The Kay Street Arms began
life as the Golden Lion in the 1850s. It was situated at the north end of Kay
Street near the junction with Higher Bridge Street and Blackburn Road. The
beerhouse appears to have been founded by Robert Atherton who ran it for over
two decades from around 1853 until the mid-1870s. Robert became a widow in 1872
when his wife Jane died aged 70. He married again the following year though
eyebrows were no doubt raised when his new bride was the 27-year-old Sarah
Haslam. Robert died in 1878 by which time he had left the pub. Sarah married
again the following the year, this time to Charles Septimus Fryer, but she died
in 1888 at the age of 42.
By 1890 the pub was known
as the Kay Street Arms and the landlord was Cornelius Maine. In 1894 it was one
of three pubs raided by police looking for evidence of betting. The other pubs
were Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Egyptian Street and the Milk Street Tavern.
All three were raided the night before a big race meeting at Kempton Park.
Inspector Rhodes found a grand total of 309 betting slips at the Kay Street
Arms. There was a book containing 113 betting slips inside Maine’s coat; a
cigar box contained 93 slips of paper relating to 212 bets; a teapot in the
kitchen contained 53 slips relating to 119 bets and a satchel in the dresser
contained 43 slips relating to 106 bets. Maine and his customers were
frog-marched to the town hall where they were given bail. At his trial he was
found guilty of allowing betting on licensed premises and fined £25 – the
equivalent of almost £3000 today. The guilty verdict marked the end of Cornelius
Maine’s stint in the licensed trade. He became a tobacconist 131 Higher Bridge
Street (the building still stands and housed a tattoo studio until around 2010)
and he later moved to Little Lever where he worked as a carter. He died there in
1904 at the age of 44.
By 1905 Samuel Unsworth was
at the pub. He was a foreman lamplighter living in Ellesmere Street in 1901 but
he moved to the Kay Street Arms a few years later and staying for over 20
years.
In the 1890s the pub was
bought by Atkinson’s brewery before being sold to the J Halliwell and Co after
the betting scandal. Halliwell’s were taken over by Magee, Marshall in 1910 and
it remained a Magees pub until it closed in 1966. It was demolished soon
afterwards. The St Peters Way extension runs through the site of the pub. An
August 2015 image is below (copyright Google Street View).
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