This plan has the library index number of SHI 1876 DIX. The plan itself includes the year, the community, and the name of a well-known partnership of surveyors – Dixon & Hindle. It may represent a sale plan, but there is no positive evidence to substantiate this. At present I can’t establish that the Local Studies Library has any further information.

There are several possible sources of extra knowledge. I will discuss what type of building this might have been later, but the best immediate clues are the presence of a ‘coal office’ and a rather unusual surname – Lake. In the 1871 census of Shipley a Mr George Lake (1845-1916) is a coal merchant at 3, Back Commercial Street, Shipley. He was the son of James Lake, a local coal and rag merchant, and he married Elizabeth Dainton-Denton of Otley at St Peter’s, Bradford in 1863.

In the 1871 George gives his age as 35 (when it should be 25) but by 1881 his age is unchanged (35) and his address is 14 Commercial Street. After another decade he is still a coal merchant living in East Street, Shipley. No ‘F Lake’ appears in the census , but in the 1883 Post Office Directory a person of this name is a straw and hay dealer, also at 14 Commercial Street.

Turning to the location of the surveyed building the big clue is its proximity to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. This would fit modern Wharf Street very well, was this ever called Back Commercial Street? So, what type of business was this? We have mentioned the coal office, and the weighing machine fits nicely with movements of bagged coal. But the cellar, tap room, bar and beer pump suggests that the premises double as a beer house or inn, which also boasts a first-floor club room.

The 1866 Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield Directory records James Lake and Sons in Shipley, coal & rag merchants, and canal carriers at Britannia & Foxholes Wharves. The same directory carries an advert for the business.

Although I won’t pretend that I know everything as yet but I think we can hypothesise that various member of the Lake family ran a business or businesses between Commercial Street and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in Shipley. They dealt in materials such as coal, rags, hay and straw and had access for canal transport for these and possibly other commodities which could be lifted from canal boats into the yard by means of a moveable crane. Clearly having the capacity to dispense beer (and perhaps serve food cooked in the ample kitchen) would be useful to cater for the needs of the canal boat crews, who would not need accommodation. Presumably such services would be available to the general public too although they don’t feature in the trade directories I have seen. I haven’t yet had access to a map of Shipley contemporary to the plan but the ‘warehouse’ in the detail from the 1890 25” OS map must be of the right size and position.