In the late summer of 1882, Richard Kershaw and Hanson Ormerod made a wager to race their carriages along a route from Lightcliffe to Hartshead Moor and back to Brighouse and Hipperholme.
There were to be timed stops of the top of 2 steep hills. Each carriage was to be driven by its owner's coachman.
Kershaw won the toss and started first at 10:00 am leaving the gates of Crow Nest, followed closely by Ormerod's carriage. The carriages went down to Bailiff Bridge, up Birkby Lane – where they stopped for 10 minutes whilst the horses were rubbed down. Then they went down Hartshead Moor Top, past the Armytage Arms, down Clifton Common, up to Lane Head – where they rested for 5 minutes. They then went past Slead Syke to the Hipperholme crossroads, turning right into Wakefield Road and back to the gates of Crow Nest.
The 2 carriages arrived with exactly the same distance between them as there had been when they started – a dead heat!
The wager was donated to charity
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©
Malcolm Bull 2017 /
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Revised 12:21 on 3rd February 2017 / k9_1 / 4