Pub history

The Gold Balance

The name of this pub recalls the Reverend Thomas Wilkinson who was vicar at St Chad’s, Kirkby, in the 1760s. The reverend, who is buried in Kirkby, invented the gold balance and the pocket balance for weighing sovereigns. Very much a modern development, Kirkby has ancient origins. A chapel dedicated to St Chad was built here in the days of Alfred, the Saxon king, which was replaced by a red-brick church in the 1760s.