From here, Chapel Lane takes a dog-leg turn down a short hill
to Aberford Road. There can be little doubt that the Lane was
originally a footway to the Parish Church, but most likely named
after the Chapel in the following years, when street names were
established as postal services began in the early 1840's. Nothing
altered in the Lane until the Church school was built in 1861;
there were fields on both sides and the map shows a quarry near to
the Institute. Another seventy years were to pass before
Tadcaster R.D.C. built the present houses on either side. Later
came the Village Hall, the new Infants and Junior School, and of
course, our excellent playing fields.
At the rear of this row, the old yard. The butcher's slaughter house was here.
Many a house in the village seems to have a story worth the
telling. One such is at the end of Chapel Lane with its frontage
to Aberford Road, without windows, as if the Church objected to
being overlooked. It has windows facing the school grounds which
reach to its walls. denying any garden space. During its life
this little house has been a butcher's shop. then the village
police house, suitably adorned with the official plaque. According
to stories told. P.C. Robinson was a popular bobby, even
with the vagrant fraternity. of which there was a considerable
number in the years before the 1939-45 war. Tramps going from
Leeds towards Aberford and the Great North Road, or in the reverse
direction. always contrived their arrival here to coincide with
mealtimes!
Early photographs show Chapel Lane very narrow at the Long
Lane end, with high hedges, a banking on the right and open fields
beyond. The first map we have showing buildings is dated 1772,
with cottages on the left at Long Lane, then nothing until those
pictured here. On the opposite corner the former farm-house
belonging to Low Farm, Aberford Road, and a cluster of dwellings
around the adjacent Pump Yard.
The map of 1821 shows the Chapel (later the Miners' Welfare
Institute). This was completed in 1804 and in use until the
present Methodist Church was built in 1900.
