Selby Road and Garforth Bridge

On this page we follow Selby Road from Garforth Bridge up towards Garforth Cliff. Selby Road bounds the South side of Garforth and being a major and historical road has some of the oldest buildings still standing in Garforth.

• Garforth Bridge
• Naylor Pollard
• Brookfield House
• Fitton's and Brooks' Garages
• The Old George Pub
• Garforth Old Hall
• West Garforth Farm
• The Gaping Goose Pub
• Coldwell’s Corner
• Hawkshaw House
• Long Meadows

Garforth Bridge

Garforth Bridge refers to the area around the Old George. When Wakefield Road and Selby Road formed a crossroads there was a bridge there which was built over Sheffield Beck. Of course, there is now a roundabout there and the beck flows through the middle of it (where the willow trees are).

Naylor Pollard

These are images of Naylor Pollard & Co., a factory which made shirts and ‘Pilot’ overalls, employing large numbers of girls from Garforth. The factory no longer exists and the sorting office now stands on the same land.

Before becoming the shirt factory the site had also been a corn mill run by Horsefields, a glue factory run by Charles H. Robshaw and a tannery [2][3].

Brookfield House

Brookfield is an 18th century house situated on Selby Road near The Old George which has now been converted into offices. The house once belonged to John Clapham Bartle, a land auctioneer and estate agent who owned a cattle market behind the Brown Cow in Whitkirk [3].

Fitton'S and Brooks' Garages

The Old George Pub

The George is one of the oldest pubs in Garforth and is mentioned in Baines’ Gazetteer for the County of York in 1822. Sadly the pub is now part of the Miller and Carter chain so lost its name despite having hundreds of years of history behind it.

There used to be stabling facilities at the George which would have made it a good place for people to stop who were travelling on the Leeds to Selby and Wakefield to Tadcaster turnpike roads [2].

The Old George was rebuilt in the 1930s so you can see two different buildings below. The older building which was more of a coaching inn and then the more modern pub which is the building we have today.

Pre 1930S

1930S Onward

Garforth Old Hall

This Elizabethan hall was located opposite The Gaping Goose. The hall was demolished in 1958 when it was almost 600 years old in order to make space for a dual carriageway. However, the road was never built which means that sadly the house was demolished without cause [2].

West Garforth Farm

West Garforth Farm was situated on Selby Road close to The Gaping Goose. The farm was owned by Mr. Horner, whose main crop was rhubarb which he supplied to Covent Garden [3].

The Gaping Goose Pub

The Gaping Goose is thought to be the oldest surviving pub in Garforth. Apparently in the great hall at Garforth Old Hall there was a plaster frieze of some flying cormorants; it is possible that Goose was named after these by someone who mistook the cormorants for Geese [2].

Coldwell’S Corner

Hawkshaw House

Hawkshaw House, later called Leyland House, was located in Selby Road just before Charlie Sweep’s Corner (opposite Garforth Community College playing fields). In the 19th century the house was a private boarding school for boys, and was later owned by T.B. Smith who had a shop on Main Street. The house often hosted NSPCC garden parties [3].

The name Hawkshaw House appears to have been for Fletcher Samuel Hawkshaw, listed of Hawkshaw House in Pigot’s Directory of 1834 for Aberford [6].

I have spent a lot of time at this house as my best friend lived there when we were at school. I remember being told that the house dates from the 17th century but I don’t have any references for that date.

Inside the house was very grand with a large, straight staircase in the middle of the house and a long, wide hall upstairs. On the end of the house, closest to Lidgett Lane, is where the school room was. The grounds of the house run all the way down to the old railway line.

The house was sadly demolished in 2006 to make way for several large new houses to be built. The comparison photo below was taken by Dave from the roof of the new house that they were building and shows the back of the old house.

Long Meadows