1.14        BRA 1856 SMI         BHM 1798 B27

Scale: 15ft: 1in               Size: 26 * 38cm

Condition: Fair

To locate businesses in the past the best resources are Bradford Trade Directories; some are available on-line and many more are accessible at the Bradford Local Studies Library. By 1898 the Midland Hotel was the only building in Cheapside between Kirkgate and School Street. I am sure I am not the only Bradfordian to have wondered what buildings had to be demolished to accommodate this great Victorian hotel. When it was opened such buildings were described in the press as a ‘row of shops, inns, warehouses little and big, which formed the inartistic fringe of one side of Cheapside and lower Kirkgate’. One of those inns was evidently The Brown Cow.

This plan of the area from a quarter century earlier carries a definite date (1856) and has a clear purpose, the sale of various lots previously part of the Brown Cow Inn and its ancillary buildings. It includes a detailed plan of the contemporary Kirkgate – Bermondsey junction. The plan was produced by surveyor and land agent Joseph Smith (1800-1858), father of the equally noted George Belk Smith (1827-1902). Both men were living together in Little Horton Lane at the time of the 1851 census. The solicitors arranging the sale were George & Wade.

The second image (note the different orientation) shows the area in question in an undated plan from the Local Studies Library reserve collection. It must be later than 1874 when Beckett’s Bank was opened, but earlier than 1885 and the construction of the hotel; around 1880 would seem a plausible date. This map, and the Post Office 1883 and 1879-80 directories, confirm that the Brown Cow did indeed survive the earlier 1856 sale. Its postal address was 8 Kirkgate and latterly it was managed by E Ostcliffe. The directory places Henry Bentley & Co, brewers, at 2 Cheapside: is this coincidence? Bentleys were a quite well-known Huddersfield based brewing company but since they share an address with Morgan & Morgan, solicitors, I assume we are looking at office accommodation rather than actual brewing.

A landowner mentioned on the plans is Simeon Townend. In the 1851 census a man with this slightly unusual name was a worsted merchant living in Upper Kipping, Thornton. G & W Townend were wool merchants at 22 Cheapside. The company George Harrison & Sons were printers at 14,16 Cheapside.

The earliest reference to the Brown Cow I can find is by William Scruton in his Pen & Pencil Pictures of Old Bradford. He wrote a chapter on the whole topic of the city’s old inns, but unfortunately he only comments that the Brown Cow was in existence in 1822, when it was kept by William Wagstaff. The Lost Pubs Project has posted an image of the Brown Cow online which is said to date from exactly this period: at the time of writing (2021) the web address is:

Brown Cow, Bradford (closedpubs.co.uk)