John and Ringo Slept in My Bed...in 1964

It may be half a century since the Fab Four checked in at Holdsworth House but the event remains just as memorable today as back then.

Between 1963 and 1965, The Beatles undertook six amazing UK tours and among the fans was Gail Moss, co-owner of Holdsworth House. The day The Beatles came to stay is an occasion that Gail will never forget. The beautiful old Yorkshire manor house hotel was owned by Gail’s late parents Freddie and Rita Pearson and was formerly known as The Cavalier Country Club. The Pearsons’ good family friend just happened to be Stanley Corbett, the Beatles’ road manager.

“They had been playing at the Gaumont Theatre in Bradford and they needed a place to stay,” recalls Gail, who was 14 at the time. “My father told me a couple of days before they arrived that they were coming and I think it was probably the hardest secret I have ever had to keep,” she laughs.

The night in question was Friday, October 9, 1964 – John Lennon’s 24th birthday – and Gail recalls how it was around 11pm when the four Liverpool lads arrived after a bit of a diversion and the help of a police escort to keep their destination a secret – a plan that worked.

The original restaurant bill reveals that they tucked into prawn cocktail, melon, smoked trout and turtle soup, followed by steaks and duckling. Including the chauffeur’s dinner, the entire bill came to £17 6s (£17.30) – more than a week’s wages at the time.  The bar bill, including whiskies, stouts and pints of Whitbread, came to £2 15s (£2.75) but it was only Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr who unwound in the bar until 1am – John Lennon had a toothache and went to bed early.

Because the business was just a country club and not a hotel, the Pearsons had to find beds for their visitors. “They actually ended up using ours.” says Gail. “John and Ringo slept in what was mine and my sister’s room and Paul and George slept in my parents’ bedroom. I remember we had set up for them to have breakfast the following morning and they didn’t come down. I was walking up and down the corridor waiting. Eventually my mother grabbed me by the hand, knocked on the bedroom door where Paul and George were sleeping and pushed me inside saying ‘My daughter has been waiting all morning to see you’ she said and left me there. I don’t know how she dared.”

Gail adds that George offered her a cigarette “which I refused” and asked if the old house was haunted. We’d been to Ibiza on holiday and I was chatting to Paul about that.

Kim Pearson, Gail’s sister was just eight at the time and admits the visit was “a little over my head”. “I was very shy and remember not wanting to meet them so I hid in the ladies’ cloakroom under a dressing table. All of a sudden this hand came through the curtains, a hand with rings on practically every finger. It was Ringo and he just said ‘come out and meet the lads’.”

Because it had been Lennon’s birthday the girls gave him a Cavalier Country Club tie. “I don’t know if he ever wore it but he did remember the visit because he sent us a copy of his book In His Own Write.

Once news of the visit became public, the Pearson family was inundated with requests for souvenirs. “We still have the brass bedsteads which were on the beds they slept in and at one time the little gold knobs on the top used to disappear from time to time,” says Gail. 

Written by Virginia Mason for The Halifax Courier.

The Way We Used To Live

Pictures of Holdsworth House going back over the last 50 years. For more images of the hotels today visit our website gallery.

Left: The elegant Rita Pearson. This picture appeared in the national papers when the hotel was purchased by the Pearsons.
















Left: Current owner Gail Moss (nee Pearson) follows in her mother's footsteps in hosting fine parties & events at Holdsworth House.

The charismatic host: Freddie Pearson outside Holdsworth House. The hotel exterior hasn't changed much!











A 1970s wedding in the Stuart Room before it had its pillars removed.

The Stuart Room in 2013. Clean, crisp and ready for any wedding colour scheme you can think of.

The former bar, which is now the Mullioned Restaurant.

The former bar today - used for weddings, restaurant diners and afternoon tea.

A bedroom in the 1970s. Groovy patterns!

The orignal reception area, now the corridor to the bedrooms adjacent to the Abraham Brigg Room.

Golden Anniversary

We had a ball last Thursday, almost literally when we celebrated the hotel's 50 Golden Years!

Holdsworth House was opened on April 11th 1963 by Rita and Freddie Pearson. The couple, who had no experience of running a hotel,  opened The Cavalier Country Club as a private members club which quickly became the place to be seen for socialising, eating, drinking and gambling.

In 1979 the property was handed to the Pearsons’ daughters Gail Moss and Kim Pearson and reverted to its former name Holdsworth House. The hotel has continued to grow from strength to strength under their watchful eye and now boasts 2 AA Rosettes for the food and 4 stars, the only AA four star hotel in Halifax.

Following the deaths of Rita and Freddie, the hotel has remained under family management and on June 13th 2013 Gail and Kim hosted a celebration evening to mark the hotel’s 50th anniversary. Guests included customers and local business leaders, council officials and suppliers – many of whom are local and have been  working with the hotel for over 20 years. 

Gail Moss said ‘The event was to celebrate 50 years of being one of Yorkshire’s top hotels. We work hard to stay innovative and give Halifax the hotel it deserves. Holdsworth House is a popular wedding venue and in 2012 we hosted 167 weddings, which was down to hard work and our brilliant team. Although we have an historic building we can’t stand still – we’re very active on social media sites and we’re doing lots to bring tourists into Halifax from outside Yorkshire through promotions and deals.’

Guests at last Thursday’s event were treated to an array of cocktails including pink Prosecco with crystalised rose petals and a cheeky raspberry vodka cocktail served from our eclectic mix of bone china teacup and saucer sets.

In a heartfelt speech Gail and Kim reminisced about the past fifty years, including when The Beatles came to stay.  Gail thanked the team for their loyalty and commitment to customer service and a long service award was presented to semi-retired accountant Robert Woodhead, whom Gail described as ‘business advisor and true family friend who has worked with Holdsworth House for over 40 years.’ Guests also heard about plans for the barn which stands within the hotel grounds and which is in need of restoration; the team is currently researching best uses for it and an additional wedding venue or function space is being considered.

Roger Harvey OBE, owner of Halifax's premier department store, who attended the event said after the evening ‘Sue and I would like to thank you for a splendid evening to celebrate 50 glorious years of Holdsworth House. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and both remarked about the friendliness and professionalism of your staff.  The food was superb, so another big thank you to your head chef and all the catering team. As a business which celebrated 60 years trading in Halifax in 2011, we know it isn't easy, but sticking to core values and putting our customers first has kept us both in business, when others have failed. Good luck for the next 50 years.’

Pictures courtesy of Alexknightphotography.co.uk

Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence

Love or hate Tripadvisor, there's one thing for sure many people who want to try somewhere for the first time use it like a crystal ball... how good will my experience really be?

Of course Tripadvisor is open to abuse. TV documentaries have shown how some unscrupulous hoteliers 'big up' their own hotels whilst putting false reviews of competitors TUT TUT. How hotels expect to get a good reputation if they're so focused on themselves rather than the customer is beyond us.

There's always room for improvement and the customer paying the bill has every right to say how they think hoteliers can do it better, whether they do that in the public domain or not is not always something a hotel can manage. Customers expectations and benchmarks vary wildly; what's fantastic for one is second rate for another. With little or no opportunity for hoteliers to respond, without looking like a whinging pom, a hotel's online reputation is a pathway that can be paved with gold or can drop into an abyss in a flash. We say always aim for the highest common denominator and treat every guest like a king!

It's this policy that has won Holdsworth House another Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence for the third year running. For us this means not only do we aim to give everyone good service, but that we acknowledge that we're always learning and we're always trying our best. Occasionally things do go wrong, but it's rare and the customer can be assured we'll always go out of our way to make it right.  We're not afraid of Tripadvisor, we embrace it, so we're already looking forward to a Certificate of Excellence 2014!

A Very Vintage Affair

In spring 1963 Holdsworth House Hotel in Halifax, West Yorkshire, opened its doors to the public for the very first time. Having remained hidden away as a private residence for over 380 years, the plush hotel and restaurant proved an instant hit. Fifty glorious years later it remains as fashionable as ever and one of the county’s top wedding venues.

Whilst some things are best left in the 1960s – paisley shirts, peasant tops, bell bottoms and vinyl fabrics – other bits are far too good not to get a second airing or so say designers such as Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren and Victoria Beckham whose retro fashions were a big hit at New York Fashion Week. The trio have all reinterpreted elegant 60s dresses in their spring 2013 collections and it’s not taken the High Street long to follow suit. Mod dresses in silks, chiffons and lace are everywhere.

After seeing a recent spate of retro weddings and party outfits, we teamed up with one of the UK’s youngest vintage entrepreneurs for A Vintage Wedding fashion shoot at the historic hotel to show wedding guests how to perfect the vintage look.

23-year-old Megan Wilson, who owns Purple Rabbit Vintage Shop in Halifax’s magnificent Georgian Piece Hall, says original dresses are flying out of her shop. “We are seeing 60s fashion make a big comeback and lots of women are being creative and hunting out original dresses from that era. They can often pick up a one-off piece for a fraction of the cost of a designer dress today,” says Megan.
 
Holdsworth House’s owner co-owner Gail Moss is the daughter of the late Freddie and Rita Pearson who opened the hotel in 1963. Gail says, “I have so many of my mother’s original dresses that she wore whilst hosting key figures at the hotel in the 1960s - like The Beatles, The Maharaja of Baroda and Jayne Mansfield. It’s wonderful to see so many of the styles reproduced today, but you can’t beat some of the originals for their quality of finish and fabrics. It’s amazing to see these vintage dresses have now come full circle.”

Of course Halifax has long since played its part in the fashion industry. One of Britain’s top fashion designers in the 60s, Jean Muir, was a regular visitor to Holdsworth House when she was in the area buying cloth.

At Holdsworth House, we're seeing a rise in vintage themed weddings with not only the bride and groom going retro, but guests, the décor and the food as well. Wedding coordinator at Holdsworth House Claire Nicholl says, ”The popularity of vintage style afternoon tea in particular has grown in recent years. We have hosted some beautiful vintage afternoon tea weddings that use an eclectic mix of old bone china crockery, swathes of bunting and the most stunning retro flower designs. Many of our brides love to make their own stationery and table gifts too to match the vintage theme such as homemade jams or handcrafted keepsakes. It’s a theme that that goes down a storm with guests and allows the brides to get creative as well as keeping costs low.”

 Megan Wilson’s Purple Rabbit shop specialises in vintage fashion and accessories from the 1930s to the 1960s – some of which will be on display at Holdsworth House’s A Vintage Wedding Open Day on Sunday 19th May 12noon – 4pm. Tickets are free from http://yorkshireweddings.eventbrite.co.uk

SUMMER WEDDING: Light pink chiffon early 1960s cocktail dress with rose bud and off the shoulder detail, £85.

MINI COUTURE: Turquoise and silver patterned late 1960s mod mini dress, £55. Mod pink and green mini dress with Peter Pan collar, £45; turquoise earrings £8.

AQUA GREEN SERENE: Aqua green silk shift dress with platted edging detail, £55. Turquoise plastic bracelet, £8. Simple 60's turquoise button earrings, £8. Feather hat, £16.

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD: Teal green lace overlay dress with green satin lining, £65; oversize 60s pearls, £15.






For press and media enquiries for Holdsworth House please contact Liz Howe at liz@heymarketing.co.uk 07538 238936.