Black Horse, 259-261 Derby Street

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Many of the pubs that have closed in recent years were businesses for over 100 years – 150 years in some cases. The Black Horse was a beerhouse for only a relatively short period of time – around 50 years or so.  It was situated on Derby Street at its junction with Philip Street and  was founded in the 1860s by Roger Wallwork, a former coal miner who initially ran the pub with his wife, Mary.

The 1871 Census shows Roger Wallwork at the Black Horse along with his sons, John, 19, James, 18, and William, 14 and his 26-year-old wife, Mary. This was  Roger's second wife. The first Mary Wallwork had died in 1869, aged 38 and Roger didn't wait long before marrying Mary Burgess that same year.

But marrying a woman 18 years younger than him was as good as it got for Roger Wallwork. He left the Black Horse a few years later and by 1881 he was in the workhouse in Farnworth. He died in 1900.

According to Gordon Readyhough, the Black Horse was owned by Thomas Iddon in the late-1870s [1]. Mr Iddon already owned one fully-licensed public house, the Prince Of Wales on Mount Street in Halliwell. But he got out of the pub business in the early-1890s and the Black Horse was sold to Wingfield’s, a local firm who brewed on Nelson Square. The Pack Horse was later extended into the former brewery premises.

Wingfield’s sold out to the Manchester Brewery Company in 1899 and MBC were taken over by the Salford firm of Walker and Homfray’s in 1912. There was an objection to the licence in May 1914, but while the pub got over that hurdle, Walker and Homfray’s pulled the plug in 1917 and the Black Horse closed for good.

By 1924, the former pub premises were being used by a local plumber named James Pearson and he was still at 261 Derby Street in 1932.

The building still exists and in recent years it has become a fast food outlet, first as Sultan’s, then as Mahmood’s and more recently as a branch of Mash’s Wing Ranch.

[1] Bolton Pubs, 1800 – 2000, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (2000).

Derby Street pictured in September 2014 (copyright  Google Street View) showing 259-261, formerly the Black Horse, now Mash's Wing Ranch.