family’s connection to Beaumont Brothers Haulage. We’re proud of Grandma Betty’s wartime contribution, and of Daisy’s place in the story of the Old Bridge.

But most of all, we’re proud of the people behind those chapters.

From Park Field House to Swift Place, from the haulage business to the pubs they owned and now own, this is a story of family, work and the example one generation leaves for the next.

So here’s to Daisy and Harry H Beaumont. To Grandma Betty and George. To Uncle Ian. To Lindsay, Josie and to Beatrix, Prudence and Wilhelmina, with so much still ahead of them. Oh go on then.... cheers to Paul and myself too haha xx

Plenty of graft, plenty of grit, and always room for a good laugh. That’s a family tradition worth keeping.