On this old postcard showing a building in Hob Lane, Stanbury, somebody — probably Jonas Bradley, Edwardian headmaster of Stanbury Board School — has written both the names by which it has been known, Eagle Inn and Silent Inn.
This hostelry has had a chequered career. As the 19th century Eagle Inn it was a busy rendezvous for farmers, gamekeepers and sportsmen during the grouse-shooting season.
It also hosted a Good Samaritan Sick Club but by the publication of Joseph Craven’s history of Stanbury in 1907 it was no longer an inn.
Despite a measure of fame through being featured in Halliwell Sutcliffe’s novel, “Ricroft of Withens”, the Silent Inn’s renewed licence lapsed again in 1926.
It reopened in 1965 as the Old Silent Inn, albeit only with a restaurant licence but this was followed by a full licence in 1973.
A ghost story or two never did a hostelry any harm and the Old Silent has several.
An all-night vigil by UK Ghost Investigators in 2003 yielded children’s voices, two presences known as Thomas and Abigail, footsteps and ringing handbells, a feeling of cats around one’s feet, some mist, and a mysterious handprint in room ten.
The photograph has been supplied by Mr Ian Brierley, of Bridgehouse Lane, Haworth.
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