Commercial Inn

 

Name	Commercial Inn (known as Top 'oil)
Address	78 Elland Road, Churwell, Leeds LS27 7QR
Built	1750
Demolished	No
Notes	According to R. Dennis, there has been a pub on this site, built on The Shoulder of Mutton Hill, since 1750, variously known as The Shuttle (Baines 1822) and The Shoulder of Mutton. As Commercial , F: White 1853. One landlord was Robert Peel the famous Yorkshire & England cricketer

According to R. Dennis: 

“By its very nature the Commercial Inn occupies a site which must have ancient associations.  A copy of the deeds state that it is built on the ‘Shoulder of Mutton Hill’ , the hill is something of an anti-climax; any traveller from the north or south sides would fail to see the continuing route from either side.  From the original summit one would have a tremendous view to the north, the east and the west.  

The making of the new road necessitated a cutting right through the middle of the hill which must have resembled a huge shoulder of mutton.  This left Rock Farm and Rock Cottages, perched in a perilous position on the edge of the cut; an old photograph taken before world war 1, shows clearly the right of way which was on the line of the old Roman by-pass and a flight of steps opposite the inn, which led up to the cottages.”

Another description is: “The oldest existing Inn in the district.  Until the early 19th century the pub was known as ‘The Sign of the Shoulder of Mutton’ taking its name from the peculiar shape of its location.  The present building is late Tudor or early Jacobean.  The Roman road which ran round the west side makes the site not only interesting but ancient.  Steps built by Bobby Peel, a former licensee (1896 to 1897), gave the pub a convenient entry at the back door from the new Elland road which had been constructed in the late 18th century.”

Since 1750 the pub has been variously known as ‘The Shuttle’ (Baines 1822 ), ‘The sign of the Shoulder of Mutton’,  and the ‘Commercial Inn’ F: White 1853. 

The pub is not named on the 1854 6” Ordnance Survey map but the buildings are shown.

Rod Kaye, a pub historian, has provided the following information about the licensees of the pub:

1803 to 1826 Samuel Mortimer (The Shuttle)

1830 to 183? Elizabeth Mortimer

183? to 1834 George Green (Shoulder of Mutton)

1841 to 1842 William Glover (The Commercial)

184? to 1847 John Lumb

184? to 1848 Joseph Sowden

1853 to 1861 John Barraclough

186? to 1866 Israel Bedford

186? to 1871 Ann Bedford

187? to 1875 Sam Buttery

187? to 1876 William Sykes

1879 to 1881 Hudson Hill

1894 to 1891 James Appleyard

1892 to 1896 Sarah Appleyard

1896 to 1896 Charles Appleyard

1896 to 1897 Robert Peel

1897 to 1898 Charles Hurst

1898 to 1903 Jubal Lister

1903 to 1923 William Stewart Jackson Botheras

1923 to 1923 Samuel Charlesworth

1923 to 1930 Fenton Barker

1930 to 1930 Thomas Doidge

1930 to 1932 Mitchell Helliwell

1932 to 1937 Harold Edwin Tattersall

1937 to 1946 Gertrude Bannister

1946 to 1953 Clarence Scott Bates

1953 to 1957 Dorothy Ann Bates

1957 to 196? John Bates

1968 to 1983 George Radnall

1984 to 1985 William Russell

1986 to 1995 Trevor Galloway

1997 to 2001 Christine E. Bennett

2002 to 2005 Roy and Lynne Taylor

Other information provided by Rod Kaye on events at the pub:

Extract from an unnamed newspaper notice:

“To be sold by Auction by order of the assignees of the estate and effects of Mr Joseph Walker, bankrupt at The Golden Lion Inn in Briggate, Leeds on Tuesday the 18th of December Instant (1810) at three o’clock in the afternoon, subject to as will then be produced.  All that well-accustomed public house with the stable and other convenient outbuildings; and also two closes of rich grass land, adjoining there to, containing three acres or thereabouts, and advantageously situated at Churwell within three miles of Leeds, on the north side of the turnpike road and leading from thence to Huddersfield, in the occupation of Samuel Mortimer.  The tenant will shew the premises, and further details may be had at the offices of Mr Lee, in Wakefield; or Mr Israel Rhodes of West Ardsley, or Mr Seymour, Attorney York.”

The pub is not named in the above notice but as the tenant was named as Samuel Mortimer who was the licensee of the Shuttle from 1803 to 1826 it can be fairly certain that the pub for sale was the Shuttle, laterly the Commercial.

Churwell United Cricket Club annual meeting, dinner/supper in November 1871, 24 November 1874, 23 October 1876, 3 November 1879, 1 November 1884, 24 October 1885, 4 October 1889, October 1892, 14 November 1898, 16 October 1911

18th General meeting of the shareholders of the Gas Light Company, February 1872

Licensee James Appleyard on 19 August 1890 was fined 40 shillings including costs at the West Riding court for watering whisky down.