Robin Longbottom looks back at the history of a village pub which closed its doors in 2016

IN 2016, the Old Star Inn at Steeton finally closed its doors to the public and planning permission was granted to convert it into dwellings.

The inn dated back to the mid 18th century and was originally located in a house on High Street. It had probably opened to cater for increased passing trade resulting from road improvements made by the Keighley to Kendal Turnpike Trust. The trust had been created by Act of Parliament in 1753 and at that time the turnpike road from Keighley went up Spring Gardens Lane, on Hollins Lane, down Steeton Bank and along High Street.

In 1782 Hollins Lane and High Street were bypassed when a new road was built from Bar House Lane in Utley, through Hawkcliffe to Steeton Top and a few years later on to Kildwick (the present B6265). The Goat’s Head Inn, which had also been in High Street, was relocated to the new road but the Old Star remained where it was.

In 1803 the justices granted the licence for the Old Star to Joseph Wilkins and his younger brother, Asquith. Joseph was a carpenter and timber merchant, and so he probably left the management of the inn to his brother. In about 1815 Asquith left Steeton and took an inn called the Bay Horse at Draughton, near Skipton. After his departure Joseph’s wife, Sarah, would have run the inn during the daytime, as well as brewing the beer and bringing up the family. In 1825 Joseph bought a piece of land at the junction of the turnpike road and the road to Silsden. Here he built a new inn and relocated the Old Star – it faced onto the turnpike road and had the benefit of stabling and a barn to the rear. Above the door he put a stone tablet displaying a bursting star together with the initials J, S and W for Joseph and Sarah Wilkins and the date 1825.

Two years later the inn came to the attention of the press when a customer, John Bottomley, was found dead in the hayloft. Although he lived not far away in Glusburn he had decided to sleep off the effects of the night’s drinking in the barn, covered himself up in the newly mown hay and suffocated. The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.

Joseph’s wife died in 1837 but with the help of his son and a servant he ran the inn until he retired in 1851. He died seven years later, aged 78.

In 1861 the inquest into a notorious murder took place at the Old Star. John Holdsworth, the keeper of the toll house at Hawkcliffe Corner in Steeton, had shot his wife, Elizabeth, dead and wounded her brother. The inquest was held on June 15 before the coroner, Thomas Brown. After hearing all the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of “wilful murder”. Holdsworth was committed to trial at the next assizes but later acquitted on the grounds of insanity.

In the 1870s Aaron King – a Keighley brewer – bought the inn, knocked it down and rebuilt it. The new premises comprised an entrance lobby opening into the main bar area, a smoking room, a small back smoking room, and a tap room with a wooden block floor; the floors in the other rooms were all tiled. To the rear was stabling for five horses, and a barn with a hayloft. King’s Brewery owned it until 1935 when together with the two neighbouring cottages and a shop, it was sold for £4,350.

The pub was subsequently owned by John Smiths of Tadcaster and finally closed its doors in 2016 after serving both villagers and travellers for over 250 years.