Reply To: Boot and Shoe Inn, Bolster Moor, Golcar
Hi Mark
I’ve added some more info the page, including a list of licence holders from the Alehouse Registers.
It remained a beerhouse throughout its existence and was referred to the Compensation Authority for closure in May 1946. The growth of the Temperance Movement in the late Victorian era had led to a general feeling that there were far too many pubs and a 1904 Act of Parliament introduction a new levy on licences. Local magistrates were then tasked with identifying pubs that were suitable for closure and the Compensation Authority decided how much money (from the pot raised by the new levy) to award. Apparently the bulk of the compensation went to the owner of the property, which was usually a brewery. In the case of the Boot & Shoe, the owner was Bentley & Shaw Ltd who ran the Lockwood Brewery.
The only other local premises to be referred in May 1946 was the White Horse beerhouse at Kirkburton.
A brief newspaper article from the start of January 1947 noted that the last licensee (Holden Whiteley) had died recently and the Boot & Shoe had closed its doors for the last time, having existed for 116 years — so it was opened in 1830 or 1831, right at the very start of beerhouse licensing. I wouldn’t like to say that the current building dates from that period as it may be that it was rebuilt or enlarged at some point in its history (certainly Bentley & Shaw Ltd liked to modernise their older properties).