The Bull on the Bridge
17, Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2EA
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1116370
- Date first listed:
- 19-Jul-1988
- List Entry Name:
- The Bull on the Bridge
- Statutory Address:
- 17, Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2EA
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-07-13
- Reference:
- IOE01/12904/06
- Rights:
- © Mr Brian Lomas. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1116370
- Date first listed:
- 19-Jul-1988
- List Entry Name:
- The Bull on the Bridge
- Statutory Address 1:
- 17, Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2EA
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- 17, Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2EA
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Calderdale (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 05947 23585
History
Formerly the Bull’s Head Inn, the original inn was a vernacular building of coursed stone and three storeys but with a much lower eaves, a stone slate roof and stone mullioned windows. Its location on the turnpike road between Halifax and Rochdale, built in the 1790s, made it a popular coaching inn and a convenient place to hold meetings. For instance, the Sowerby Bridge Board of Health, the forerunner of the local council, held its inaugural meeting here in 1856. Renamed the Bull’s Head Hotel, it was substantially rebuilt in 1865 when it was acquired by John Naylor of the Albion Brewery, Warley. The angled main elevation is thought to preserve that of the original building, which is in turn believed to have been aligned with an early packhorse route predating the turnpike road. In 1895, the landlord was Thomas Riley, at which time a contemporary directory described it as ‘the most important hotel in the locality’, it was described as comprising a dining room, coffee room, smoke room and a number of ensuite bedrooms. Further alterations were proposed in 1898 when it was owned by the Halifax Brewery Company, and again in 1911 and 1916 for J. Alderson and Company Limited of Warley Springs Brewery. Following a short period of closure, it reopened in 2015 under the new name ‘The Bull on the Bridge’.
Details
This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement 11 June 2024 to amend details in the description, add Historical Note and Sources
SE 0423 and SE 0523
12/283
SOWERBY BRIDGE
TOWN HALL STREET (north side)
No 17, The Bull on the Bridge
(Formerly listed as The Bulls Head, TOWN HALL STREET)
GV
II
Hotel. Mid-C19
Built of ashlar with a slate roof, being of three storeys above a basement. It has a three-bay frontage with an additional corner bay on the left (south). The basement is rusticated and has paired sashes, upper floors have moulded cill bands. There is a moulded cornice to the eaves supporting a blocking course above. The roof has brick end stacks.
The central bay breaks forward and has an entrance approached by external steps with twisted iron balusters. This entrance has a four-panel door under a fanlight set in around-arched, quoined architrave with imposts and a bulls-head keystone, flanked by Tuscan pilasters supporting an entablature with a dentil cornice. Above this door (at first-floor) is a sash window set in an architrave with a triangular pediment supported by consoles. Above (second-floor) are a pair of hood-moulded round-arched sashes, the cill supported by small consoles. Other bays have paired sashes with cills that break forward of the cill bands, supported by block corbels. The corner bay has basement windows which are shouldered-arched; a ground floor canted bay window with a cornice and blocking course; a sash with console cornice to first floor, and paired round-arch sashes with hoodmoulds to the second-floor.
Included for group value.
Listing NGR: SE0594723585
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 339415
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Other
Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire Historic Area Assessment (2024) Historic England Research Report 23/2024, p102-104
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jul-2026 at 22:12:23.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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