The Floating Light

The Floating Light, Saddleworth, West Riding of Yorkshire

This solid-looking former Thwaites pub on the scenic A62 over Standedge opened in 1940 and closed around 2000. Prior to the construction of the M62, this was the main road between the Manchester area and West Yorkshire. The name comes from lights used by workers digging the canal tunnel – the longest in Britain – that runs beneath.

10 comments:

  1. Sorry for delay,I should have 20-30 pics of
    closed down or for-sale pubs in the
    Ashton u lyne area by next week .How can I transmit them to you.

    One of Mudgies fans

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  2. Just e-mail them to closedpubs@pubcurmudgeon.org.uk

    One of the pubs I have in the pipeline is Williams in Ashton.

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  3. Had a session here in Sept 1973. I was walking the Pennine Way and camped nearby in the pissing rain.

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  4. Closed 1997/8. I bought it in 2000 and it was closed for over 2 years.

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    Replies
    1. A relative of mine was the last tenent here 1998. I was the Sunday lunch cook..

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  5. Something wrong withy the opening date here - a PH called the Floating Light is shown on the 1st series OS map - ??1850s

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  6. The current building opened in 1940. I'd guess it replaced an earlier pub on the same site.

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  7. I was driving from London to Stamford to see my mother who was on her last legs. This would have been 1988. As I drove I suddenly remebered a day in 1960. My father was driving us to Oldham to visit my Mothers Aunt who lived thre. I alwys remembered the floating light as it seems to hand in the mist as you cam over the hill. We stopped for lunch and had Hame Egg and Chips. Sounds very ordinary, but it was very memorable. Eggs from the chickens out back, ham off the bone and home baked bread. And chips were a rare treat back then. I got to Stamford and my mother (who was bed-ridden really) looked at me and said "Do you remember that time we had ham egg and chips at the Floating Light? 28 years previously. Never discussed since. I'd been thinking about it in the car on the way there. She left us the next week. Wired or what? Synchronicity. So Yes the Floating Light is a fond memory for me. Saddleworth Moor now has many grim associations and best forgotten.

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  8. Pierrepoint waslandlord of The Last Drop...

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