Back when Sarah Horsley was the licensee of The Fleece pub on Upper Wortley Road in 1834, she must have sold strong ale – either that, or this story is actually true, writes Mark Stevenson.
Just down the road from the Fleece was a well, possibly the Town Well as marked on the maps, and it was said to be haunted.
This was not your run-of-the-mill haunting as it was said that in 1890 John Stones, the assistant overseer of Wortley, saw the ghost of a mouse running around the well. Sarah’s strong ale? Or a ghostly mouse?
The Fleece is now called the Golden Fleece in honour of the charity work of Tom Martin, who was licensee from 1969 to 1979.
If you look closely at the pub you can see how it has been added to over the years and if you look around the back you can still see the sign for the original name of the pub.
___________
While you’re here…
Producing your daily dose of West Leeds Dispatch comes at a cost!
There’s the hosting of the website you’re reading now, running our popular e-mail newsletter, membership of independent press regulator Impress, attending summer events, paying for equipment etc etc.
We need at least £200 a month just to break even – that’s money currently coming out of the pockets of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about what’s happening in our communities, connecting you with local groups and organisations as well as holding decision-makers to account and championing local issues.
And all that’s BEFORE we even think about paying something for people’s time – for instance, our editor puts in more than 24 hours a week in his ‘spare’ time to ensure The Dispatch publishes daily.
To put it bluntly, after nearly four years of daily publishing, we are not sustainable!
And we need YOUR help to continue …
For the cost of less than a couple of cups of coffee you can help support local community news and continue to give our communities a voice by taking out a subscription for just £4 per month (that’s just a pound a week).
As a thanks you’ll get your name on a roll of honour on our website. More importantly you will be enabling us to keep bringing you the news that matters about your neighbourhood.
Achieving a bedrock of supporters will give us a firm financial footing and help us plan for the future.
Supporting us couldn’t be easier…
Just follow this link.
or set up a standing order with your bank:
Contact us on Paywestleedsdispatch@gmail.com if you’d like to do this.
Over to you …
