Good morning — we hope this finds you tired but happy after the emotional odyssey wrought by last night’s World Cup triumph. Bonus points if you also got to see Leeds-born Erling Haaland strike twice to knock out Brazil.
Like everyone else, we awoke blinking and slightly giddy to rejoin the normal world, where there remains an awful lot of Leeds and West Yorkshire news to pursue, including trying to pin down exactly what's going to happen to the raft of Samuel Smith pubs that pepper this region following the death of the company's idiosyncratic founder.
But first, here's your Monday briefing.
The round-up
Our top story: Raise a glass for Humphrey Smith (or don't, he had just as many critics as fans), who died last week as one of the country’s most prominent brewers, having controlled the historic Samuel Smith brewery for half a century. Probably the best account of his vast pub empire remains this Guardian article from 2024, which lays out Smith senior’s passionate commitment to the traditional pub as well as his profound eccentricities and one-man crusade against phone-use when drinking.
The prevailing wisdom about the company in West Yorkshire — just over the border from its Tadcaster hometown — is that it’s sitting on a welter of frustratingly unused property.
What now? Understandably enough, the family-run company hasn’t been immediately contactable for comment in the immediate aftermath. But, perhaps naturally for such a talked-about business, the prospect of a changing of the guard has sparked the curiosity of business types.
“Samuel Smith’s is a hot topic,” Clifford Stead, a trustee at Leeds Civic Trust, tells us. The company has “sat on so many key properties in Leeds City Centre that are just falling down, and so they’re now wondering what comes next.”
Steve Holt, the founder of Kirkstall Brewery, was more willing to mount a defence of the company. He told us that much of the criticism is “not deserved,” adding that he admires how Smith “stuck to his values.”
He also sees why there’s interest in the Smith properties today. “I think there’s obvious potential there,” he said, adding: “I’ve never approached the Smiths as I knew what the answer would be.”
Boarded-up boozers: Ultimately, Samuel Smith pubs is a private company that can dispose of its property how it likes. Councils only really contemplate compulsory purchase when a property has become a serious environmental risk, Councillor Ed Carlisle, whose patch includes the empty Duncan Pub, told The Exchange.
“People are passionate about these more institutional pubs,” he said. “People like things that maintain some level of uniqueness and localness and heritage.” But at the same time, he says, there’s room for a reboot.
Does this mean that for every Angel Inn — a charming, old-world central Leeds drinking hole — there’s a Duncan Pub, said to be a former Samuel Smith venue, glowering within eyeshot of the Corn Exchange? Venues like this, goes the narrative, leave gaping voids in the heart of small communities, as well as tantalising gaps in prime city centre locations.
Help us out: We want to report on Samuel Smith’s impact and future locally. Do you have any memories, intel or insight on the mercurial owner and/or his pub empire? If so, drop a comment below or get in touch via email.
🦉 A missing Leeds fan has been found alive and thriving in what is surely the best possible resolution of a worrying story. In late June, Michael Hewitt — or “Little Mick” to friends — was reported missing en route to the World Cup via Barcelona. As it turns out, Hewitt, who as of 2020 hadn’t missed a Leeds match in 40 years, lost his phone and hadn’t been able to travel to America, instead having spent the time since in Barcelona, “blissfully unaware” of the fact that West Yorkshire police, Spanish police and even Interpol had become involved in efforts to find him. His brother Gary thanked the Leeds fans who had rallied, adding: "It's amazing what can be achieved when the good people of the world Go Marching On Together,” he said.
🚰 Yorkshire Water’s environmental rating appears set to be downgraded to one star — the lowest environmental performance assessment possible (out of four), according to this great Yorkshire Post scoop. CEO Nicola Shaw, who granted an interview ahead of the Environment Agency’s announcement in October, said that the company’s performance is “not good enough”. The company was ordered to pay £40 million last year to address “serious failures” over discharges. The Exchange has asked Yorkshire Water for comment.
Here’s a chart of the company’s performance per the EA since 2021. Nb, the ranking goes back to 2011, but as the methodology keeps changing the only fair like-for-like goes back the last four years:
🏃♀️➡️A second Kirklees Reform councillor has left the party. Councillor Susan Maxfield, from Liversedge and Gomersal, dove into Kirklees’ rich broth of independent councillors (at last count, two separate “Independent” groups, two separate individual independents, and now Maxfield). Her departure comes after Craig Wiles, Reform councillor in Almondbury, also stepped down due to health issues.
Councillor Maxfield serves the same patch as the Reform group leader, Councillor Sarah Wood, who in tandem with the Green group leader is casting around for enough votes (35) to gain a majority. After two failed votes, the council has been under the care of its chief exec, Steve Mawson, in the interim. It’s unclear what Maxfield’s departure does to the leadership contest — we don’t know if she’ll continue to lend her support to Reform, and any hypothetical switch to support the Greens would still not give them a majority.
As ever with party defections in office, it’s raised the question of whether she should stand in a by-election. However, she’s not sharing her thoughts with Exchange readers today. She did not respond to an emailed query by the time of publication, and when contacted by phone this morning, Councillor Maxfield told The Exchange she had “no comment”, and hung up before we could ask a question.
📺 Former ITV Calendar presenter John Shires has died at 71. Shires, who joined Yorkshire Television (now ITV Yorkshire) in 1989, “had been ill for some time” and passed away last Wednesday at St James’s Hospital in Leeds “with this family by his side”, reports ITV News.
Speaking to The Exchange, Christa Ackroyd, TV presenter, journalist and columnist, who sat alongside Shires on many occasions, said: “John was the most unlikely television star, but a star he was. Outwardly he was shy and didn’t like the attention but, he was so, so good at his job and dry and quick-witted, that he became a firm favourite on Calendar, not least his knowledge of sport. Whereas some of us, and I would include myself, were more outward and rash, he was more understated.” When Shires lost it, he would “cry with laughter”, she added. “He was a real one off in an era when you don’t get one offs on TV.”
🎶 And finally, Halifax's Piece Hall has taken its finances into the green, with a surplus of just under £357,000, according to the venue’s annual review, released last Thursday. The multi-award-winning outdoor events space and heritage site has seen a “significant turnaround” from losses of around £700,000 during the previous accounting period into the latest financial year (October 2024 — September 2025).
The big picture
Sorry to break it to you, but we’re due another couple of scorchers this week. Accordingly we bring you what’s surely the most thematically prescient exhibit of the summer, Luke Jerram’s “Helios”, photographed by John Clifton at Wakefield Exchange.
Home of the week
This £200,000 three-bedroom home in Castleford piqued the interest due to the unusual kitchen-dining area. The kitchen is in its own little cove, separated off by an archway. Xscape and the Junction 32 shopping village is just 10-minute drive away. Take a look here.
Catching up and coming up:
- Looking back to Wednesday’s read couldn’t be more timely after England’s heroic display at the Azteca in the early hours of this morning. Guest writer Thomas Barrett explored the story of professional footballer Evelyn Lintott, who went into a battle that had more drastic and devastating consequences. Lintott, who played for Bradford City, Leeds City, and earned seven caps for England, was killed on the very first day of the Battle of the Somme. This one is behind our paywall but we think it’s well worth taking out a subscription (giving you access to all our other content as well) — Thomas’s piece is atmospheric and truly makes you feel like you’re side-by-side on the battlefield with Lintott on that fateful morning 110 years ago. You can read that one here.
- Mia followed that up with a long-read on Saturday about the engineers maintaining the underbelly of Leeds station. As a born-and-bred Leodensian, even Brad found himself absorbed into little-known details of the cavernous tunnels and arches that run under the transport hub. Mia met up with one of the main people responsible for maintaining safety in subterranean Leeds, asset engineer Calum Cholmondeley, who had a “relentlessly calm demeanour”. And what of the large crack running through part of the vaulted brickwork of the Dark Arches? Read here to find out that and more.
Things to do
🎸 Tickets are still available for Kings Of Leon at First Direct Arena tonight, a date also added last minute to the rockers' UK tour. Cheapest tickets currently available are £91.25.
💃 There’s two chances on Wednesday to enjoy the inclusive “Together We Groove Festival”, organised by Leodis Live SEN Friendly Gigs at Bridge Community Church in Leeds. Learners from a range of schools will perform dances to celebrate Glasgow's upcoming Commonwealth Games. Tickets are £6.13 for the 1pm show and £5 for a 6.30pm show.
👻 How to stand out in the crowded market of Yorkshire ghost tours? A new launch that starts from Corn Exchange on Saturday and Sunday evenings has gone with the USP that their tours are led by a bonafide ghost. Find out the veracity of this claim by snagging tickets for £14.
🐈 If you’ve no energy for actual activity, we suggest you slump with this “kitty cam” livestream launched by Leeds-based feral cat rescue shelter Cat Action Trust 1977. It’s mainly a view of the underside of someone’s furniture, but occasionally you get to see small pointy-eared furballs bundling about, making it absolutely worth the effort.
