Grasshopper Inn Moorhouse following extensive rebuild

Geoff Hoath “…We ran one posh dance at the Grasshopper at Moorhouse, I remember Vic Castle came and gave me a hand with it. Colonel Bill Newman had done the extensive building work on the pub by then and he was looking for us to sell a lot more tickets than we were able to – we were charging 7/6d for a ticket which included supper (thirty-seven and a half pence today). We went to see Bill and he was quite cross and said ‘this isn’t good enough, I need a lot more sold than that.’ It was a black-tie do with a live band and in the end it went extremely well – we thought the numbers were just right, but Bill Newman thought we should have packed them in and made him more money. One that occasion, my sister won the raffle – a fruit basket that Taffy Dunn from Chartwell Farm always used to give us for the prize at every dance. I suddenly realised with horror that we hadn’t got enough money to pay the band, so I had to snatch-back and auction the fruit basket to raise the money to pay them – it was a shame for my sister, but it saved the day…”