Kirkheaton-Brown Cow Inn

Kirkheaton History-by Geoff Newell

My story is of the Hirst family who lived and ran the Inn known as the Brown Cow, which used to stand on the left-hand side of St Mary’s Lane. My information came from a chap born at the Inn in 1900, James Hirst [1]. He was a well-known church and choir member at Kirkheaton for over 70 years.

James had a marvellous memory and lived into his 90’s [2], a tall and straight man, very much in full charge of the facts. He sat at the same table as me at the old folk’s luncheon in the old school [3] where he was taught as a boy and could confirm the records, which were scanty during his long lifetime.

He told me stories of how his uncle, George Herbert Hirst [4] playing cricket with him in front of the pub with wickets chalked on the gate post There was no traffic then, other than of the horse drawn variety!

His father catered for church and private events in the best room supplying both food and drink for weddings, funerals and christenings. He well remembered the Inn being festively dressed up for the -Coronations of both King Edward and King George V.

The parish records of 1802 list a James Hirst [5], Farmer and Beer House-keeper living on Glebe land with a house and croft of 3 plots, the New Close, the Stonepit Hill and the Upper Stone Pit, all situated behind the house under Low Fold. (There are still rock faces behind present houses where building stone for the village was quarried).

James described how one of his jobs as a lad was to feed the horses tethered to iron rings fixed to the wall, and the hay baskets that had to be filled. He said that whilst it was glebe land it was a free house and brewed its own beer and porter which was kept in large vats with wooden taps. Jugs had to be carried up from the damp underground cellar. Low beams hung from the roof covered with cobwebs. He remembered oil lamps as well as the small gas lamps with flickering mantels.

There was a heavy door with studs of iron and iron bars on the windows. His mother scrubbed the heavy stone flagged floor and then clean sand was sprinkled on it. There were long wooden benches, cast iron tables with marble tops.

Women came to the Kitchen door for jugs or ale to take home. Only ladies were allowed to drink with families in the best room up to the first World War. The Inn was open as soon as the first customer arrived and remained open until the last customer went home, however long that might of been. Before Huddersfield corporation brought water mains to the village [6], water was taken from wells in the yard, where there was also a trough for horses to drink out of.

Job Hirst was the last landlord of the family. The Beaumonts bought the lands from the church around 1890 and in June 1927 Ogden Binns was the landlord selling Tower Ales of Tadcaster. Trade began to decline as other inns and taverns locally attracted clientele with new pumping systems and better facilities so as a result the licensing magistrate revoked the license.[7] Kirkheaton Council [8] at the time wanted to widen the road at St Mary’s and negotiated a price with the landowners, Whitley Beaumont estates, and sadly the inn was demolished later on that year.

Before he died, James promised me a photo of the inn in all its former glory but alas he died before that could happen. The only visual record I have is a copy from a postcard taken in 1922 by Herman Heap of St Mary’s. James Hirst was a wonderful example of a man who served Kirkheaton Church. he had great character and I felt very privileged to know him.

The above article was written by the late Geoff Newell for the parish magazine Dec/Jan 1998. Courtesy of St John the Baptist Church. Additional information has been added as footnotes

1.Baptised 3rd Dec 1900 at Kirkheaton St John the Baptist, son of Job and Clara Hirst of Croft end, publican.

2.Died at Dalton October 1995

3.Kirkheaton Church School (big school)-demolished in 2014

4.Extensive coverage in Wikipedia

5. Source not confirmed

6.Huddersfield Corporation water mains were extended from Dalton to the Junction Inn area in 1876

7.See Yetton News issue 21 (summer 2018)-available on https://yettontogether.org/yetton-together-2/yettonnews

8.Kirkheaton UDC (1894-1938)