Dog And Partridge, 22 - 24 Manor Street, Bolton

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On 31 August 2015 Neil Piper, the landlord of the Dog and Partridge, wrote on the pub’s website that the D&P would not be reopening and would soon be demolished. It had already been closed for ten months after a car drove through the traffic lights at the bottom of Kay Street and into a side wall narrowly missing Neil and some visitors who had been sitting in the vault just a few minutes earlier. The damage sustained in the incident and in a series of subsequent break-ins that easily ran into double figures meant the pub was uneconomical to repair. 

As Neil Piper locked up in the early hours of 29 October 2014 the last thing on his mind was that he was bringing down the curtain on 209 years of trading at the Dog and Partridge. But the incident later that day meant that a pub built in 1805 had served its last pint.

The Dog and Partridge was originally two residences both dating back to the early years of the nineteenth century, the original pub being the vault and the snug and numbered 24 Manor Street. It later expanded into adjoining premises, number 22. Early Bolton directories showed the following licensees: 

1818: J Hardman; 
1836 James Hayward – or Haywood – who later became a saddler. 1842: Richard Sharples, who moved from Turton to take over the pub. 
1848: John Duerden. 
1851: James Wardle. James left to become a cotton worker in Halliwell, but he was back in the pub trade by 1876 just a few yards up the road at the Hare and Hounds on Bank Street. 
1853 William Mercer. 
1869: William Parker. 
1876: William Mercer. 
1895: Edward Gaskill. 
1905: William Entwistle. 
1924: Mrs Ellen Hill.

“To Let with immediate possession, a well-accustomed PUBLIC HOUSE known by the name of “Dog & Partridge” Manor Street. Good reason for leaving. Apply on the premises.”

Bolton Evening News, 23 October 1869

Plans for alterations in 1930 can be seen here. They were uncovered by Vince Noir, to whom I am indebted. Other than a more open-plan look in the lounge that involved removing part of a wall in the 1970s the pub’s layout remained pretty much unchanged from these plans right up to the end. The bar was rebuilt as part of the 1930 plans – the curve is more pronounced on the newer plans. Seating backing on to the front wall was installed in the vault and remained in situ for the rest of the building’s existence. The Snug became a Smoke Room.

The plans also show an upstairs room which is described as a Club Room. The Dog had been known as a meeting place for clubs and societies as far back as 1869 and probably area. The Bolton Evening News for 26 June that year carried an advertisement on behalf of the George The Third Lodge of the National Independent Order of Oddfellows:

“Tea Party and Ball to be held at the house of Wm. Parker, Dog and Partridge, Manor Street, on Saturday July 3^rd. Tea on the Tables at Four o’clock. Healthy young men from the age of 18 to 35 will be presented with a ticket on payment of their Entrance fee.

Tickets may be had from John Webster, 35 Churchgate, and Miles Sweeny, 32 Crown-street.”

A tea party AND a ball. That assumed there would be a live band – and all in the Dog’s upstairs club room. But as was seen for much of the latter days of its existence the pub became adept at shoe-horning in both punters and performers into a confined space.

The Dog was owned by Cornbrooks by the early part of the 20^th century. The trail of takeovers meant that prior to that it was probably owned by Atkinsons of Commission Street. William Atkinson started the company in Water Street, just around the corner from the Dog, and by 1871 he had moved to premises across the road from the pub at number 1, Manor Street. Atkinson’s were taken over by Cornbrooks in 1895. Cornbrooks were taken over by United Lancastrian Breweries Ltd in 1961 and subsequently became part of Bass Charrington. Cornbrooks brewery was still in production in 1973 and the company’s products were still advertised on a window in the Dog’s snug right up to the pub’s closure.

By the early part of 1978 the Dog was run by an Indian couple, Mr and Mrs Patel, but when the Patels decided to leave due to Mrs Patel’s ill-health Bass put the pub up for sale. It was bought at auction by the Blackburn brewers, Thwaites. Under Thwaites’ ownership the D&P was unspoilt – much to the dismay of tenants who were constantly promised a refurbishment that never happened. But to its regulars it had a charm all of its own. It retained a traditional pub lay-out with a vault to the left of the main entrance, a lounge to the right. The Smoke room became a pool room and, in the late-nineties, was converted back into a Snug.

By 1997 the Dog and Partridge was struggling. It was taken on by Angus Crompton, one of the pub’s regulars and he was in charge until Neil Piper and Terry Fletcher took on the tenancy in 2000. Neil and Terry were also customers at the pub.

Under Neil’s 14-year stewardship the pub took off in a different direction as it began to cater for live alternative music. Hundreds of bands played in the pub's main room, which could fit 100 people with any comfort. The outdoor area to the rear of the pub staged an annual festival, Dogstock, attended by hundreds of fans each year. Along with the Alma, at the other end of the town centre on Bradshawgate and catering for heavy metal bands, the Dog and Partridge offered an alternative to the rest of the town centre and was often seen as an oasis of sanity.

Thwaites decided to sell in 2006 as the brewer withdrew from running smaller pubs that were often less profitable. The Craven Heifer on Blackburn Road and the Starkie Arms on Tonge Moor Road were also disposed of around this time. Having got the cash together to buy the Dog and Patridge outright Neil and Terry discovered on the day of completion that the pub had been withdrawn from the market. Thwaites had decided instead to sell it to Bluemantle, a company looking to redevelop the whole of the area bounded by Bank Street, Manor Street and Brown Street - the Church Wharf development. The development has yet to take place. Bluemantle lodged ‘outline planning permission’ in January 2013 and the demolition of the pub means one less property to worry about.

We’ve written over 200 of these lost pubs. Many of them are just long-forgotten names finally entering the public domain as a matter of record. But as the 21^st-century has progressed some of the Lost Pubs of Bolton are the pubs of our youth. Pubs such as the Howcroft, the Sally Up Steps, the Clifton – great pubs in their heydays.

The manner of a pub closing is always sad, but with the exception of the Top Storey Club none has been as tragic as the end of the Dog and Partridge. It was a tragedy for Neil Piper. It was a tragedy for Angus Crompton and Terry Fletcher, both of whom stepped in to stop the pub closing in the past. It was a tragedy for the family and friends of Craig Durham, the driver of the car on that fateful evening in October 2014, who hung himself a few weeks later. It was a tragedy for the pub’s customers. The Dog and Partridge was a special pub to very many people, an unspoilt gem that had managed to reinvent itself and keep going against all the odds. To lose it was bad enough. To lose it in the manner that it went was heartbreaking on so many levels.

In 1993, the then landlord of the Dog and Partridge, Tony Thompson, announced he was leaving the pub due to ill-health. On his final evening he hosted a small gathering of the pub’s customers and he proposed a toast: “To the Dog – it will outlive us all!” Sadly, Tony died in 1998 but there can have been few present that night who didn’t believe that an establishment then heading for its bi-centenary would go on and on just as it always had done. The Dog and Partridge was to last for just 21 more years.

One Horseshoe, Manor Street

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Two images of the One Horseshoe from the Bolton Library and Museum collection (copyright Bolton Council). The image at the top dates back to the 1930s and shows Manor Street being widened at the bottom. The One Horseshoe can be seen on the left of the image. On the right, the building in 1975 when it was being used by Manor Carpets, a company that still exists at premises on Chorley Old Road. 

The One Horseshoe was situated on Manor Street and when it opened in the late-eighteenth century it was known simply as the Horse Shoe. It was a departure point for a number of stagecoaches. The 1824 Pigot Directory stated that the ‘Accommodation’ departed for Manchester every morning at 8, while the 1836 Directory listed coaches for Haslingden and Ramsbottom leaving every Monday afternoon at 4.

The One Horseshoe was to play a role in the development of two sizeable Bolton brewing concerns: Atkinson's and Magee, Marshall. In 1864 it was bought by William Atkinson. A native of Leeds, Atkinson was living in Water Street in 1861 where he worked as a common brewer. At that time it was common for pubs to brew their own ale but a common brewer brewed for outlets that didn't have their own breweries. Either Atkinson made enough from brewing to buy his own pub or he needed a guaranteed outlet for his products but he enjoyed a seven-year spell at the pub.

But the final year of Atkinson's tenure at the One Horseshoe was marked by a court case that resulted in its temporary closure. In May 1870 Atkinson was charged by PC John Hopkins with refusing to admit police to the pub at a quarter past one on a Tuesday morning. PC Hopkins claimed to have seen five or six men leave the pub after which a woman came to the door and looked out. After she went back inside PCs Hopkins and Bedford knocked on the door. “Who's there?” the woman shouted. “It's the police,” replied PC Hopkins. PC Bedford knocked loudly on the door with his stick but the two policemen waited outside for 15 minutes without the door being answered. In his defence William Atkinson claimed he was the last person up and that he went to bed at midnight but he insisted neither he nor Mrs Atkinson had heard the policemen knock. The bench considered that the case was proved and fined Atkinson 20 shillings (£1) with 14 days' imprisonment if he failed to pay the fine. [Bolton Chronicle, 4 June 1870]. Worse was to come. In August 1870 the annual licensing hearing suspended the pub's licence and it only re-opened at the end of September following an appeal. [Bolton Chronicle, 1 October 1870].

In March 1871 Atkinson left the One Horse Shoe and the licence was transferred to Samuel Smith. Smith before being taken over three months later by John Wardle, formerly of the nearby Dog and Partridge.  By then Atkinson had bought the Commission Street Congregational School which he converted into a wholesale brewery. He died in 1879 but his son John Atkinson had followed him into the brewing business. The firm was converted into a limited company, John Atkinson & Company Ltd, in 1882. By that time it had 27 beerhouses and eight off-licences. It was to last until 1896 when it was taken over by Boardman United Breweries Ltd of Manchester.

Wardle was a different type of landlord to Atkinson. For one thing he was a prominent Conservative. He was urged to become a candidate for the Church Ward at the 1871 local elections when he was put forward by another pub landlord, James Pitney Weston of the Star Inn on Churchgate although he refused the nomination.

John Wardle spent less than two years at the One Horseshoe but the next landlord, Ellis Marshall was there for 18 years from 1873 until his death in 1891. He had previously been at a nearby beer-house, the Same Place Again in Independent Street. Ellis Marshall's brother was a local brewer named Daniel Marshall who ran the Grapes Hotel and brewery on Brown Street as well the Horse Shoe Brewery on Water Street to the rear of the One Horseshoe. It is likely that he bought the One Horseshoe and installed Ellis as the licensee.

In 1885, Marshall merged his business with Magee's, a firm owned by the three sons of Daniel Magee. The One Horseshoe became one of the first Magee,  Marshall pubs when the limited company of Magee, Marshall and Co. Ltd was formed three years later in 1888 Daniel Marshall had a 27 percent stake in the new company.

In January 1879 Ellis Marshall put on a substantial supper for 150 of the poor and distressed people of the neighbourhood. The streets to the rear of the One Horseshoe were among the poorest in the town.

Ellis Marshall committed suicide at the One Horseshoe in 1891. The Bolton Evening News of 28 May reported that his son was accustomed to being woken so he could go to work but as his father failed to do so this morning he went to see if he was ill. He found Ellis's body hanging “suspended by a hook by means of a riding rein”. He had been seen the previous evening going about his business as usual and nobody suspected anything strange in his behaviour. However, his wife had died several months previously and he had been low-spirited since then. Ellis's son, also called Ellis, took over the pub but he died in 1899.

In their book Looking Back: Photographs and Memories of Life in the Bolton Area 1890-1939, Anne Bromilow and Jim Power recount the tale of a landlord of the One Horseshoe who became known locally as ‘Elephant Man’ after he stored six elephants in the pub’s cellar after a circus arrived in Bolton. The landlord isn’t named, nor is the story dated and the elephants were obviously not fully grown as their heights are given as being between 5ft and 5ft 6. They only just fit into the pub’s cellar and were presumably there alongside vented barrels of beer. However, the landlord was worried about the authorities finding out about the elephants – hardly surprising – and he also stated that their arrival at his pub with hundreds of children in tow created something of a stir on Bank Street.

The One Horseshoe became a Greenall Whitley pub when that company bought out Magee, Marshall's in 1958. However, it continued to be supplied from Magee's brewery in Cricket Street.

When the One Horseshoe closed in 1966 the premises were bought by Gentleman John’s wallpapers. It was later occupied by Manor Carpets before becoming Bar Peru in the nineties. Later, it was known as Nicholas Bar. 

Article updated 15 November 2020 with added historical information.

Manor Street pictured in April 2012 with Bank Street just beyond the bridge over the River Croal. Bar Nicholas in the foreground was One Horseshoe from the late-eighteenth century until 1966. Image copyright Google Street View.