The
block between Spring Gardens and Howell Croft South pictured in 1928 with
properties boarded up and ready to be demolished. The Robin Hood can be seen in
the foreground with the Founders Arms at the other end of the block.
The
Founders Arms on Ashburner Street dated back to 1806 when it was known as the
Founders Inn. It became the Founders
Arms before 1818. There were a number of foundries in the area. Wardle’s directory for 1815 shows Blankley and Elton on King Street; James Kirkman and
Co on Howell Croft and the much larger Union Foundry owned by Smalley, Thwaits
and Co located on the site of the current market This final foundry gave
Ashburner Street its name.
One
of the Founders’ early landlords, Robert Roberts, came to an unfortunate end
while on a trip to London to watch the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838.
The Bolton Chronicle takes up the story:
“Immediately
on his arrival in London, Mr. Roberts hired a cab to his destination, but had
not been sat above a minute, before he was struck with the hand of death, and
fell off his seat a corpse.” [1]
By
1876 the landlord was Richard Beckett who had previously been at the Farmers Arms on Derby Street. Beckett had moved to the Crofters Arms at Bradshaw by
1882, but the following year he filed for bankruptcy with debts of £1050 – the
equivalent of £115,000 today!
The
Founders was situated on the corner of Ashburner Street and Howell Croft – next
to where the pelican crossing leads to the Octagon Theatre. At the other end of
that block and on the corner of Spring Gardens, was the Robin Hood which was
run by the Ashton family for a number of
years. By 1890 their daughter Rachel Briercliffe was the landlady of the
Founders Arms so the family had both corners covered in what was a competitive
part of town. Rachel had married a solicitor, Robert Briercliffe, in 1885 and
the couple took over the pub a few years later. Robert continued in his work as
a solicitor while Rachel’s background in the pub business meant that was the
licensee. By 1901 they had retired to 2 Derby Road, Southport. Rachel died in
1917.
The
Briefcliffes were succeeded at the Founders by Thomas Albert Ashton Tong who
spent over 25 years at the pub. Tong was born in Ashburner Street at the end of
1869, the son of James Ashton Tong, an iron moulder in one of the local foundries.
He married in 1895 and took over the Founders – by now a Magees pub - shortly
afterwards. Thomas’s wife Sarah died in 1917. Thomas himself died in January
1925. His daughter Nellie was living in Oakwood on Chorley New Road by the time
she married in 1940.
The
Founders closed soon after Thomas Ashton Tong’s death. The pub’s full licence
was transferred in 1926 to the Brooklyn Hotel on Green Lane. The building was
demolished in 1928 along with its neighbour the Robin Hood. The civic centre
was built on the site. The children’s library is situated on the site of the
former Founders Arms.
[1]
Bolton Chronicle, 30 June 1838.
[2]
Manchester Courier, 29 June 1883.
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