Even
in the greyness of age, Micklegate House, Pontefract, graces it yet over
Horsefair, with an air of Georgian distinction. As we traverse its
substantial frontage, we may sigh for the palmy days of this house and
the broad avenue which was Pontefract’s pride, the days that it
reigned over a score of mansions and elegant carriages waited at every
door. In this proud house, now listed by the Minister of Town and
Country Planning as among buildings of special interest in the town, we
can recapture the atmosphere of wealth, taste, and substance, from the
towns more recent history. Its last private residents were the late Mr.
and Mrs Crossley Atkinson, but for 12 years it has been used by Mr. A.
Shearsmith, of Shearsmith and Son, antique dealers, as a place of
business, and it lends itself well for the purpose. Lofty and spacious
rooms contain spectacular relief work on the ceiling, Adam and possibly
pre-Adam fireplaces and Adam fanlights; and in the drawing room, at the
rear, a three light bow window looks out upon one of the typical gardens
of the past, screened from the passer by, by high walls which secret a
weeping ash of great age, whose branches trail across the path.
A
bricked up doorway probably led to the adjacent brew house (now the
Weight and Measures Office) and a staircase rich with mural effects
rises through the centre block to the spacious bedrooms. One bedroom
still contains the speaking tube which communicated with the servants
sleeping quarter at the top of the house while down below stretch
vaulted cellars of great strength which were used during the last war as
an Air Raid Wardens Post.
