I was born in Morley 86 years ago and spent my teens and early 20,s dancing in Morley Townhall wonderfull memories. Why on earth do it have to become part of Leeds ..
My memory may be wrong Darren, but I may have to take issue with you regarding the Queen's toilet. When the Queen visited in 1954 there was a rumour that a special toilet had been built for her in the town hall. At the time I was 8 years old and with my school mates from Peel Street school was taken down to the Scatcherd Park area to line Queen Street. I later worked in the town hall police station, around 1962. Much of that is still intact inside, including the cell block mentioned by a commenter below, and the underground tunnel leading from the police station to a large house opposite which back in the day was occupied by one of the sergeants. The tunnel is still there I believe, but the house long gone to make way for Schofield Court flats. But it wasn't until my father died in I think 1998 that I and my wife got to see the Queen's toilet. I went to register his death at the town hall and got talking to the registrar about the building and the Queen's toilet. The registrar said words to the effect, "oh they're right here", and showed us the toilets through a door off her office. To the best of my recollection there were no urinals and I can't imagine the Queen being conducted past urinals to go to the lav. My wife's recollection from 1998 is the same as mine. It had been mentioned that the reason for there being 2 toilets was that then no one would know which one she had used - had she indeed had to use one at all. I'm wondering if the one with the urinal was perhaps for the Duke? Or maybe our recollection is wrong. One thing you didn't mention Darren is the brass plaque at the foot of the 'grand staircase', which commemorates the 51st Royal Tank Regiment (Leeds Rifles) that was raised in Morley and fought with distinction in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War, being described by one German commander at the battle of Steam Roller Farm in Tunisia, as a "mad tank battalion which scaled impossible heights" in their Churchill tanks. I wonder if it's been removed. My father was a tank commander in the Regiment and was seriously wounded on the Gothic Line in Northern Italy in November 1944. Keep up the good work Darren. I've really enjoyed your videos on local railways in the Morley and Batley areas.
wow i started work in morley in1979 and through various jobs have been in touch with it ever since. but have never set foot in the town hall. what a glorious place
Lived in Morley 35 years, been round the town hall on a tour once and seen a few shows there. It’s a very impressive building for a small town. Moved on now will have to go back and see the parade very impressive.
I was born and bred in Morley I have only ever seen a little bit of the town hall mainly the magistrates court..lol and the council chambers..👍👍My uncle was the mayor yeah happy days
loved it darren,been around some of the town hall,working for leeds council,also they used to film emmerdale and heartbeat in there,in the old days,very interesting.keep up the great work.
Another great piece of local history. Morley had quite the Town Hall, the craftsmanship of the builders shows. Was the exterior sandstone from the Anston Quarry in Yorkshire. For some reason I had to take a bathroom "toilet" break half way through the video. Funny, we have a jeep just like the one at 10:43, really enjoy WWII history. Darren, you did a great job as a roving reporter......
I was a standard bearer in the 1970(?) parade. In those days I think it started at St May's in the Wood and finished at St James by the Pavilion. As a schoolboy I did attend the protest meeting in 73 organised against the 74 local government re-organisation.
Excellent video as always Darren. What an amazing town hall for such a relatively small town. Beautiful and very grand, but that's what the Victorians and Edwardians did. Build everything to last and to be impressive. Look what we can do. And what a great Mayor. Excellent. Plus Black Prince buses too. What more could you want? Lol. And what an impressive parade too. Excellent. Well done to all that put it all together.
Looks fabulous inside, much better than our Sheffield Town Hall! Have you been? It amazes me how you get into all these places! Thank you for sharing 👍
It has a nice staircase but nothing stands out, except the silverware! It's always open to the public on the Out of this world Halloween event. But there are rooms I haven't seen that you don't get to look at So you never know!
5:57 when you looked down the stairs.. As far as I can remember, the one of the sections of the brown marble pillars is plastic or sort of acrylic must have been a too expensive and hard to match it in marble
Thanks for this video, really enjoyed it, love old buildings and the decor of the time, so much exquisite detail, and the floral displays on the skirting looked really good. Such a big building. Did you make a video when you were at blackpool pleasure beach last week, cant see it, if you did. Thanks Di
Wow wish I had known you were in morley yesterday me and my family were too we live in morley and were at the St georges parade as we do every year and this year my granddaughter was in the parade in a group called little rainbows
Hello Darren are you well fantastic vidio of moley on st George day and what a beautiful parared have you filmed Blackpool pleasure beach yet you put photos up and they are very good you are very brave going on the ride vallaer best wishes take care stay safe xx ❤
I lived in Morley in the 1980s and the fact that Morley lost its independence to Leeds still rankled hugely. I knew a former Morley Mayor and he was extremely sad that Morley had lost its "glory" and the fact that this magnificent building lost its true function rubbed salt into the wound. That "royal" toilet looks to be far older than the 1950s in its design, looking more like the original 1890's design of the building. Surely it was just spruced up rather than being installed specially?
Nice one Darren, now that decorated toilet bowl looked more Victorian as more suitable for Queen Victoria than Queen Elizabeth. Overall that good old Yorky phrase of where there muck there's brass (or money to non Yorky speakers) springs to mind about the town hall 😮 Wonder if JD Wetherspoons have a beady eye on it 😂 Cheers matey, DougT
Eine schöne Geschichte von diesem Rathaus. Jetzt frage ich mich, ist Morley eine Stadt Oder nur ein kleiner Ort. Bisher dachte ich , es sei nur ein Name. Eure Paraden sind auch steht's sehenswert. Und die andere Geschichte ist ja nun auch geklärt. Danke Darren Gern schau ich wieder deine Videos an.👋👍👍
Morley has a town council with some powers and it has a strong local identity as a 'market town' but officially it has been part of the City of Leeds for about 50 years
A grand day out in Morley. There was one of those knife cleaning machines in my school back in the 1940s. I wonder if the knives weren't stainless steel and would get rust and corrosion on them? The question then is why wasn't there a fork cleaning machine?
I'm not sure that Queen Elizabeth needed to stalls and a row of three urinals. That looks, to me, a lot more like a Victorian Gents (especially with the lovely Victorian fittings) - and either a bit of local legend or someone was pulling your leg. I don't know if it was the same for public buildings, but on military establishments, any toilet provided for the monarch was removed and destroyed after the visit to prevent "weird" sales from happening.
@@AdventureMe I only know because I saw one being used in an old programme called upstairs downstairs and my mum happened to know what it was. I wouldn't say it's obvious what it is, I still have no idea how they work. You just stick the knife in the slot and turn the handle like an organ grinder and it comes out sharp and shiny
Everybody can walk round then local town hall it is a public building after all they do like you to ask permission, but you don't necessarily have to as long as you stick to the public areas. Wasn't there a sign at the bottom of the stairs saying that you can't take pictures? (Let's see if you read all your comments). 👍
Hi Darren, are you a Morley born lad? Just noticed a lot of your videos are around there. A shame the video you did on the old Morley train station with the foundations in the grass is now an Aldi supermarket.
I got worried when the Anglo Saxons went by the town hall with the axes......reminded me of my home town when I was a kid! 8^) Just kidding. Quite an occasion with lots of dignitaries. Did the 82nd airborne re-enactors parachute into the fairgrounds? Great video, thanks as always Darren. Cheers!
Could you do another video and do the entire town hall including the bell tower and the prison cells there's not many people being up the bell tower it would be nice if it could be documented and shown to people🙋♂🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I was born in Morley 86 years ago and spent my teens and early 20,s dancing in Morley Townhall wonderfull memories. Why on earth do it have to become part of Leeds ..
My memory may be wrong Darren, but I may have to take issue with you regarding the Queen's toilet. When the Queen visited in 1954 there was a rumour that a special toilet had been built for her in the town hall. At the time I was 8 years old and with my school mates from Peel Street school was taken down to the Scatcherd Park area to line Queen Street. I later worked in the town hall police station, around 1962. Much of that is still intact inside, including the cell block mentioned by a commenter below, and the underground tunnel leading from the police station to a large house opposite which back in the day was occupied by one of the sergeants. The tunnel is still there I believe, but the house long gone to make way for Schofield Court flats. But it wasn't until my father died in I think 1998 that I and my wife got to see the Queen's toilet. I went to register his death at the town hall and got talking to the registrar about the building and the Queen's toilet. The registrar said words to the effect, "oh they're right here", and showed us the toilets through a door off her office. To the best of my recollection there were no urinals and I can't imagine the Queen being conducted past urinals to go to the lav. My wife's recollection from 1998 is the same as mine. It had been mentioned that the reason for there being 2 toilets was that then no one would know which one she had used - had she indeed had to use one at all. I'm wondering if the one with the urinal was perhaps for the Duke? Or maybe our recollection is wrong.
One thing you didn't mention Darren is the brass plaque at the foot of the 'grand staircase', which commemorates the 51st Royal Tank Regiment (Leeds Rifles) that was raised in Morley and fought with distinction in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War, being described by one German commander at the battle of Steam Roller Farm in Tunisia, as a "mad tank battalion which scaled impossible heights" in their Churchill tanks. I wonder if it's been removed. My father was a tank commander in the Regiment and was seriously wounded on the Gothic Line in Northern Italy in November 1944.
Keep up the good work Darren. I've really enjoyed your videos on local railways in the Morley and Batley areas.
Or one throne for her and one for him. They could both take a dump together 🤷♂🤮
The toilets look Victorian. Certainly not from the 1950s.
wow i started work in morley in1979 and through various jobs have been in touch with it ever since. but have never set foot in the town hall. what a glorious place
Lived in Morley 35 years, been round the town hall on a tour once and seen a few shows there. It’s a very impressive building for a small town. Moved on now will have to go back and see the parade very impressive.
I was born and bred in Morley I have only ever seen a little bit of the town hall mainly the magistrates court..lol and the council chambers..👍👍My uncle was the mayor yeah happy days
What a brilliant video and this is how St George’s day should be celebrated 👏👏👏👍
loved it darren,been around some of the town hall,working for leeds council,also they used to film emmerdale and heartbeat in there,in the old days,very interesting.keep up the great work.
I’ve been in Morley Town Hall once but not seen it in all it’s magnificence. Great parade too. Thanks.
Ah ha.....Dot jeep belongs to a fellow 40s re enactor friend. Hope a good day had by all. 🤗🐾🐾🐾
Excellent video Darren that look great town hall I can't wait for next video Darren I hope you and your family and friends are well and safe
Excellent video, thanks for coming along to Morley & making this.
I'm one of the organisers, mostly of the reenactment side of things.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Another great piece of local history. Morley had quite the Town Hall, the craftsmanship of the builders shows. Was the exterior sandstone from the Anston Quarry in Yorkshire. For some reason I had to take a bathroom "toilet" break half way through the video. Funny, we have a jeep just like the one at 10:43, really enjoy WWII history. Darren, you did a great job as a roving reporter......
Well done great times to remember of St George's day in Morley with my family .Thank you
What a truly beautiful building. An amazing place to visit. Thank you Darren once again showing us something different. Well filmed as always.
lovely pair of thunderboxes there.
Brilliant Darren, what a great day you had. Thanks for showing 👍🏻😀🇬🇧🏴
Great video Darren, Morley born and raised, live just round the corner in Drig now but Morley has all my memories 😊
Well that was awesome Darren 👊❤
I was a standard bearer in the 1970(?) parade. In those days I think it started at St May's in the Wood and finished at St James by the Pavilion. As a schoolboy I did attend the protest meeting in 73 organised against the 74 local government re-organisation.
Magnificent building.
Very nice, what a lovely history, atmosphere and people. Cheers!
A fantastic video today, Darren. Thank you for the efforts! Cheers Darren!😊
I also was born in morley and never really saw a lot of the town hall. I lived on the denshaws and went to Peel street school.
Excellent video as always Darren.
What an amazing town hall for such a relatively small town.
Beautiful and very grand, but that's what the Victorians and Edwardians did. Build everything to last and to be impressive. Look what we can do.
And what a great Mayor.
Excellent. Plus Black Prince buses too.
What more could you want?
Lol.
And what an impressive parade too. Excellent. Well done to all that put it all together.
Looks fabulous inside, much better than our Sheffield Town Hall! Have you been? It amazes me how you get into all these places! Thank you for sharing 👍
No I haven't been in the Sheffield one
It has a nice staircase but nothing stands out, except the silverware! It's always open to the public on the Out of this world Halloween event. But there are rooms I haven't seen that you don't get to look at So you never know!
Amazing....!A totally different topic.Blackpool last week & now Morley Townhall.BrillianThanks Darren.👍
No comparison lol
What an amazing building. Really enjoyed this Darren x
Nicely done Darren.
Great video and I can see myself on the field as St George goes past!
5:57 when you looked down the stairs.. As far as I can remember, the one of the sections of the brown marble pillars is plastic or sort of acrylic must have been a too expensive and hard to match it in marble
Never noticed that
@@AdventureMe you wouldn't notice it unless you tapped it it's same in the Trinity shopping centre in Leeds fake marble and stone
Thanks for this video, really enjoyed it, love old buildings and the decor of the time, so much exquisite detail, and the floral displays on the skirting looked really good.
Such a big building.
Did you make a video when you were at blackpool pleasure beach last week, cant see it, if you did. Thanks Di
Yes I did, not edited yet.
Its amazing! 😊 it looks amazing at thr parade! You gave me goosebumps 😊
Wow wish I had known you were in morley yesterday me and my family were too we live in morley and were at the St georges parade as we do every year and this year my granddaughter was in the parade in a group called little rainbows
I was there all day too
I've shared it on Facebook to all the morley groups I'm in I'm pretty sure they will be impressed with your work
A fabulous video, very interesting and uplifting . One thing though , the lovely mayor looks about 12 ! X 😂😊
Close - he's 27 and our youngest ever Mayor here in sunny Morley
@@kingboy76 wow! What an achievement x👏👏👏
The exterior it very similar in architectural design to Bolton Town Hall and Leeds Town Hall
Yes it is
Bolton and Morley Town halls were designed by the same architects.
Henry Holtom and George Fox.
Hello Darren are you well fantastic vidio of moley on st George day and what a beautiful parared have you filmed Blackpool pleasure beach yet you put photos up and they are very good you are very brave going on the ride vallaer best wishes take care stay safe xx ❤
Not yet no
I lived in Morley in the 1980s and the fact that Morley lost its independence to Leeds still rankled hugely. I knew a former Morley Mayor and he was extremely sad that Morley had lost its "glory" and the fact that this magnificent building lost its true function rubbed salt into the wound.
That "royal" toilet looks to be far older than the 1950s in its design, looking more like the original 1890's design of the building. Surely it was just spruced up rather than being installed specially?
It was designed for Queen Victoria not Queen Elizabeth II.
guys fantastic 😢🎉😅
Nice one Darren, now that decorated toilet bowl looked more Victorian as more suitable for Queen Victoria than Queen Elizabeth. Overall that good old Yorky phrase of where there muck there's brass (or money to non Yorky speakers) springs to mind about the town hall 😮 Wonder if JD Wetherspoons have a beady eye on it 😂 Cheers matey, DougT
There's a wetherspoons just opposite
@@AdventureMe I should have known it 😎
I did the pa system for an amateur boxing tournament there in March. Oliver the mayor of Morley is a decent guy.
He is great.
It looks like a great place to visit
Great - as usual!
Eine schöne Geschichte von diesem Rathaus.
Jetzt frage ich mich, ist Morley eine Stadt
Oder nur ein kleiner Ort. Bisher dachte ich , es sei nur ein Name.
Eure Paraden sind auch steht's sehenswert.
Und die andere Geschichte ist ja nun auch geklärt.
Danke Darren
Gern schau ich wieder deine Videos an.👋👍👍
Morley has a town council with some powers and it has a strong local identity as a 'market town' but officially it has been part of the City of Leeds for about 50 years
@@kingboy76 I thank you.
That was very nice 👍👋
When’s the Wakefield earsheaton Dewsbury batley to Bradford line coming regards
OH! That mayor of Morley sure is a cutie and a great smile. That was fascinating. I loved it and you did a brilliant job. Well done.
@1:06 Morley doesn't have a "Lord Mayor".
A Mayor. Slip of the tongue.
A grand day out in Morley. There was one of those knife cleaning machines in my school back in the 1940s. I wonder if the knives weren't stainless steel and would get rust and corrosion on them? The question then is why wasn't there a fork cleaning machine?
Good point
I'm not sure that Queen Elizabeth needed to stalls and a row of three urinals. That looks, to me, a lot more like a Victorian Gents (especially with the lovely Victorian fittings) - and either a bit of local legend or someone was pulling your leg. I don't know if it was the same for public buildings, but on military establishments, any toilet provided for the monarch was removed and destroyed after the visit to prevent "weird" sales from happening.
I'm so proud I knew what the knife sharpener was straight away
Never seen one before
@@AdventureMe I only know because I saw one being used in an old programme called upstairs downstairs and my mum happened to know what it was. I wouldn't say it's obvious what it is, I still have no idea how they work. You just stick the knife in the slot and turn the handle like an organ grinder and it comes out sharp and shiny
Everybody can walk round then local town hall it is a public building after all they do like you to ask permission, but you don't necessarily have to as long as you stick to the public areas.
Wasn't there a sign at the bottom of the stairs saying that you can't take pictures?
(Let's see if you read all your comments). 👍
No nothing. Besides I had permission to film. They invited me to.
@@AdventureMe 👍
@@AdventureMe do you think you will do a video of the entire town hall?
9:07 taking weapons through the wapentake.
Brilliant video thanks Darren. By any chance is the Mayor your brother? I think I see a resemblance.
No. My brother is older than me.
Hi Darren, are you a Morley born lad? Just noticed a lot of your videos are around there.
A shame the video you did on the old Morley train station with the foundations in the grass is now an Aldi supermarket.
No. Bradford lad
I got worried when the Anglo Saxons went by the town hall with the axes......reminded me of my home town when I was a kid! 8^) Just kidding. Quite an occasion with lots of dignitaries. Did the 82nd airborne re-enactors parachute into the fairgrounds? Great video, thanks as always Darren. Cheers!
Thanks Jeff.
Could you do another video and do the entire town hall including the bell tower and the prison cells there's not many people being up the bell tower
it would be nice if it could be documented and shown to people🙋♂🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
And the Courts too Darren, the Courts have been used a few times for TV and film productions.
love it well cool
top geezer
The Queen had a toilet with a urinal?
The Duke was there too!!
@@AdventureMe good answer
Are you sure it was built for Queen Elizabeth, it does look Victorian.
Traditional style I suppose
@@AdventureMe may be. But it does look Victorian. I’m sure he’s wrong.
Ha ha.....it was a great day
Sure was
Just found this content and loving it, but dude stop chewing gum while talking to camera, it's distracting and a bit gross.
I know. My bad. I never realised until afterwards
chainmail and denim, typically bonkers britain
I didn’t realise Morley was so grand lol
Me neither
Interesting. But *please* remove the chewing gum from your mouth when speaking to camera!!!!!
I know. Bad of me. I never even noticed until afterwards in the edit. I never normally have chewing gum.
You forgot to show or mention the old magistrates court room or dungeon cells in Morley town hall.
I could only show what they showed me unfortunately
@@AdventureMe fair enough 👍🏻
My home town
mine too