IN the latest of his look backs at old Bradford pubs, DR PAUL JENNINGS profiles The Peel:

This Telegraph & Argus photograph from 2008 shows the Peel at the corner of Longside Lane and Richmond Road being prepared for the end. An all too familiar tale in the history of the pub.

It had been built in the 1850s in the rapidly growing Listerhills district and run as a beerhouse. It was then granted a full publican’s licence by magistrates in 1862 to owner and first landlord William Carter, who was also a cabinet maker.

It was named after the Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. Although Bradford was not a Tory town, Peel was a hero for his carrying though of the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, which had worked to keep the price of bread high. The measure naturally was popular with workers and their families but also with employers who were concerned to resist wage demands. Consequently, after his untimely death in 1850, Peel had a park named after him and a statue unveiled in 1855 in the town centre in Peel Square at the bottom of Leeds Road, which was later moved to his park.

He also gave his name generally to pubs and streets. Bradford also has a statue, in the former Wool Exchange, of the great moving spirit of the Anti-Corn Law League, Richard Cobden.

The Peel brewed its own beer, as many pubs did at first. It was bought in 1892 from Ellen Sellers, the widow of landlord Richard, by Tordoffs brewers.

The brewery itself, which Jonathan and Squire Tordoff had started in 1861, was not so far away from the Peel at the Devonshire Hotel on Thornton Road. The company amalgamated with Heys brewery of Manningham after the First World War and hence eventually it became a Webster’s pub.

The news of the end in 2008 prompted reminiscences in the T&A. Former waiter in the early 1960s, John Monaghan, remembered licensees Fred and Lena Paley, who ran it until retirement in 1982, who were generous enough to stand drinks for temporarily impoverished staff and their friends. Their son Tom also recounted stories of the resident pub ghost and of the ripped bar stool, which was given the nickname of ‘fathers’ seat’ on account of the number of women who fell pregnant after sitting on it.

Also recalled was ‘reportedly the best juke box in Bradford’ for getting hit records before they made the charts. I also remember the juke box, now in the early 1970s, but especially for the wonderful Edith Piaf - the only time I have ever heard her on a pub juke box. Nothing has replaced a great juke box in pubs.

I knew the Peel then on and off until the end, as I worked nearby. It did good food (vegetable lasagne fondly remembered), hosted a popular quiz but was also a pleasant place for a quiet pint late afternoon.

I was then there rather less from the later 1990s so I cannot say exactly what led up to its final closure. The University then expanded up to Longside Lane.

* Dr Paul Jennings is the author of Bradford Pubs and The Local: A History of the English Pub.