Historic Yorkshire Dales Restaurant, Wedding & Function Venue
Historic Yorkshire Dales Restaurant, Wedding & Function Venue
Tel : 01756 720616
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All photographs © Dave Cropper Photography.
The Priests House Restaurant, Barden Tower, Bolton Abbey, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 6AS email
The ruin of Barden Tower, still a prominent feature of the valley.
Thanks to John Murray from Holmfirth for this terrific snap taken in 1948 showing the store barns. We believe it is the farmer in the background, Mr Lister, carrying coal into the Priests House. Some things never change as this is still a daily chore in cold weather, the restaurant still using open fires. Mr Murray explains
“The Lister family were known to my adopted ‘uncle Jim Ward (UJ) & aunt Cath (AC), who lived in Grassington. Jim Ward was a West Yorkshire Road Car Co. bus inspector and subsequently managed the Grassington depot (now the Royal Mail office).
The three girls are Cecile (French) and Käte (German) who were ‘au pairs’ with our family (The Murrays). The Mary was Mary Haikings, the real niece of Jim and Cath Ward.”
“Adjoining the tower is the chapel and farmhouse, the roof of which is supported by large oaken beams; its walls, of immense thickness, date from the thirteenth century. The house, re-roofed some two hundred and fifty years ago, forms with the chapel a most curious bit of architecture, the tower of the sanctuary acting as front room and bedrooms for the farm. The porch has evidently been built with an idea of refuge and defence. The place is unique, with its curious oaken beams and huge fireplace, mullions and
diamond-shaped panes.
The Priests House was occupied as a farmhouse by the Lister family for many centuries.
diamond-shaped panes.
The Priests House was occupied as a farmhouse by the Lister family for many centuries.
The life as a farmhouse finally ended in the 1970’s when Mark Thompson opened it as a tea room. There are some really interesting photos of the site on Mark’s website, “The Barden Tower Project” some of which are reproduced below.
An old longbow has been recently discovered hidden in the chapel. It has been identified by The Royal Armouries as being made from bamboo and is from India, probably arriving in a shipment in the early 1800's. Quite what it is doing here is a total mystery. Read the Yorkshire Post article about its discovery.
A real rustic, Xmas feel, set up for dinner.
When summers were summers! The tea terrace on its heyday.
The restaurant when it was a tea room. This is the only picture we have found which indicates there were two doors into the bar. There is only one today and all evidence of the 2nd has gone.
The actual restaurant wasn’t originally a room at all, but a balcony of the chapel. The wall with the ancient cabinets and plates was built later, when the building was turned into a farmhouse.