The Garforth Liberal Club closed in August 2014, following 128 years as a feature of Main Street, having been established in 1886 in a smaller building on the same site. That same year, William Gladstone served the third of his four terms as the liberal prime minister. Main Street was then known as Briggate, from the old Norse words ‘brig’ (bridge) and ‘gata’ (road), meaning ‘the road leading to the bridge’. Briggate long remained the name of Garforth’s main street.