Nostalgia with Margaret Watson: Winklepickers at the opening of the Whistler pub in Leeds Road

Margaret Watson writes: This is what happened when I first saw this photograph of the opening ceremony of the Whistler pub in Leeds Road in 1959, the year after I’d started working as a trainee journalist on the Reporter.

I was a young teenager at the time, regularly covering such events in my pencil slit skirt, winklepicker shoes, and a pony tail which I thought was the longest in Dewsbury.

Many people reading this column today will remember those halcyon days, and I hope, like me, they are still only 18 at heart

They may remember the opening of the Whistler which had originally been Bywell House, and there may be some who objected to it.

Bywell House was an impressive detached house standing in its own grounds at the top of Leeds Road, but there were some residents who objected to it being converted into a pub.

The house had been the home of Mr and Mrs R S Balden, a family of auctioneers, who had lived in the house for generations.

I remember interviewing this delightful couple when they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary some time after moving out of their house.

By this time they were happily settled into a new bungalow which they’d had built next door to Bywell House.

They had sold their house to Hammond United Brewery, and part of the sale included the Balden’s retaining part of their extensive gardens in which to build their bungalow.

Mr Balden came from a well-known Dewsbury family of auctioneers, and Mrs Balden from a well-known Ossett family called De La Touche, and her father was a highly respected GP

The great tragedy of this lovely couple’s life was the loss of their two sons in the Second World War, killed within a short time of each other. Their names are inscribed on the war memorial in Hanging Heaton churchyard.

Bywell House had been built long before Bywell Road had been thought of, so those who always believed the house was named after the road were wrong.

Mr Balden’s family had once been agents of a large estate in Scotland called Bywell, and when they came to live in Dewsbury they brought the name with them.

The opening of the new Whistler in Leeds Road was not all plain sailing, for there were some residents who were quick to object when the brewery applied for a licence.

The brewery had originally intended calling their new pub the Bywell Arms, but for some unknown reason, they changed it to the Whistler at the last minute.

Perhaps further research may eventually reveal why, but I still cannot understand why no-one at the time, including myself, asked the brewery why.

In 1959, the ground landlords of Bywell House – the Savile Estate – gave permission for change of use from a house to a pub, and so did the local planning authority.

The brewery concerned, United Hammond, also promised there would be no increase in licensed premises in Dewsbury if they were granted a licence because they had already relinquished the licence of the Craven Heifer in Springfield.

Licenses of a number of other pubs in the town at this time, like the Craven Heifer, had also been relinquished by other breweries during slum clearance in the 1950s.

The objectors to the scheme of the Whistler, felt a new pub situated opposite Bywell Road and close to Bennett Lane would lower the value of houses because of noise around closing time.

But Mr C G L Wooldridge, solicitor for the brewery said the pub would be situated on the busy main Leeds Road where there was already a constant flow of nearby traffic.

The present owners, Mr and Mrs Balden, obviously did not agree with this, otherwise they wouldn’t be building their new bungalow next door to it, he said.

Some years earlier, he pointed out, there had been plans to build another pub further along Leeds Road to be known as the ‘Tow’d Owl’ but that application was not proceeded with owing to the cost of building at the time.

Mr Wooldridge added that there were no licensed houses on the main Leeds Road between the Crown Hotel, at the bottom of Leeds Road, and the ‘Babes in the Wood’ in Woodkirk.

Mr R.W Holroyd, from Messrs H Pickersgill Ltd, estate agents, did not think the provision of licensed premises in areas lowered the saleable value of other houses.

Mr John Stott, of Tweedale Street, gave evidence to the licensed magistrates that he had visited 400 of the nearest houses to the proposed pub.

Most of the residents were neutral concerning the application, although one couple, both teetotal, did object.

Councillor Mrs Alice Cockcroft, however, supported the application and believed amenities such as a new pub should be provided in the area.

There were a number of clubs in the area, but they were not open to the general public, including Hanging Heaton Golf Club, Hanging Heaton Cricket Club and Hanging Heaton Working Men’s Club.

Mr Wooldridge said the number of houses in the area had increased greatly since the 1930s, and it was expected there would soon be 8,000 residents living within a one mile radius.

It was unrealistic, he said, that they should be served by only two pubs – the Fox and Hounds in Bennett Lane, and the Crown Hotel further down the road.

The magistrates granted the licence, under the name of the ‘Bywell Arms’ and a few months later it opened as The Whistler.

Times change though and some years ago the pub closed down and it was converted yet again. This time into a Tesco Express.

The picture above shows the guests of honour at the opening of the Whistler in 1959. Pictured, left to right, are Mrs Harriet Hulme, wife of the chief constable, the Mayoress, Mrs Gertie Hill, Councillor Mrs Alice Cockcroft, and Alderman Sugden. The picture was kindly loaned by the Evers family.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​