BY 1960 the lower end of Barkerend Road had four pubs within a half-mile of each other.

"There was the Army and Navy, the Barkerend Hotel, The Ivy and the Red House," says regular Remember When contributor Vincent Finn.

The Red House Inn was the last remaining pub on Barkerend Road. Last year, planning permission was granted to convert the site to housing.

"In its day was quite a large pub," says Mr Finn. "It was built in the 19th century and had stables and a coach house. Like many 'locals', it offered several social functions, these included standard pub fare such as dominoes, darts and, in the 1940s and early 1950s, whist. In the '50s various pubs organised leagues in which teams would compete in darts and dominoes.

"Often on 'games nights' a bus would be hired to take the team to their match. Games nights were usually held on a Monday night and rotated between home and away fixtures. Since not many people owned a car, the hired bus was the only way of getting everybody to the match."

Adds Mr Finn: "One of the highlights of the year for pub regulars was the annual trip. The Red House was no exception. As late as the mid-1960s trips were still organised to some familiar places.

"The annual trip, which evolved in the 1920s with the arrival of the charabanc as a reliable means of transport for 30 or 40 people, gave rise to an inexpensive day trip. The charabanc was later replaced by the motor coach.

"The destination tended to be within a couple of hours' drive of the pub. Seaside places were popular. Morecambe, Blackpool, Bridlington, sometimes Whitby, but often a trip to York or, in the 1950s and 60s, a horse race meet was just as popular. Pubs in the Barkerend Road area often opted for a trip to Green Hammerton for their annual outing.

"The trips were organised by trip committees. The money was collected by the treasurer each week, usually during Sunday dinnertime opening. Trips were generally restricted to men. In the mid 1950s there would be a 'women's trip' organised for the wives and girlfriends."

The cost, says Mr Finn, covered transport. "The bus took you to the destination, dropped you off, a pick up time was agreed and the bus brought you back home. Most trips left in the late morning and returned late in the evening - these times coincided with the pubs' opening and closing times."

Mr Finn, who grew up in Barkerend and now lives in America, has sent us this charming photograph of day-trippers outside the Red House Inn. "It was taken on June 7, 1936, as they off for Whitby," he says. "My father, Tom Finn, is the last man on the extreme right of the picture, smoking a pipe, with his camera over his shoulder.

"I think a number of men in the picture were veterans of the First World War. I believe the fifth man from the right on the front row was named Whitehead and was a member of the Bradford Pals.

"The Red House sold Ramsden's Ales. The sign over the door gives the landlord's name as Gerome Bourne. He is standing in the entrance with his wife."

The photographs Mr Finn has sent include several of Harry Williamsm who lived in Maudsley Street, off Leeds Road. "As far as I know he was the only local man who was a member of the parachute team (British 6th Airborne Division) who landed during the night and early morning hours of D-Day," says Mr Finn. "He was a member of the team that captured the Caen Canal, which was a major crossing of the River Orne. This mission was a key part of the first day's landings.

"He was a very unassuming man and was always very reluctant to talk about his service. After the war he worked for many years in the foundry at Hepworth and Grandage on Wakefield Road."