The Red Lion in Kirkgate has reopened as a pub. Pictured above with customers is manager Danielle Broadley, whose parents have bought and refurbished the historic inn. They own a pub in Elland and have have been in the licensed trade in Leeds for the last few years. The Red Lion, which was built as a beer shop in the early 1700s, has played a remarkable role in community life. The Weatherhead family ran the pub throughout the 19th century, making it a centre of musical and educational enterprise. Weatherhead Place is named after them. Several prominent local organisations began life at the Red Lion. 

The Red Lion in the early 1970s when John Spencer was landlord. He is pictured in the doorway.

Meanwhile, the Bridge Inn (above) in Keighley Road, which up to last year was Silsden's oldest surviving hostlery, has been converted into three two-bed apartments, at prices from £99,950. Ale was believed to have been sold on the site since the mid-1600s, originally brewed at a farmhouse on what is now the canal towpath. A small stone stable connected to the farmhouse still stands. The inn was thought to date back to the early 1700s.  Above the original pub doorway at the rear is a 1799 date-stone, depicting a "boot and shoe", which was the name of the inn at the time.