My Year

By Dunworkin

Interesting Pub Sign

This pub sign belongs the Spite Inn, on the Pateley Bridge road out of Otley.

Not it's original name, it used to be The Roebuck. Right next door used to be another pub, The Traveller's Rest. This can be seen on the sign, though it is now a house.

Legend has it that in the 1850's these two inns were fierce rivals for the custom of the navvies building the nearby Washburn reservoir. So intense was the competition between the competing landlords that the two pubs became known locally as "Spite" and "Malice".

As so often happens, the name stuck and it is now known univesally as The Spite.

Don't go and visit just yet as it is currently closed for renovation and addition of a large dining area.

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