Time Please! is one of those books that you think must have already been written. Such a good subject, a ready audience, and so many different perspectives to cover. Congratulations must go to David Johnson for filling a yawning gap in our knowledge, and for including so much in a relatively small book. The five chapters include an ‘Historical Overview’, ‘Alehouses’, ‘Wayside and Village Inns’, ‘Inns in Market Towns’ and ‘Pubs-the Archetypal “Local”’. Sources and notes follow, along with further reading and a very useful index of featured premises. It is liberally illustrated with mostly coloured photographs taken by the author, together with old postcards, posters, and two map drawn specially for the publication showing the location of premises in Settle in 1844 and mid-nineteenth century Skipton.

The book starts with an essential definition of terms, and a broad mapping of the evolution of the word hostelry - from hospitalis/hospitium, via ale, bait, beer and bough houses, and taverns to the public house, a word which first appeared c.1669. The author reminds us that the term ‘inn’ first appears in the fifteenth century, but the word ‘public house’ did not come into popular usage until 1800. Johnson notes that a book this size cannot be a definitive history. What it does do very well is whet our whistles, so to speak. Using Ordnance Survey maps, census returns and old photographs amongst other sources Johnson ingeniously brings to life the wealth and importance of these premises. The book has something of interest for anyone interested in local, family, architectural, social and economic history, as well as the changing landscape.

We are reminded that the ‘urge to drink’ goes back to at least the Bronze Age, while in the 8th century laws were enacted forbidding priests to frequent drinking houses. In Reeth in 1666 a local man was summoned before a court ‘for allowing divers persons to remain tippling in his house on the Sabbath’. Women, Johnson notes, played a key role in the running of ale houses.

Thanks to the index we can locate the Swaledale and Arkengarthdale premises covered in the book, such as Jenkin Gate at Oxnop, a bait house, which like many other such places lay on the route of an important drovers’ road, used until the late 1890s. Lilly Jocks in Arkengarthdale is another example, and is marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1836. Another north-south drovers’ route explains the situation of The Drovers at Winterings now a ruin.

In the chapter on ‘Wayland and Village Inns’ the White Horse at Marrick, dated to 1738 is included, which was run in 1823 by Jane Whaley. Johnson tracks other licence holders over the centuries, and takes this inn’s story up to its closure in the 1960s. Over in Hurst he notes the Green Dragon Inn, which started life as the New Inn, ideally positioned to catch travellers. In ‘Inns and Market Towns’ Richmond features. While in the last chapter on ‘Pubs’, Reeth gets its due, with mention of the Shoulder of Mutton, listed in 1823, until the licence was revoked in 1892, the Half Moon which appears on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map, and was still there in 1900, with Mary Close as the licensee.

Low Row makes a good showing with its pubs, including the Miners Arms opposite the Methodist Chapel, bearing the name of William Lowe on the lintel above the door. Lowe went on to run the Temperance Hotel in the same village. Johnson also tracks the various name changes of the Miners Arms over time, from the Board to the Queens Arms. In this chapter are also the Black Bull in Langthwaite and the Rose and Crown in Whaw.

Time Please! inspires the reader to find out more, and will hopefully lead to a wider appreciation of these watering holes that were central to communities and travellers. Time indeed to appreciate these often overlooked places, and make sure that those that are still operating are supported and remain central to our communities.