A1-The Great North Road

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Thirsk

According to Gordon Home in 1922:

Like many a Yorkshire market town. Thirsk has its great central open space surrounded by rather plain houses of red brick or stone, roofed with red tiles.  The town is astride the great highway and benefits by the growing moor traffic which enlivens its cobbled square early and late.  In Norman times the great chieftain of this part was Roger de Mowbray, and here he built himself a castle; but having been in armed conflict with Henry II for a few months, his fortress was razed to the ground so thoroughly that nothing at all can be seen of it to-day.

And it seems to have hardly been Pevsner's favourite town:

As a town, Thirsk is disappointing.  The Market Place has a depressing Clock Towerette, a surfeit of lorries, and no houses of distinction except two, one enjoyable inside, the other outside.

The two were the Three Tuns Hotel, with a good staircase, and the Fleece Hotel where he admires the glazing bars and rainwater goods.  Fortunately, the surfeit of lorries now pass round the town leaving the Market Square to local traffic.

Thirsk is made of four parts, Old Thirsk (which is old) to the east, New Thirsk (which is not new) to the west, Norby to the north (which it is) and Sowerby to the south (which claims not to be part of Thirsk at all and so gets its own page).  Approaching Thirsk along the Great North Road from Dishforth leave the A168(T) to take the old road, now the B1448.  It enters the market square from the south-west and leaves on the north side to continue to Northallerton.  The York branch of the Great North Road enters Old Thirsk from the south-east along the Roman line but the post road crossed over the Cod Beck to the Market Square, joining the western branch of the road.  The Roman road continued fairly straight, probably close to the line of the A61, crossing the Cod Beck close to the new road bridge between South and North Kilvington. It ran on a little west of north to pass a couple of miles east of Northallerton to cross the Tees at Middleton St George.

Thirsk Chamber of Trade have provided a neat history of the town.  They also note that the parish church stood on the far bank of the Codbeck overlooking the site of a holy well dedicated to St. Mary, but which could possibly have been a sacred spot in pre-Christian times.  And Graham Denison has compiled a list of places to drink and eat in.  

Edmund Hogg, in his book of about 1909, The Golden Vale of Mobray quotes Hutton, who visited the town in 1808: "It is situated on the Great Road from London to the North, yet it contains but one Inn for the reception of travellers but it is an excellent one, though kept by a woman, Mrs. Cass."  This is rather curious because Baines's Directory of Professions and Trades lists the following for 1823:

Anchor and Dolphin, Matthew Fothergill, St. James's green

Black Bull, Charles Hall, N. side Market place

Black Horse, Thomas, Metcalfe, Long St.

Black Lion, William Faint, S. side Market place

Blacksmith's Arms, George Rose, E. side Market place

Blue Bell, W. Parker, St. James's green

Brewer's Arms, Ann Hutton, N. side Market place

Crown, Christr. Daniel, S. side Market place

Golden Fleece inn, George Blythe, posting and commercial house, S. side Market place

Golden Lion, John Gill, E. side Market place

Half Moon, Rd. Morfoot, Millgate

King's Arms, Richard Chapman, top of Kirkgate

King's Head, Mary Hutton, Millgate

Lord Nelson, Thomas Cotham, Saint James's green

Mason's Arms, John Fawcitt, Kirkgate

New inn, Robt. Taylor, Westgate

Red Bear, Wm. Johnson, N. side Market place

Royal Oak, James Hudson, (commercial) N. side Market place

Star, Wm. Clayton, Westgate

Three Horse Shoes, Snowden Smith, Ingrygate

Three Tuns, Jonathan Empson, (excise office, commercial and posting house) S. side Market place

Three Tuns, Rt. Heseltine, Finkle street

Waggon and Horses, Thomas Moon, Long street

Wheat Sheaf, Henry Atkinson, St. James's green

White Horse, Robert Seaton, St. James's green

White Swan, George Thornton, N. side Market place

That's twenty-six places a traveller might  find some reception though only one, the Golden Fleece, is designated an inn.  Were the others all just pubs with no accommodation?  Baines groups them all under the heading 'Hotels, Inns and Taverns' without defining or distinguishing.  Hogg goes on to describe Golden Fleece as the main coaching inn, keeping 50 horses in its heyday and the Three Tuns Inn as "a commodious hostel".

Looking at the equivalent lists of 'Hotels, Inns and Taverns' for neighboring to towns, we find these figures:

Taking into account the varied sizes of these towns we find that in each case between 7 and 10% of all those entered in the lists of Trades and Professions fall in the Hotels, Inns and Taverns category.  The interesting point being that this trade is not significantly larger in the two towns on the Great North Road, Thirsk and Northallerton, than in the towns that are not directly on the road.  Perhaps we should be careful not to exaggerate the significance of  the post road with its long distance stage coaches to the local economy.  Was it the case that only a very small proportion of the licensed premises serviced the coaching trade while there were numerous establishments concerned chiefly with victualling the locals?

Remember that the figures above relate to 1823, that is before the 1830 Beer Act, which allowed the establishment of premises licensed to sell beer and cider but not spirits and wine and resulted in the opening of a great number of houses for drinking. Pigot's Directory of 1834 adds the Crown on the south side of the Market square alongside the Three Tuns and the Golden Fleece, as an inn but lists another 31 'Taverns and Public Houses' and a further six 'Retailers of Beer'.  In 1890, Bulmer's Directory promotes the Black Bull and the Black Lion to the status of 'Hotel' while six of the other establishments are now listed as 'Inns'.  The stage coaches are long gone and the railways never faring better (though the station is a good mile away) and Thirsk's accommodation for travellers appears to have increased.  But then the racecourse opened in 1855.

Here is a list, derived from the 19th century Directories and Graham's list, showing the existence of Thirsk pubs through time.

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©Biff Vernon 2001, 2002