Peacock Inn, 137 Great Moor Street, Bolton

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The Peacock was situated at 137 Great Moor Street, just a few doors up from the junction with Crook Street and on the block leading up towards Motive Street.

The pub dated back to the 1830s and the first mention we have is in 1840 when a meeting was advertised to take place on vacant land to the rear of the pub – roughly where the Aldi supermarket now stands. The meeting was called by Chartists who wished to petition Queen Victoria to give a pardon to rioters jailed following a recent disturbance in the town. However, John Robertshaw, who owned the land, gave instructions that under no circumstances could the meeting be held there. After five hours, the Chartists met in the dark on land opposite the nearby Britannia [Manchester Courier, 15 February 1840]. 

By 1841, George Holden is listed as the licensee but his tenure was drawing to a close and on the list of Great Bolton alehouses for 1849, William Rostron was in charge. His name is given as Rawsthorn on the 1861 census.

By 1871 the pub was run by Isaac Turner. He was 67 years old and was assisted by his daughter Sarah Jones and her husband Thomas. Like many who have entered the licensed trade before and since, Isaac’s background was in another vocation. He was a handloom weaver in Cannon Street in 1841 and by 1851 he was working as a yarn dealer in Back Blackburn Street. Blackburn Street was the portion of Deane Road closest to the town centre. By 1881, Isaac was retired and was living with his son in Ralph Street, Halliwell.

The Peacock was auctioned in 1875. The pub, brewhouse and a cottage to the rear of the pub in Edgar Street realised a total of £700. [Bolton Evening News 23 March 1875]. Two years later the new owner, Henry Franks, put in an application to make alterations to the premises. However, the plan was turned down by the planning committee who called in the sanitation committee over the condition of the yard and back premises of the pub. [Bolton Evening News, 23 June 1877].

In 1882 the Peacock was threatened with closure. Licensee John Miller had been fined 40 shillings plus costs for keeping the Peacock open outside permitted hours and also for permitting drunkenness. Later that year, at the annual licensing hearing known as the Brewster Sessions, the police objected to the pub's licence because of that infringement and only an appeal enabled it to remain open.

In 1885, there was a court case featuring two former landlords. Henry Franks left the licensed trade to become an upholsterer. The pub – by then owned by Atkinson's brewery based not far away on Commission Street - was rented to Henry Blackburn for a sum of £32 a year up to 12 May 1885 and £38 a year thereafter. Franks took £25 from Blackburn in respect of fixtures and fittings. It was this sum that Blackburn was claiming back from Franks in the court case. He claimed to have been told by Franks that the pub sold three or barrels of beer whereas in fact it was only selling one barrel every ten days. Blackburn also claimed it was frequented by “very low characters”. [Bolton Evening News, 19 August 1885]. The court threw out his claim.

The Peacock was run for a number of years by the Knowles family. Samuel Knowles was the licensee by 1891 and he lived at the pub with his wife Margaret and two adult children, Faith and John. Knowles had both worked in the cotton industry. Samuel Knowles died in 1898 and Margaret took over assisted by John who also worked in a nearby ironworks. She died in 1912. But in 1905, Mrs Knowles appeared in court over the alleged sale of alcohol to a child under the age of 14. To support their case the prosecution called the child's mother, Bridget Everon, who said she'd recently had a conversation about the child with Mrs Knowles in which she told the pub landlady that she had been informed by the council that the child – a girl - must remain in school until she was 14. She was still 13. Mrs Knowles denied the conversation and claimed she couldn't tell that the girl was under the age of 14. The magistrates accepted her plea and the case was dismissed. [Bolton Evening News, 20 July 1905]

It was around this time that the Peacock was bought by Groves and Whitnall. Based on Regent Road, Salford, the brewery expanded out of its traditional base and bought a large number of pubs from 1898 onwards. Around £12,000 was spent buying suitable public houses between 1898 and 1900 alone. The Peacock was obviously seen as suitable if only to give the brewery a presence in Bolton. It was a small pub – not much bigger than a shop and in the middle of a terrace.

But the Peacock was to only last as long as Groves did. The Salford brewery was taken over by Greenall Whitley in 1961 – the same year the Peacock became a fully-licensed pub. Greenalls closed the former Groves and Whitnall brewery in 1971. The Peacock closed in 1973. Along with a number of properties in the area it was demolished and the extension to Trinity Street was constructed in its place. The exact site of the pub is the traffic island in the middle of the main road at the lights outside Aldi (see below).

Great Moor Street used to continue down to the left of Hargreaves House all the way down to Bradshawgate. The construction of Trinity Way led to the truncation of Great Moor Street and the demolition of a number of properties. The construction of  the original Sainsbury's store (now Mecca Bingo) in 1990 further truncated Great Moor Street. This image was taken in June 2018 and is copyright Google Street View.