Pontefract Now and Then - A @wednesdaywalk

Back in the UK recently and before I'd picked up a hire car, I had two choices to get around. Shanks' pony or peasant waggon and seeing as the bus service that goes past my Mum's house has been withdrawn, and I wanted to get down to the retail park at the other side of town, it was time to put my best foot forward.

All I wanted was some new pants!

Freeport is situated between Pontefract and Castleford, at Glasshoughton and is a huge space built on reclaimed land from where a coal mine and coking plant once stood. As a child, I remember driving past there and gazing up at the eternal flame from the coking plant chimney, as well as the plumes of smoke. Along with the Prince of Wales colliery just a mile away, there was always the faint stench of sulphur that scratched your nose and the air was never quite perfectly clear.

All that has changed for the better these days and as North Sea or natural gas as it was called, coming online, there was no longer any need for coking plants which made gas by dry heating coal to create both coke and gas.

Homes moved from coal fires, to smokeless fuels to gas for heat and these changes, reduced the amount of pollution in the air which of course creates a more comfortable environment for anyone living in such an industrialised area.

As I walked though, it got me thinking.

When I was younger, if we ever went anywhere we hadn't been in a while, my parents would often say something along the lines of;

Oh. It's changed around here.

I never paid much attention. When you're young, nothing ever changed but getting older, you see how much things really have changed within your own lifetime and it was these thoughts that stayed with me as I purposely strode out on that gorgeous October day.

The other thought that struck me is, that like my post about Darrington Church the other day, how deeply we are rooted and connected to the place we were born, as I hope you'll see from the upcoming photos.

So the following are a few pictures from that walk, of things that most certainly have changed along with pictures of how they used to look using photos of the same locations from the Wakefield District Council's Museum archives.

All the old photos are free to use both for personal and commercial use and the licensing rights can be found here. I have of course, credited the original photographer wherever the information was available.

So firstly, this is the route I took although the pictures will start in town itself...

The first photo is of the now sadly closed down Windmill Pub. It wasn't somewhere I'd go drinking as a kid as it was really a traditional spit and sawdust old fellas pub but the connection is that in the 1950s, my great uncle was landlord there and my Mum always recounts some very happy family parties taking place during that time. She does have one photo, but like an idiot, I forgot to borrow it and scan it in. Noted for next trip!

It certainly isn't a particulary old building or anything special but it was obviously built as a pub and you can see the windmill plaque over the door.

The thing to note in this picture is the sign on the lampost which reads, "Pontefract: A magna carta town since 1215". We don't half like ramming our amazing history down your throats!

@slobberchops Is this place on your radar by any chance? The rear of the building is fairly quiet despite its town centre location. If you could get in here I'd be made up.

I then walked along through town, along Ropergate right to the end, and where it meets Jubilee Way stands the Crescent cinema.

The Crescent cinema is the last of four cinemas in town and also had a dance hall attached, but the only one I remember. It was the first cinema I ever went to, quite late in life as a 17 year old, to see the unofficial James Bond film with the returning Sean Connery in 'Never Say Never Again'.

Family-sized bag of Opal Fruits and a can of Top Deck Shandy. Very sophisticated!

Buildings and places as they get older seem to be much like me as I've aged.
They have either changed appearance out of all recognition, have fallen down, been pulled down, been condemned or are broken down ruins and a shadow of what they once were!

At least the cinema is still standing and since the projector was turned off for the last time in 1992, has been a bingo hall and then for the last 20 years, snooker club and dance studio. It's quite a landmark building now and I hope it finds further use by sympathetic owners in the years to come.

UnknownPhotographer And here is how it looked in what I imagine to be the late 50s or early 60s. Sadly the photo isn't good enough to see what was showing at the time or we could have dated it precisely.

Looking directly across the road from the same location, we see the telephone exchange. As an apprentice, I put in a few weeks here but it was also the base for three of my uncles, who also worked for the GPO as it was known at the time.

The original building in the foreground was built in the 50s and the extension in the background, the early 70s and with the advent of digital, now mainly stands empty.

The road is called Jubilee Way and as you might have guessed was completed in 1977 when the road was widened to a dual cariageway and where the clean looking wall at the front is, was a row of old shops which I barely remember.

Next to the telephone exchange was, to the people who worked there, the most important building in town.

No, not the beautiful Georgian style house, but the white building with the sign that says 'Berries Buttys' which is what it was called back in the day and where as an 18 year-old apprentice, my day started by walking around the exchange taking sandwich orders and collecting the money before going up to Berries', placing the order and delivering it back on the stroke of 10am.
Most popular sandwich back then? BEST- Bacon Egg Sausage and Tomato! Some things never change.

Walking up the hill on the right hand side we have Crossley Tordoff's. It looks quite 'new' but has been that way since I can remember and was certainly that same building when I went to hire my salopettes and boots for ski-ing trips as 14-year-old in 1980. At a guess, I'd imagine it was renovated at the time of the road being widened in 1977 but the company has been around for generations.

Notice the street named Liquorice Way? References to our famous history of liquorice and sweet making are everywhere.

Walking further up to the peak of the hill you can see in the previous picture, we get to the sprawling Haribo sweet factory which for some reason, I didn't take a photo of but as luck would have it, I stopped to take this picture of some street art on a wall right opposite.

Now in the old picture I found of the same location, which again, is in my living memory and shows the Dunhills sign, the sweet factory before it was bought out by Haribo, can you see the same wall, and a different white car in exactly the same parking space!

Unknown photographer The car, of course, is an Escort XR3i which probably dates this around 1990. It wouldn't be long before the Dunhill sign came down, both Townend's Greengrocer and Cornmarket Fisheries closed down and the behemoth that is Haribo took over.

We're now walking down the hill and out of town, and one of the few shops on Front Street not owned by Haribos is Goodworth Bros. Butchers. This shop has been around as a butchers shop since the 1940's when it was started by three brothers, the last of whom died just a few years back aged 102. One of my great uncles.

I have very few memories of visitng the shop as a kid but I do remember being both fascinated and a little scared of the rows of rabbits and pheasants hung outside by the doorway. In those days, there was sawdust on the floor and bloodstains everywhere.

It's nice to see that despite the proliferation of supermarkets that there are a few traditional shops surviving in what must be difficult trading circumstances for a small business.

A few yards further on and we get to Kikos...
Kikos is a nightclub that opened in the seventies and was the only one in town. It finally closed in 2011 after brief renaissance and it was where you'd find me every Friday and Saturday during the mid eighties. My cousin was a glass collector and a mate worked behind the bar so I never paid to get in, always being on 'the list' and walking past the queues that would form outside after the pubs closed at 11 and everyone had made the walk down the hill, often via the Chinese near to the butchers.

The theme was 'Polynesian', no seriously and there were artex formed palm trees, cliff faces and into them were set a couple of huge fish tanks. On more than one occassion, I'd helped pick up the fish and popped them into an ice bucket of water as a wayward stool had missed its intended target and ended up crashing through the glass. Heavy stainless steel stools with their maroon velvet upholstery had little effect on neanderthal skulls but were devastating to one inch thick plate glass fishtanks!

As anyone of 'a certain age' will remember, walking around took a huge amount of effort as your feet would be stuck to the carpets and your steps would be interspresed with the crunching sound of ground in broken glass. Vivid pink neon lights and every surface painted black completed this Polynesian temple of eighties musical hedonism.

Ohhh, except for the ponds! there were also a couple of ponds in there which I never actually saw full of water, that was definitely a 'good' idea that was never going to end well. I often saw beer, vomit, blood and other bodily fluids in there but never water!

And damn was it rough! Especially on a Friday night.

Most of the women in town worked in the sweet factories, half the guys were down the pit and people were paid weekly. In cash. On a Friday! A quick change of clothes and it was into town for a skinful before heading to Kikos.

You'd be unlucky if you didn't see at least two fights a night. It wasn't a big club but there were at least six bouncers who were, even then, quite old fellas but huge, and they had to be. Rugby League playing miners after 10 pints are not known for their delicate physiques and gentle personas and they all had the same Christian name, 'Big'. Big Dave, Big Pete etc and they were all dressed in tuxedos complete with cumberbun and dickie.

Whenever it kicked off, the DJ and bar staff would press a switch which would set off a buzzer at the entrance and they'd all race inside the club, woe betide anyone in their way who would be bowled over like skittles in the the rush to the altercation.

There were no rights or wrongs, the protagonists would be dragged through the fire escape, down a short flight of concrete steps and given a good hiding in the little car park which no one actually parked in due to the risk of damage to your car from the fighting.

Picture courtesy of the Pontefract and Castleford Express This photo must have been taken in the lates eighties judging by the Peugeot 405 outside. A very plain and unassuming exterior that hid the bloodbath inside. Again, I believe @slobberchops' urban explorer mates might have managed to get in here. I just read that its finally due to be demolished next year which will be sad but thats how life moves forwards, I guess.

At two-thousand words, I'm going to leave it here for now. As I write, more and more memories and thoughts are triggered and more than being a personal piece, it seems to be in some ways becoming an incredibly simplified comment on recent social history and I can't stop adding things!

Next time, I promise we'll finally arrive at Freeport for a coffee and the new pants this journey had been started for!

If you got this far, thank you and as ever, the engagement means more than the reward.

Pontefract. Where the cakes come from!

Originally made by Dunhills, Now made by Haribo

One little note. Haribo says they are 'authentic' and cannot legally call them 'original' as they cannot use the stamp that makes them 'genuine'

READ THE FULL STORY HERE



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untitled.gif
looks beautiful. Still good weather it seems, nice. Happy WednesdayWalk :)

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When I read Freeport, it reminds me of this mine in Indonesia. What a nice walk Nathen, I didn't know there's this cheerful bit of UK because from what I've been told it's always somber and dark. I recently watched This is England, it was a bit depressing 😂 but I guess that film is pretty popular.

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Lol...the first time I've seen England judged upon that film! You're a star :-)

Inner city areas can be depressing like every big city in the world but generally, UK is really beautiful , especially on gorgeous clear days with cornflower blue skies. This was in October!

The problem here is the weather is all over the place, regardless of forecasts it's complete guesswork but personally , I love September October and january as although it can be bitterly cold, you get these amazing skies and sunshine.

Come over, somewhere else you'd love!

This is England....oh lord!

Think Notting Hill or Love Actually or try looking for The rise and fall of Little Voice, set in my favourite location Scarborough or for a real slice of Northern Social history and an incredible film, Brassed Off.

I want to hear you speak with a Yorkshire accent :-)

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lol lol I was recommended that film and it was actually pretty sad too. A young boy who was bullied, embraced by skinhead then rest is history. When I actually watched that I was expecting it something like American X but actually it's not. I'll check the rest you mentioned and will eventually write a review on it too!

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We did try Kikos a while back, it was sealed.., dammit!

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Awww that's a shame, I'd have loved to have had a last look inside! Did you get in anywhere else in the area?

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We had a very good day, it was last May or June as I recall. These will be posted in the next few weeks (or months), depending on my laziness. They are around that area.

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Unknown Time Capsule sounds exciting. You didnt get into the caves and air raid shelters did you? There are rumoured to be secret entrances where you can get access...or am I going to have to wait patiently until you get your arse into gear ? ;-)

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You didnt get into the caves and air raid shelters did you?

No, I don't do caves.. they look boring and I'm claustrophobic. Will leave that for the caving types. Shelters are generally small and damp affairs without much of interest to see. There's a lots of those cold war shelters dotted around the country.

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Wow @nathen007 that was a serious walk- both down memory lane, into your thoughts and in physical reality!

Thanks so much for the interesting read on the hitory of the place too. I have never heard of that area.

I hope that @slobberchops you do get to get inside it too one day!

I can't wait to get to the UK properly one day and even back to Scotland for a better look around too!

Thanks for sharing and thanks for voicing some of my thoughts- especially the bit where you said , how deeply we are rooted and connected to the place we were born,
Even if you hate that place, as I do, you still can't get away from it...

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Thank you so much.

You really can't totally escape your roots. I only go back there once a year and to be honest, for the first week, I enjoy it. I enjoy the routine and look at everything with Rose tinted glasses, a bit like when you go on holiday and its always better than where you live! But then, after a week, I've had enough. Family politics kick in, theres mundane stuff to attend to and I realise why I'm happier where I am now and can't wait to get back.

I don't hate it, but it does annoyed me that however much I prefer to free, you can never totally escape!

I hope you're having a beautiful week and are looking forward to the weekend.

Best wishes :-)

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It really does look like a slobberfest of a place!

We all feel them bloody changes as we get older. Shadows of what was lost!

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Ayyy, but let's not get morose. It's almost Friday, don't you have anything in the pipeline to give your doting admirers a titter please? :-)

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Exactly, morose is shite! Be happy, like that dick that slapped his belly and made a million from a song!

I do! I do, but it took me ages to do the picture and now I need to wait to get the kids down before I can put it up!

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Oooh, Top Deck Shandy! We thought it was the business!

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We spent longer working out how many we'd need to get drunk than we did drinking it! But that's what huge bottles of Strongbow were for.

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It was a great walk dear, nathen. It made me remember when I came back to the place where I finished my College in a University. I have noticed a lot has changed, and you know, there are really memories to miss for, most especially my most favorite retaurants and food house. Hehe. You know I so love foods and just like you have mentioned, and I quote, the best egg sausage and tomato in the white house. It is almost morning here and I am feeling hungry. Hehe. Have a nice time my dear friend, and take care always. !LUV

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(Edited)

@pinkchic, always so happy to see you drop by. Its so funny, if anyone asked me to describe the Philippines in two words they would be 'food' and 'music' ! The first tagalog word I ever learnt was 'sarap' !

You take care as always and my best wishes for a blessed weekend to you and your family :-)
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Second word was 'maganda' lol ;-)

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Awww those words are so sweet nathen and shall I say sweet kaayo ka and grabe kabuotan. Yes masarap is delicious. Hehe. You know I was able to watch “Blues Clues and You”, the Philippines was featured and the word used was also masarap meaning yummy, tasty, delicious. Filipinos really love foods and if ever anyone visits at home, there will always be foods served no matter how simple or lavish it is. Thank you so much dear @nathen007 for your kind words. Very much appreciated.

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Wow what memories and what a history, sounds pretty rough though.
I promise it didn't feel like a two thousand word read.

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I promise it didn't feel like a two thousand word read

Ohhh goodness, that is the simplest most lovely compliment I've ever been paid here! It was a little rough back in the day, just the area I guess but things have changed a lot. There were still some lovely places to visit and things to do around but now its much cleaner. The town has an awful lot of important history going back over a thousand years and there some beautiful heritage buildings that are now getting the love and care they deserve.

Sometimes, things can change for the better!

Thank you so much for dropping by, I don;t think our paths have crossed before so expect a visit very soon!

Best wishes and have a lovely weekend :-)

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Glad things have changed for the better.
Hope to read more of your posts.
Have a lovely day.

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Definitely places change and become so different that it feels sometimes that you are in a different place.
I moved to much around in my life to have really roots somewhere. But I so understand.
Great to see some old and new photos.
What a great walk around. And cool StreetArt you found too.
Thanks for sharing with us @nathen007 👋🏻😊 have a great week further!

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I moved to much around in my life to have really roots somewhere.

That's really interesting. Do you feel like anywhere is your actual home that you are forever tied to, by birth for example?

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Nope… how can I when the amount of moves are close to 50. During my life. Soon Country 6.

Not even where I was born. As that was France. And my parents only stayed there 2 years. So we moved a lot… every 1 or 2 years since. (3 countries with my parents) I moved out of my parents place when I was 16… and somehow I kept moving after too hahaha 🤣
I never grew roots, anywhere. Even schools I changed regularly as we moved to far each time when I was younger.
Maybe I’m a wanderer…
But somewhere I hope to settle down and grow some roots. Feel home and built something.
As it is tiring every time trying to settle…

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Well then don't stop :)

Marvelous piece, Nathan. Touching...

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