Find out the historic events behind the Butchers Arms

The Butchers Arms is one of Yorkshires finest public houses and sits is in the centre of the ancient village of Hepworth, a village that features in the Domesday book of 1086. The village has long been at the heart of the wool trade, a trade that has been both a blessing and a curse. It is local legend that the plague of 1665/66 was brought to Hepworth by cloth coming from London. The village sacrificed thirteen of its own in order to stop the spread, secluding the diseased in one half of the village. The self-sacrifice paid off, the village survived, and its longevity is celebrated every year with the Hepworth Feast, on the last Monday of June every year.

The village grew and developed as the industrial revolution took off in the valley’s and hills surrounding the pub. To this day the landscape is marked by its industrious forebears, from the wool mills in the valley bottoms to the workers cottages scattered over the hillsides. The pub was built in these whirlwind days of the early 1800’s. As the population increased workers required a larger pub, the Butchers buying the neighbouring house and doubling in size to quench the thirst of the mill workers. We carry on the quenching mission to this very day.