Old Bingley

As with many towns, the oldest part of Bingley clusters around the Parish Church, All Saints. The church sits rather attractively, with its back to the (now) main road - though the road, constructed in 1904, sliced right through its graveyard. The original main street is now quite a sweet little street, still paved with stone setts and lined with old houses. It's fascinating that each house is different, some tall and narrow, some tiny cottages. They back on to the river, so they have been known to flood on occasion.

The Old White Horse Inn, at the end of the row of houses, is one of the oldest buildings in the town, dating back at least to the mid 18th century. It was a coaching inn, sited strategically by the Ireland Bridge river crossing and on the Leeds to Kendal coach route. It still has an archway through which stagecoaches would have passed into the courtyard and stables at the rear. On the gables are stone lanterns, which identify the building as once having belonged to the Order of Knights of St John. There are steps by the door from which John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, is said to have preached in the late 1700s. 

The view back towards the church from Ireland Bridge shows just how close some of the old buildings are to the river.