We’re hoping for a good turn out for the William Baines Centenary concert on Sunday at the Methodist Church Hall in Horbury, but we probably won’t have the numbers who attended the stone-laying ceremony on Saturday, 23rd June, 1906, which included a procession starting from the Primitive Methodist Chapel at 2.30 p.m., tea at 4.30 p.m. (capitalised as ‘TEA’ in the advertisement in the Leeds Mercury, indicating this was one of the main attractions), followed by a ‘Great PUBLIC MEETING’ in the Chapel.
Who was there? Mr Jonas Eastwood laid a stone on behalf of the Sunday School.
We’re lucky to still have the building and that it has been so successfully restored recently in connection with the rebuilding of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The Primitive Methodist Chapel is long gone, but I’m not complaining as a Chinese Takeway and Bistro 42 now occupy the site. Bistro 42 the one place that you can still get a coffee between Horbury’s cafes closing and the pubs opening.
William Baines’ father, George William Baines, opened a music shop at what is now 37 High Street, Horbury, and the family lived here for a while. As you can see it’s just across the road from the grounds of the Wesleyan Chapel (I took this from the chapel car park) and what is now the 42 Bistro Bar, the former site of the Primitive Methodist Chapel, where George William was the organist.
I’ve been colourising old black and white photographs so I’ve gone the opposite way with these photographs taken on my iPhone on Monday. Perspective straightened up in Adobe Lightroom.