Burley Woodhead #1: The Hermit and The Tramper
The cache. a camo-taped 35mm film canister, is hidden close to this long-established hostelry, and celebrates two local characters.
To Find the Cache, simply click on the image above and complete the puzzle when all will be revealed . . .
The pub has been a feature of Burley Woodhead for around 300 years and used to be called the Woolpack. Late Countdown host Richard Whiteley was a patron, living as he did nearby.
The Hermit: the pub sign carries a picture of the eccentric Job Senior (b1780 d1857). Both Bogg* and Speight** in their books about Wharfedale written over a century ago mention him.
*Two Thousand Miles in Wharfedale. A Descriptive Account of the History, Antiquities, Legendary Lore, Picturesque Features, and Rare Architecture of the Vale of the Wharfe, from Tadcaster to Cam Fell by Edmund Bogg (1904)
** Upper Wharfedale by Harry Speight (1900)
In his early days he had been a labourer, willing to do any job in Wharfedale. He eventually made his home in a rough dwelling on Burley Moor and came to be known as the Hermit.
The Ordnance Survey map of 1851 shows what is probably his 'hut' on a triangular plot of land near the Coldstone Beck, on the sharp right bend of the Moor road above Robin Hole (approx N 53 54.262 W 1 46.591). It was a dilapidated dwelling. Speight quotes an eye–witness account of Job Senior‘s antics in 'his primitive domicile':
'Here he used to hold high court, but the grand levee [a public court reception for men, held in the early afternoon] used to take place on Sundays, when numbers of persons from Bradford and Leeds used to assemble in front of his hut. There he gave them what he termed his 'Blast', which was a composition of his own, to represent sweet melody. The designing old man . . . found that his loud chant brought him a large store of coppers as he lay singing on his bed of dried brackens and heather. When he made his ablutions I never heard, but there was plenty of pure water in Coldstone Beck. He had great compass of voice and his lowest notes were most powerful . . . Going shooting on the moors at the break of day, we have stopped to listen to old Job, who then had no audience but was generally singing the 100th Psalm, and it was beautifully sung, his loud voice echoing amongst the rocks above, and sounding down far down in the valley . . .'
He died in 1857 aged 77, and was buried in Burley churchyard. The funeral was witnessed by a large crowd. 'Such like eccentrics are now of the past, and are not likely to be seen again' remarks Speight.
Aireborough Historical Society researcher Damian Pittam notes:
Job Senior was the illegitimate son of Ann Senior of Beckfoot near Ilkley, as a young man he earned his 
living working as a labourer in the Ilkley area. He became a heavy drinker and regular work became increasingly hard to find.
While doing casual farm work at Burley Woodhead he met a widow who was considerably older than himself. She had a cottage and garden on the edge of Rombalds Moor, he also believed she had money, he married her to gain a home and the money.
His wife did not live for long after the wedding but his dreams of a comfortable life were thwarted when relatives of her first husband demolished the cottage, any money hidden in the house was either removed or lost in the rubble!
Job constructed a basic shelter from the ruins of the cottage, it was just big enough for him to crawl into. He ate mostly potatoes which he grew in the remains of the garden, as he neither washed or changed his clothes his unkempt appearance made him unwelcome in local hostelries!
He became known as The Hermit of Rombald's Moor and was eventually taken into the workhouse at Carlton where he died aged 77, he is buried in the churchyard at Burley-in-Wharfedale. The Inn on Ghylmoor Road, Burley Woodhead is named after him.
The Tramper: at the entrance of the pub is a blue plaque commemorating Alfred J Brown which was dedicated in his honour on 25 August 25 2018.
This Bradford-born writer, who worked as a sales director in the wool industry in Bradford before taking on a hotel in North Yorkshire, was one of Yorkshire’s leading ‘outdoor’ writers.
A cult figure throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he became well-known for his ‘tramping’ books. Devoted respectively to the Dales and the Moors, Tramping In Yorkshire (North and East) (1932) and Moorland Tramping in West Yorkshire (1931) were top sellers.
Collected together in Striding Through Yorkshire (1938), they conveyed the special joys of moorland walking: the wide horizons and sense of freedom, the intimate pleasures of the intervening valleys, and the satisfaction of ending the day in a hospitable moorland town or village.
They encouraged readers to explore ‘God's Own Country' on foot, but Brown - whose father was an electrical engineer employed by Bradford Gas Company - also wrote semi-autobiographical novels, personal stories and a book of verse.
His books came about following a suggestion from the then editor of Country Life magazine, to which Brown contributed, to put all his experiences together.
He is regarded as 'a founding father for rights of way and freedom to roam, who was one of the most popular and widely-read authors about the Dales, and indeed the whole of Yorkshire'.
The characterful pub with its spectacular views across the Wharfe Valley, was Brown’s favourite hostelry between 1927 and 1945, when he lived at Burley-in-Wharfedale. His life is covered in a biography, Alfred John Brown, Walker, Writer and Passionate Yorkshireman by John White.
I expect he would have been a keen geocacher if the game had been available in his time!