Branwell and the station of Sowerby Bridge

Sowerby Bridge

 

The Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, Sowerby Bridge, is in the old ticket office where Branwell Bronte, worked.

In 1840, Branwell was appointed assistant clerk at Sowerby Bridge’s recently opened railway station where he earned an annual wage of £75 working in a wooden and corrugated shack.

 

 

 

 

 Luddenden Foot

After a brief time at Sowerby Bridge, Branwell was promoted to clerk in charge of Luddenden Foot station where he earned £130 a year.

However, he found the position more taxing and when he was not idling away the hours sketching and doing freehand portraits of local characters, he often took himself off to the Lord Nelson, the village’s main inn.

When the Manchester and Leeds Railway came to check its accounts for the year ending 1841, it discovered a discrepancy of more than £11 - a sizeable sum in those days - and he was subsequently dismissed for neglect of duty.
 

Brothers Andrew and Chris Wright

 

Railway enthusiasts and life members of the Campaign for Real Ale, had a dream. They wanted to open an old-style railway refreshment room with a new twist – the pub was to serve commuters, but it was also to be a mecca for railway and real ale aficionados.

 

 

lostrailwayswestyorkshire/Sowerby Bridge/Station

 

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The place they found had been a Victorian station, built in 1876, at Sowerby Bridge. Most of it had been demolished, but there remained part of the structure, the old booking and parcels office. It took 12 years of negotiations, but finally a deal was done and financial help appeared, from the Railway Heritage Trust.

Train operators call for disused railway lines to reopenTwo years of hard work followed. Problems included dry rot, wet rot, asbestos and even a panic about anthrax. Excavation revealed treasures, too. There were no clues, however, about Branwell Bronte, the brother of the famous sisters, who was Clerk in Charge here in 1840, when the line opened.

The restoration is faithful to the 1876 design – the original paint scheme and sash windows.

So here it is, up and running since July. The pub opens a window – "the whistle-stop café" – from 7.30-9.30am for drinks and snacks, then offer bigger breakfasts indoors –"the fireman's shovel" – from 9.30am to noon. From midday to 11pm, the bar is open, offering at least six different real ales, all sourced from microbreweries within a 50-mile radius.
 

The Wrights want the Jubilee to become a convivial meeting place. Local breweriana collectors, plus local Camra branches, have already been. Earlier this month, the Sowerby Bridge Rushcart procession, with scores of Morris dancers, arrived and drank the place dry.