Cross Axes, off Deansgate

Woods Court, off Deansgate. Roughly the site of the Cross Axes in the nineteenth century. Copyright, Google.

This former alehouse dated back at least to the 1770s and was known both as the Cross Axes and the Crown & Anchor. It closed in 1879 when the licence was transferred to the Globe, which was later known as the Market Tavern (T’Crate Egg) on Ashburner Street. [1]

The premises were demolished to make way for an extension to the Bank Of Bolton, now the branch of Natwest Bank on Deansgate, close to the Old Three Crowns.

In his book Bolton Town Centre, A Modern History. Part One: Deansgate, Victoria Square, Churchgate and Surrounding Areas, 1900-1998, Gordon Readyhough states that Cross Axes Entry then became known as Woods Court. The 1849 map of Bolton shows that Woods Court already had that name although it didn’t all the way to Deansgate as it does now and it is likely that Woods Court would  have been extended to include Cross Axes Entry.

[1] Bolton Town Centre, A Modern History. Part One: Deansgate, Victoria Square, Churchgate and Surrounding Areas, 1900-1998