Location hunting on 7/8/2004 for Episode The Charity Horse
Then
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Opening titles.
Looks like an old market place with stone columns.
At the top of the frame is a building on the signage of which you can just make out "OYDS BANK". I guessed that this was a branch of Lloyds Bank which has now become Lloyds TSB.
Another view from later on in the episode which again shows the colonnaded street with the Lloyds bank at the top. The episode gives the impression that nearer to the camera and on the right hand side of the street is the office frontage in the next image.
A local newspaper office/printing firm apparently for "The Tockwith Weekly Examiner". However the windows also have a sign saying "Crossleys Printers" in the glass and presumably Crossleys on the main signage board. It was probably too expensive to completely replace the original signs.
Another view showing the Bank at the top of the street. This is the scene where the pony bolts after the photographer uses a flashgun.
It is then killed by the lorry coming from the other direction. This road though appears to be far wider than that down which the pony was heading.Location: The lorry that killed the horse is driving down Cross Street in Wetherby (it is at the bottom of the Shambles). The hotel in the background is on the corner of North St and Victoria St. At that time it was the Brunswick Hotel. Now it's called Haris's Bar restaurant. (thank you Richard for that clarification on the location)The lorry is actually a horse box. It wouldn't surprise me if it was the one used to transport the ponies to the filming location.
The presentation of the new pony to Gip's brother. Looks like the Mayor handing the pony over in front of the Town Hall?
Now
On 7/8/2004 before I joined Nik Short on our trip to the Follyfoot Farm site I visited Wetherby to try and match the original locations. First stop was the Lloyds TSB Bank. Straight away I could see I was on the right track.
Looking away from the Bank you could see the row of pillars which actually lie along one side of the colonnaded market (now a series of shops) in a street called The Shambles. On the other side of the market away to the right on this picture is the street called Market Place.
Here we're looking at the building on the corner of The Shambles, the street name of which is in the top right of the frame. The Lloyds TSB branch is just to the left of the Lunn Poly travel agents. Its cash point is just behind the man standing in front of the red car.
Standing further back in The Shambles you get a better view of the Bank.
A blue plaque describing "The Shambles"
The front of the Bank.
What's never apparent in the episode is that just out of sight to the left of the bank is Wetherby Town Hall. Looking carefully you can match it to the pony presentation scene.
A plaque on Wetherby Town Hall
Another view looking from the direction of the bank down The Shambles. Comparing the picture of "The Tockwith Weekly Examiner" office frontage with those along The Shambles drew a blank. None coincided. I went into one of the older, more established looking, shops and asked whether they could help identify which shop it was. They suggested that it might not be one in this street and said that the printers used to be in North Street on the other side of the shops.
It didn't take long to find the matching shop which is now a branch of Nationwide Insurance Services. I did go and look at the offices of the Wetherby news just a minute or two away but they were closed and so I couldn't find out when they had moved or if they had any further information. So it turns out that the scenes where they cut from the printers offices to the pony and cart in the street actually use locations from two separate but parallel streets.
Where the pony is killed is Cross Street. A bit busier than when the filming was done, but the main buildings are still there, and even the telegraph pole in the background.(Thanks Richard-4/06)
A rather coincidental name spotted on the day in North Street, Wetherby
