Opening in 1971 – the Post House hotel

It took a while to get back to 1971 … (apologies for the long gap in communication).

Previously, we were looking at a hotel that opened this year, 2021, in a building that was formerly an office block. Fifty years ago, back in September 1971, a new Post House hotel opened on Tadcaster Road.

A full-page advert in an early 1970s guide to York previously featured on these pages promotes its opening, with a rather attention-grabbing phrase: ‘Stop short of York’.

Ad for the new Post House hotel, opening in 1971

‘Stop short of’ — decide not to do something, although you almost do. But in this case, now it’s grabbed your attention, it explains that the hotel is some way outside the city centre, on ‘the main approach road from the A1 and the South’, presumably intending to make a virtue of its convenience for motorists coming from that direction, who won’t have to negotiate driving through the city centre to get to it.

I realised I couldn’t picture this place at all, and had no idea if it’s still there. I’m not up that end of town much, and no reason to be looking at hotels when I am up there. But yes, it is still there. Cherry Lane, off the main Tadcaster Road, runs alongside it, and Google Streetview shows how it looks now from Cherry Lane, from a similar angle to the illustration above. It’s now a Holiday Inn.

Holiday Inn (formerly Post House hotel), from Cherry Lane, Tadcaster Road. Image: Google Street View

When it opened, 50 years ago, it had 104 rooms, described in the advert. ‘All are centrally heated, with private bathroom, room tv, phone and radio, and facilities for making tea and coffee.’ This doesn’t seem like the height of luxury now, but presumably seemed so back then. Though it’s not clear to me how ‘posh’ this hotel was, at the time.

As a comparison, in the same publication there’s an ad for a country guest house in Acaster Malbis. It states, that ‘all bedrooms have hot and cold water, room-controlled central heating (all the year), electric razor points, bedside lights and electric blankets’.

We always went self-catering, and I was just a young child at this time. I’m struggling to get the context of the Post House hotel experience of the early 1970s, and the level of luxury offered.

The 1971 advert also makes a point of referring to the history of the site: ‘There used to be an old manor on the site; we’ve kept all we could of its gardens, including a magnificent Cedar of Lebanon.’ I’m not sure how common it was back then for mature trees to be kept when a site was cleared for redevelopment.

But what about ‘the old manor’, I wondered. Would we now completely demolish an old manor house to build a new hotel? What kind of state was it in? Perhaps in a ruinous condition and thought not worth saving?

I’ve not been able to find any images of the ‘old manor’, or much information about it in general, but it’s shown on old maps.

OS map, 1892, showing manor house and church, Dringhouses

I tend to forget that this area of Tadcaster Road is called Dringhouses. But the old maps remind us that Dringhouses was a coherent old place, with a church and a manor house next to one another, before the Post House hotel was built on the site of the manor. Here’s the satellite view from Google for comparison, with the church and the hotel next to it.

Aerial view of church and adjacent hotel, Dringhouses (Google)

Clearly there’s a lot of tree cover and space between the two, but it’s hard to imagine a development like this in other historic settlements outside the city walls, with a similarly large modern hotel built next to a church. I wonder if there were any objections to this development at the time.

Interesting to note that there’s a planning application for a nearby development going to the planning committee tomorrow (2 Sept) (ref 20/00507/FULM). The applicant wants to build a retirement complex, just across the other side of Cherry Lane from the hotel, on the site shown towards the bottom of the aerial image above (plan here, PDF). However the committee report recommends refusal, stating that the proposed development ‘would harm the visual amenity of the streetscene, the form and character of the adjoining section of Tadcaster Road and the setting of the Tadcaster Road Conservation Area.’

It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the large 1970s hotel is also rather obvious in the streetscene. As a comment in response to an article in the Press puts it: ‘This would really spoil the view from the beautiful and historic Holiday Inn.’

The recommendation for refusal of the proposed development perhaps illustrates the difference in our approaches to planning and conservation matters, compared to 50 years ago.

Anyway, time to head back into the present, heading into town, along that historic route in from the south. From the corner of Cherry Lane, past the hotel, and the church. Glancing up, as we do, at its spire. This is apparently made of fibreglass, which surprised me.

I wondered if I have a photo of it … just this slightly blurred one, through trees.

Spire of St Edward the Confessor, Dringhouses, from the Knavesmire, Aug 2018

I wondered if it was common to replace church spires with fibreglass replicas. I found a couple of other examples, including this one.

The church, St Edward the Confessor, is a Victorian era rebuilding of an earlier church on the site. By the second half of the 20th century the church appears to have been rather dilapidated and in need of repair, and the fibreglass replacement spire was part of that, erected in 1970. As construction of the hotel would have been taking place alongside it at around the same time, there’s perhaps a connection there. Perhaps anyone who knows more will add information in the comments below.

Likewise, if you remember the Post House in its early days, or the old Manor House before it, your local insights and knowledge are welcome, as always.

Update: Dringhouses Manor

Many thanks to Edward Waterson, who after reading the above sent me photos and information on Dringhouses Manor, demolished to make way for the hotel.

Dringhouses Manor

The cedar tree, mentioned in the advert above, and apparently still on the hotel site, is on the right in the photos above.

The manor house doesn’t look like an ancient dilapidated dwelling, which is how I’d imagined it must be. Indeed it looks smart and well-maintained, and not particularly ancient. This is explained in the information Edward sent to accompany the photos.

When the owner of the Dringhouses estate, Col. Eason Wilkinson, died in 1941 the manor house was bought by F W Shepherd, who reclad it. A much older house (?17th century?) was encased in modern brick.

He added: ‘The family formed St Edwards Close to the rear of the hotel and kept some cracking good plots for them to build new houses on, referred to locally as Shepherds Bush.’

Thanks too to Andy Walker, who has sent me another photo of Dringhouses Manor, this time taken from the front.

Dringhouses Manor

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York Official Guide and Miniguide, 1971/72

Researching for a piece I’m trying to write led me back to my small collection of York-related booklets and pamphlets. I’ve included parts of a few of them before. Some years back I wrote about an advert for cigarette lighters made from York Minster fragments, from the ‘York Official Guide and Miniguide’, dating from 1971/1972. I picked up the booklet and several other similar publications in the closing down sale at the Barbican Bookshop on Fossgate.

As we’re now in another lockdown, in the middle of a particularly difficult time, I thought I’d share some more of this early 1970s publication with you, dear readers, in case anyone’s in need of some gentle nostalgia, and fancies escaping back to the early 1970s for a while.

The first page of the guide is an advert for Mulberry Hall  which was previously included on this page from 2016. Mulberry Hall appears to have been a regular advertiser in the various updated editions of the York Official Guide, as was this company:

Early 1970s ad for Yorkshire General, Rougier Street

Nice illustration. The smiley couple are in Rougier Street, with the company’s head office in the background, and a groovy old bus. The same illustration, cropped in a slightly different way, has been included previously, on this page about the building. (The building is still there but has recently been converted to a hotel (not a residential development, as had been planned when I wrote that page back in 2016).

Another full page ad, with a suprisingly large amount of white space, advertises “One of England’s lovelier shops”, Hunter and Smallpage, on Goodramgate.

Hunter and Smallpage, Goodramgate, early 1970s ad

It was a furniture shop, right in the town centre, with its own car park. Imagine that.

More on the shops:

From the official York Guide, 1971/2

Back then, Marks and Spencer’s was a “must” for the overseas visitor.  And if you were after “exciting and colourful clothes” you might be interested in Vivien Smith Simply Clothes, on Micklegate, which also advertised in the guide book:

Early 1970s ad for Vivien Smith, Simply Clothes

What a groovy advert, very 70s. Big heavy curvy typeface and an expressive illustration of a woman with long hair and dreamy eyes looking a bit bored, and perhaps dreaming of a better future. It promises “Something new in Old York.”

The “E.C. Wednesday” must refer to early closing.

This visitor’s guide includes a brief description of various city centre streets the tourist might want to visit. Of Fossgate it says:

Early 1970s description of Fossgate

“Little to see” on Fossgate, back then, apart from a few notable buildings.

In recent years Fossgate has clearly become quite a happening kind of place, far busier than it was then, quite a high profile kind of street. Its buildings are much the same as they were then, but used for different purposes, with many popular places to eat and drink.

Many visitors to the city are perhaps now not so focused on what they see, in terms of touring round the famous historic buildings, but equally interested in the vast choice York offers in terms of dining, and drinking.

Quite different back in the early 1970s, as previously highlighted on an earlier page featuring another publication from that time.

The local restaurants and culinary traditions also get a bit of a write-up in this early 1970s York Official Guide – “few provide dishes from the range of great Northern and Yorkshire specialities: black pudding, tripe and onions …”

‘Yorkshire Cooking’ … from an early 1970s guide

I don’t recall ever hearing the phrase quoted at the end, which was perhaps from much earlier times. At this point, as a child growing up in Acomb, York, I have a vague memory of Yorkshire puddings with golden syrup.

I also have a vague memory of visiting this place, which had a half page ad in the early 1970s guide, and again looks very much of its time:

Flamingo Park advert, early 1970s

My exploration of this particular early 1970s publication continues, but I’ve got distracted by a bit of historical research prompted by its adverts. More on that story later perhaps.

. . . . .

(Apologies that some of some of the above images are a bit wonky. I thought that they then more authentically conveyed that they’re scans of an actual booklet with pages, which had to be carefully placed on the scanner, as of course one has to be careful with these ancient historical documents …)

More …

If you’d like to look at more from the 1970s, try this link for a selection. Some adverts from an early 1980s York Official Guide can be found on this link. A 1961 York Guide is covered at some length on this page. If you’d like to go back even further, how about When Bettys was Betty’s, and other 1930s ads.

. . . . .

I hope that this has been of interest and offered a brief break from the current times. Thank you to the kind readers who continue to help out with the website hosting fees, and power these pages, with virtual coffees. More about the background to all this is on this page.

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Advert for Mulberry Hall, early 1970s

I heard this morning that Mulberry Hall is closing, later confirmed by a statement on the company’s website.

A page a couple of days ago included an ad from one of the old guidebooks I have, and before they’re put back on the shelf it seems appropriate to include the advertisements for Mulberry Hall, so prominent in those publications. The one above is from a guide apparently dating from the early 1970s. The advert features well-known names: Royal Doulton, Wedgwood, Spode, Waterford.

I’ve got three of these guides, from the early 1970s, late 1970s and early 1980s. They’re the ‘Official Guide’, published by the Lord Mayor, Councillors and Citizens, it says in the front.

York, Official Guide, early 1970s, front cover

Alongside information on the city’s history and tourist attractions are many pages of adverts, as you might expect. I imagine it cost quite a lot to advertise in these ‘official guides’, particularly on their most prominent pages.

Every edition I have has an advert for Rowntree Mackintosh Ltd on the back cover, a full page, in full colour.

Apart from the back cover the most prestigious place for ads would be the first page you saw when you opened the front cover of the guidebook. This, in my three editions, is an advert for Mulberry Hall.

Late 1970s advert for Mulberry Hall

Looking at the map illustration I was struck by the fact that at this time Mulberry Hall appeared to have three separate shops some distance apart: the main shop on Stonegate, then also a ‘Doulton Shop’ and a ‘Wedgwood Shop’ in different premises further along the street and opposite. My quick online research suggests that the Doulton shop in Stonegate opened in 1974 and the Wedgwood one in 1978/9.

The original shop seems to have expanded in size so perhaps these were all brought together into the one location since.

Records available online show that earlier this year two planning applications were submitted, one for listed building consent for subdivision of the shop at 17-19 Stonegate into 3 commercial units (appears to be essentially putting them back to how they were), and one for a change of use for the Little Stonegate part – from retail to restaurant/bar. This application was later withdrawn.

There are already many comments on the Press website offering theories and opinions on why the shop is closing: it’s the fault of the council, in approving out of town shopping schemes, or it’s because of parking charges in the city centre, or too much traffic in the city centre, or pedestrianisation of the city centre.

Many people are saying they’re ‘shocked’. I wonder how many of the shocked people regularly shopped in Mulberry Hall? We so rarely look to ourselves? If the city centre shops are to stay open then we need to spend more money in them, don’t we.

But perhaps sometimes things have just had their day, and tastes change, and younger generations don’t shop at the same places their parents shopped. I’ve never bought anything at Mulberry Hall. I have a set of plates in the cupboard that I think came from there, a moving in gift, many years ago. They’re lovely to look at, but they’re too posh to use, so I use the plain white cheap ones instead.

Realising my ignorance, I’ve been in search of information, and stumbled upon an account of a trip to York in 1980:

… once we’d seen the Minster, we walked over to Stonegate St.—a very nice pedestrian area. When we were here four years ago, Margaret bought her Spode china at Mulberry Hall on Stonegate St., and I got some very nice bone china coffee mugs which I like very much. I got two more today and also a thimble for my collection. I found the quiche dish in the quince pattern that Nancy Thuma wanted too, at Mulberry Hall’s Wedgwood shop, so I got that too.

— Betty Burrow’s Travelogue (1980) (PDF)

If you knew the shop well and would like to add information, memories and thoughts,  comments are welcome below.

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‘Floods remove summer bandstand’ — Yorkshire Evening Press, 30 Dec 1978

It may be time to leave the subject of the floods, for a while. But before we do, I can’t leave the 1970s newspaper without mentioning a couple of other things reported in that edition of the Yorkshire Evening Press of 30 December 1978.

Bandstand ‘took a hand in deciding its own fate’

I’m sure we all remember the bandstand dispute of 1978 …

Under the headline ‘Floods remove summer bandstand’ the YEP reported:

York’s summer bandstand in the Museum Gardens — subject of a shall – we – take – it – down – and – store – or – leave – it – up – all – year – round dispute — took a hand in deciding its own fate yesterday (Friday).

When North Yorkshire County Council’s Yorkshire Museum Sub-Committee arrived at the Museum for a meeting yesterday, they found the bandstand floating off in flood water, into the swollen Ouse.

“There is grave doubt if it will be found at all after the floods,” committee member Coun. W. E. Lockwood told the Evening Press after the meeting.

“But, if it is, the Yorkshire Philosophical Museum feel very strongly that it should be allowed to be placed somewhere in the gardens for this coming summer. But that they would like proper arrangements to be made for its removal and proper storage each year at the end of the season.”

Several paragraphs follow, detailing the dispute. The Sub-Committee were considering the conflicting views. ‘Now, they will wait to see whether the bone of contention surfaces again after the floods.’ The Hospitium in the Museum Gardens was under four feet of water, and ‘the bandstand was seen banging against the windows before it went over the railings.’

Squirrels: the new star attractions

The piece continues with the proceedings of North Yorkshire County Council’s Yorkshire Museum Sub-Committee meeting:

Not lost in the flood were about a dozen grey squirrels which have recently taken up residence in the Museum Gardens. These, the Sub-Committee heard from the Curator, Mr. Michael Clegg, “have rapidly become star attractions to the public.”

Mrs Mary Pierce, a museum cleaner, had struck up a rapport with the squirrels. There had been educational benefits, as Mrs Pierce had ‘laid on a squirrel performance’.

The paper reported that ‘the peacocks, including the two 1978 hatchlings, now have competition.’ And members were told that the squirrels will not damage the Museum’s trees. But there were concerns that if they get too tame they may damage some of York’s tourists, by leaping onto the shoulders of visitors, expecting a fuss, whereupon nervous visitors might shake them off, and the squirrels might ‘get nervous themselves, and inflict a bite.’

. . . . . .

Did the bandstand ever come back? If it did, was the store it/leave it out all year bandstand dispute ever resolved? Was anyone ever bitten by the squirrels? I’ll leave these questions with you, dear readers.

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Yorkshire Evening Press, 30 Dec 1978: SIEGE OF YORK reports on severe floods

The recent floods have been said to be ‘the worst since 1982′, because of the Foss barrier failure. The severe floods of 1982 followed severe floods of only four years earlier. This old Yorkshire Evening Press I have (discussed on a page a few years back, and pictured above) reports on the floods of December 1978, before any of the defences we’re now familiar with were constructed. The Leeman Road area suffered badly.

The caption reads: ‘Just like a canal … A bird’s eye view of Salisbury Terrace (foreground) and Salisbury Road, leading to the junction with Landing Lane and Water End, York. In the background are the swollen River Ouse and Clifton Ings. Many families are living upstairs in the snow-capped homes, without electricity or gas.’

Looking surprisingly cheery in the circumstances, these men in a boat on the temporary river of Salisbury Road (with Water End junction in the background):

I mentioned on the previous page an interesting study from the early 1990s: Public perception of rivers and flood defence (345/2/T) : flooding and flood defences in York by S M Tapsell, S M Tunstall and M Fordham.

It reminds us, at a time when perhaps we need reminding, of the work that has been done to protect so many homes previously vulnerable to major floods.

Of the Leeman Road area defences it says:

According to the NRA, it was the 1978 flood which initiated this scheme as 225 houses in the area had been flooded. This had been the worst flooding since 1947 when 332 houses had been flooded.

… Some local residents were being flooded every year or two.

The study seemed to confirm something I’d heard before, that soil from the nearby sugarbeet factory was used to construct the original floodbanks, which were completed in 1980. It also includes this interesting snippet of information:

the Local Authority wanted to be able to mow the grass at the top of the banks. This involved flattening the top of the banks (standard floodbanks a crescent shape) which slightly increased the cost of the scheme.

It also reported problems with ‘mole infestations’ in the floodbanks.

Further work was needed after the 1982 flood because of seepage. Other work was scheduled to take place in 1992. The defences in this area seem to have had several modifications and improvements, and more work has taken place very recently, with newly formed floodbanks taking shape in the last couple of years. Available information suggests that residents in this area have had to campaign for a long time for adequate, improved defences, as the original floodbanks weren’t high enough.

The authors of this study into perceptions of the defences mention the belief among some residents ‘that the Leeman Road scheme deflects the current of the Ouse and makes flooding worse in other areas of York.’ This could of course be said of all flood defences, and often is, in a phrase I’ve heard a lot recently: ‘one man’s flood defence is another man’s flood.’ All this floodwater we’re wanting to get out of York goes through a few other places downstream, doesn’t it. Which is why it’s probably better, as many have suggested, to have better management further upstream. Perhaps that will come, one day.

For now, it seems the improved Leeman Road and Water End defences have done their job, been a success. Perhaps anyone who knows differently can add a comment, but they looked to be doing well when I had a wander along there on 27 December. This success — and the success of other 1980s and early 1990s defences — has, understandably, been overshadowed by the failure of the Foss barrier. Which caused the same kind of havoc and misery as the residents of the Leeman Road area used to suffer.

It’s clear, looking at that old yellowing (broadsheet sized) Yorkshire Evening Press of 1978, how many changes there have been, in York and everywhere, since the late 1970s and early 80s. Perhaps best summed up by quoting again from Public perception of rivers and flood defence (345/2/T) : flooding and flood defences in York, reporting on what consultation had taken place on the plans for the Leeman Road defences, back then, as remembered by a Mr Wilson:

… public consultation was carried out through the local working man’s club and the vicar of a local church. He thought that there had probably been a newsletter circulated … Mr Wilson said that he did not remember any objections to the scheme and, in fact, the local milkman had told his wife that he should be given a medal for what the Authority did regarding the flood.

Leeman Road area, flood defences, 27 Dec 2015

Further information

Leeman Road Flood Defence Scheme Worries (2008)

Flood defences given extra £1m to protect hundreds of homes (2013)

York’s leaders praise flood defence project (2014)

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On this day, in 1979: A walk through York (p1)

On this day, in 1979: A walk through York (p2)

Written in Miss Arnold’s geography class, describing what I guess we called a field trip, a walk around York starting at what was then Mill Mount School (now All Saints), Mill Mount Lane. I’d just turned 12, it’s a long time ago.

Some things haven’t changed – the city walls, Baile Hill, Clifford’s Tower. A few things have:

Terry’s factory and Hargreaves fertilizers

We looked across from Baile Hill towards the old Terry’s factory, by the riverside at Terry Avenue, a site now occupied by riverside apartments. The city archives have this photo from 1974:

(c) City of York Council

According to the accompanying notes in the archives, the factory was demolished in 1975, so quite what we were looking at in 1979 I’m not sure. Presumably just the remnants of it. Some low walls, weedy and overgrown, remained on this site in 1984, I remember walking past them at the time, when I lived in a bedsit nearby.

What was the site being used for in the 1970s? The Terry’s factory had moved to that larger and more impressive factory on Bishopthorpe Road decades earlier. I’ve never quite been sure what purpose these riverside buildings served by then. Clearly when I was twelve I didn’t really care. More interested now.

I’m also a bit puzzled by ‘at the bottom of the steps is Hargreaves Fertilisers’. Which steps? Down from the city walls, on Skeldergate? Don’t remember this at all. Perhaps someone else does.

‘a barge converted into a pub’

Would be The Barge Pub, which I’ve read about since. Clearly too young to visit it at the time, and sadly never did before it disappeared, sinking in 1985. As pictured on Flickr.

‘The factory on the left makes glass’

Redfearn National Glass, featured previously on these pages, with a photo of the factory from 1977 (and more recently, the glassworks clock).

‘newspaper factory works’

The Evening Press, perhaps at this point still having newsprint delivered by barge. Now the site of the City Screen development, with a wall still proudly displaying the Yorkshire Herald lettering.

‘The former railway track is now just grass’

When we stood on Tanner Row and looked down at the front of West Offices — then railway offices, now the council offices — I thought the railway lines had come in there, right below where we were looking. I was clearly quite impressed by this vision of how things used to be and the rather romantic notion that railway lines had disappeared under grass. It was only later, about ten years ago, that I realised from further reading that the lines had been on the other side, not visible to us, inside the ‘U’ shape formed by those buildings.

. . . . .

Apart from the long-held misunderstanding mentioned above, and the fact regarding the limestone coming from Tadcaster, I don’t remember anything else about the walk. I was surprised to find this account, and have no recollection of writing it.

I was interested to see that it has a date as other things in the same exercise book don’t. I wonder, did the teacher instruct us to include the date, or did I decide to? We’ll never know. But it’s nice to be able to include it here, on the internet none of us could imagine then, on the same day, 35 years later.

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