AN article about The Queen Hotel in Fairweather Green, which made the shortlist of the T& A Best Pub contest, sparked happy memories for JOHN JACKSON.
Writes John: I worked there as a teenager in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I stayed over on Saturday nights since I lived at “the other side” of Bradford, in Wrose. The Queen introduced an area of the city entirely new to me.
Bentley’s Yorkshire Brewery of Woodlesford, Leeds, owned the pub since 1920, but the family concern was taken over in 1968 by the mighty Whitbread group.
Constance Holt, known as Connie, was the licensee for many years. She was highly thought of and wouldn’t countenance unruly behaviour or improper language. It was entirely appropriate that in appearance and demeanour, the very regal landlady of The Queen looked strikingly like the real Queen - and delighted in being told so!
The pub was the focus of the local community with many loyal regulars. Connie encouraged young people, commercial work groups, even a large gathering of respectable Hells Angel bikers to patronise the place. My job was to ‘bottle-up’ and serve behind the bar. Mild was one shilling and ten pence halfpenny, bitter one shilling and eleven pence halfpenny. Trying to add it all up in my head was a nightmare, woe-betide me if I got it wrong!
I recall this photo being taken. Several locals ploughed behind the bar for a photo as midnight approached on New Year’s Eve. Connie was on the blower arranging a taxi. She was very refined, somewhat aloof (similar to Annie Walker of the Rovers Return), but she was generous, and an excellent cook.
On rare occasions I was invited to stay for Sunday dinner (which took place between pub closing hours, 3pm-6pm, I think). I have yet to meet anyone who could make a Yorkshire pudding so tasty. Her way was to ensure the fat was so hot and flaming blue as to make the eyes sting before adding the batter. The result was a spectacularly huge, fluffy yet crisp pudding, with a delicious rich beefy gravy.
Connie was very disciplined and toiled for exceptionally long hours. As a woman on her own presiding over a busy pub she was held in high esteem by staff and customers because of her work ethic. She always changed her attire twice a day and she 'upgraded' from M&S when Marshall & Snelgrove opened at the junction of Darley Street and Upper Piccadilly - she was one of this posh ladies’ clothing outfit’s best clients.
I gave a eulogy at Connie’s funeral and recalled her kindness. For someone so remote and at arm's length, she was generous and thoughtful. She had a grey mini automatic which she often lent me on Sundays so I could take relatives on trips to the Dales. It’s registration no was TYO 25F, as I recalled this several mourners, with smiles on their faces, recited it in unison. They too had been allowed to use it.
I got to know Connie better after she retired from pub life. I once took her out in my ageing car and, to my embarrassment, it broke down! We were unceremoniously returned in a breakdown truck, Connie perched in the cab in her Marshall & Snelgrove frock, three-tier pearls swishing about. To my great relief, she was much amused.
Constance Holt was licensee of The Queen Hotel for about 20 years. In retirement she lived in the lovely old Bradford Tradesmen’s Homes complex at Lily Croft, Manningham.
* Today The Queen Hotel is run by Paula Quigley, who told the T&A that Connie is remembered fondly by older customers, including 84-year-old regular Dixie, who worked at the pub when he was 16 and she was landlady.
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