FROM SILSDEN, YORKSHIRE, TO THE WORLD - UPDATED 14.20 GMT 16/2/2017

Telegraph & Argus, Monday 18th April 1966

IT’S THE NEW FLEECE, A HANDSOME HOUSE – BORN FROM BRADFORD’S STREETS

Pictures have been published of a man’s footprints on the walls and ceiling of an inn where there is a legend that somebody walked upside down through the place. Well, the walls of The Fleece, a new licensed house that was opened in Bradford today, have been walked over, not merely by one pair of feet, but by thousands of folk.

The explanation is that these walls have been built substantially of stone setts dug up from Bradford streets. So it is that the building, in Stone Street, off Manor Row, harmonises sweetly with its surroundings.

Larger site - To help to obtain this effect areas around the building have been laid out with flagstones which were formerly street paving stones.

Owned by J. Hey and Co. Ltd., Northbrook Brewery, Bradford, the new Fleece has replaced the old Fleece, which was demolished so the same site could be used, but in fact the site has been extended by the demolition of some cottages.

The building has been designed by Alan Sunderland’s chartered architects and surveyors, of Bradford and Keighley, who also supervised its erection.

Above the spacious public accommodation is a centrally-heated, three-bedroomed flat for the licensee, Mrs. Mary Constance Lawton. The flat has a terrace whose open stonework balustrade provides a frontage feature of the building.

On entering The Fleece one gets an impression of an open house, for in the bar lounge everything seems open. It is a large room 31ft. by 34ft., with beech panelled walls bearing pictures of old-time Bradford street scenes and it has an attractively carpeted floor.

The open bar, extending along one side, has a decorative front of hand-made clay tiles, illuminated by concealed lights. A brass footrail has been installed and, in fact, the glint of burnished brass is to be seen in various parts of the premises, the object being to echo long-cherished traditions.

Hey’s windows at the Airedale Heifer  and Willow Tree Inn

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There is also some copper, for mirrors and copper panels alternate along the rear wall of the bar, where there is a 10ft. long cold shelf linked with the refrigeration system and designed to keep bottled beer cool.

Heating is by a gas fired system which blows warm air through grills in the frontage of the brass-trimmed bar canopy. Air extractors are used to get rid of smoke fumes and ensure that the air is kept fresh.

A snug has been incorporated but, in accordance with the whole conception, it has been left with one side completely open and, reviving an old tradition, two of its walls are only 4ft. 6in. high. They are spanned by brass rails.

In the snug, as elsewhere, there are fixtures seats in black simulated leather.

Doors nearby lead to the toilets, with one suite fully tiled in pink and the other in blue-grey.

One area of the lounge has been specially equipped for the playing of darts.

Snack service - A section at one end of the bar counter is of solid marble, for snacks are to be served there daily.  Adjoining is a kitchen, tiled from floor to ceiling and containing apparatus to facilitate the snack service.

Ample cellarage is available, and a hydraulic lift has been installed to carry crates from the cellars to the bar.

It is a bar commodious enough to prevent crowding, a bar forming the bright focal point of a licensed house that is cheery, companionable and different—different in design and different because of the salvaged setts that have gone into its creation. It is a handsome house, born from Bradford’s streets.

Front view of the new Fleece Inn, Stone Street, Manor Row, Bradford

View from the car park of the Fleece Inn. By the early 1980s the house had been re-named Le Nouveau. Webster’s Yorkshire Bitter and Best was on sale then from hand pumps. Glass was added to the terrace at the front making it look like a greenhouse. Possibly readers might recall when the pub closed. A block of apartments now stands on the site.