The Belle Vue pictured in October 2009 less than two years before it closed (copyright Google Street View).
Part of the famous ‘Halliwell Mile’ the Belle Vue Hotel was situated at 242 Halliwell Road. If you started the crawl at the top of Halliwell Road it was one of the last pubs - or one of the first if you started at the bottom.
The
first mention we have of the pub was on the 1871 Directory. At that time it was
being run by 44-year-old Mathias Stones who lived at the premises along with
his Hannah and their six children. The family had lived on Gaskell Street in
1861 where Mathias worked as a buttonmaker.
Mathias Stones died in 1886 and his widow Hannah Stones took over the running of the Belle Vue. She was aided by her son Matthew who brewed the pub’s beer. By 1901 Hannah had retired and was living with her daughter Emma Brownlow who was a brewer and beerseller at the Lord Raglan further up Halliwell Road. Hannah died in 1904.
Mathias Stones died in 1886 and his widow Hannah Stones took over the running of the Belle Vue. She was aided by her son Matthew who brewed the pub’s beer. By 1901 Hannah had retired and was living with her daughter Emma Brownlow who was a brewer and beerseller at the Lord Raglan further up Halliwell Road. Hannah died in 1904.
David
Rostron was running the Belle Vue by 1905. He had previously been at the Lodge Bank Tavern on Bridgeman Street. By 1911 the pub was in the hands of the Oliver
family. William Oliver (1876-1913) ran the pub until death and his widow Mary
Jane Oliver succeeded him as licensee.
By the 1930s the
pub later became part of the small tied estate owned by Samuel Smith – not the
Yorkshire firm but a Bolton brewer who also ran the Dog and Snipe on Folds Road
along with a small tied estate of pubs in Bolton and Horwich.
The Belle Vue later became a John Smith’s pub.
John Smith’s Smooth is sold in many Bolton pubs today but before that the
brewery’s Magnet Ales – as they were known – were a rarity in the town. Perhaps
as well as they didn’t have a great reputation.
John
Smith’s got out of the pub-owning business in the 1990s and the Belle Vue ended
up in the hands of Enterprise Inns. It closed in the early part of 2011 the final licensee being
Zoe Eckersley. It was delicensed on 14 July that year. The premises are now [2015] a bedroom showroom.
The former Belle Vue pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View).
My dad had that pub in 1987 Ernie Griffiths from Doncaster he knocked tap end and lounge into one
ReplyDeleteDid any one remeber ernie Griffiths in the 1988 my dad we lived there my dad made it the best pub on the street
ReplyDelete