Black Lion, Turton Street, Bolton

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The Black Lion was situated at 18 Turton Street close to the junction with Kay Street. The pub dated back to the 1860s when John Heywood is listed as the landlord on the 1869 Bolton Directory. By 1871 John Crompton had moved into the pub. He had lived further down Turton Street in 1861 when he was a cotton spinner.

By the early-1890s the pub was owned by the local brewery of Atkinson’s and was being run by William Morris, but he has hauled before the courts in 1891 accused of allowing betting at his pub. It wasn’t uncommon in those days for plain clothes police officers to sit in pubs looking out for any betting activity. William Morris was accused of running a book on the Cambridgeshire Handicap at Newmarket. He pleaded guilty and was fined 15 shillings – the equivalent of around £85 today. He also elected against an appeal before a jury. [1]

By 1911 a series of takeovers meant the Black Lion was owned by the Cornbrook Brewery of Manchester. The landlord was 30-year-old James Ferguson who ran the pub with his wife Edith Alice Ferguson (1884-1952). Edith was the daughter of Thomas Robertson a local landlord who formerly ran the Bridgeman Arms and the Oxnoble, both on Bridgeman Street, and the Little John and the Cotton Tree both on Lever Street.

Two years later, in 1913, the pub closed when the licensing magistrates referred the Black Lion to the local council’s compensation authority. [2] The landlord at the time was Thomas Hulme. The compensation scheme was set up to buy pubs in heavily-pubbed areas. The area bounded by Turton Street, Kay Street and Folds Road contained some 20 pubs so it was only natural that the council would try and reduce the number of licensed premises in that area. The compensation authority bought the premises and sold them on without their licences. It became a shop and in 1924 it was being run by Joseph Kay. It was demolished in the late-1930s and council housing was built on the site.

[1] Manchester Courier, 29 May 1891

[2] Manchester Courier, 25 April 1913.

Turton Street pictured in August 2015. The building that housed the Black Lion was on the right-hand side of the road as we look. It was demolished in the 1930s and housing built in its place.

Boilermakers Arms, 48 Phoenix Street, Bolton

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A children’s playground stands on the site of the Boilermakers Arms on Phoenix Street. (Copyright Google Street View August 2015).

The Boilermakers Arms was situated on Phoenix Street, a street that still exists and which connects Folds Road with Turton Street.

The first record of the pub is when Andrew Chadwick is listed as its licensee in the 1871 Bolton directory. Mr Chadwick originated from Blackburn and was a yarn dresser living in Woodside Place, Darcy Lever according to the 1861 census. By 1871 he was running the Boilermakers Arms along with his wife, Ellen. Two daughters, aged 17 and 9 were with them along with a two-year-old grandson.

The Boilermakers Arms took its name from the Phoenix Boiler Works, an engineering factory that appears on maps towards the end of the 20th century. The factory was practically next door to the pub. As Phoenix Mill it later dealt in cotton waste and the site of the mill still operates as a waste recycling plant.

The cutting below comes from the Bolton Evening News shortly before the Boilermakers Arms closed in 1956. It notes that it was owned by the Crown Brewery of Bury. Crown didn’t have a huge number of pubs in the town though the Man and Scythe on Churchgate was one of them. Crown took the council’s offer of compensation and the pub was demolished as part of a slum clearance plan along with many of the surrounding streets. A children’s playground now stands on the site.

Masons Arms, 125 - 127 Turton Street

The Masons Arms was situated at 125-127 Turton Street close to the Folds Road end of the street on the corner of Arthur Street.

The pub was founded around 1870 by John Nightingale, who had run a number of the pubs in the town, including the Millstone, which still exists on  Crown Street, and the Tippings Arms at Astley Bridge.

But the Masons was very much John Nightingale’s swansong as a pub landlord. He died a few years after opening the pub and was succeeded by Charles Whitehead.

The Masons’ last landlord as a pub was William Adamson. He was a former weaver who took over around 1893. By that time, the pub was owned by John Halliwell and Son and supplied from their Alexandra Brewery on Mount Street about a mile away from Turton Street. But Halliwell’s got into financial difficulties in 1910 and had to sell out to Magee, Marshall and Co.

Magee’s undertook the inevitable review of their newly-expanded tied estate following their takeover of Halliwell’s.  A few years earlier, in 1906, they decided to downgrade the Grey Mare, further up Turton Street, from a beerhouse to an off-licence. They came to the conclusion that the Mason’s Arms would benefit from the same course of action. In 1913, the Mason’s closed its doors as a pub and was open for off-sales only.

Later, numbers 125 and 127 Turton Street would be converted back into two separate properties as they were before the Mason’s opened.

The area was demolished in the early seventies.  Waterloo Street was later diverted onto Arthur Street to end at its junction with Turton Street. The Masons stood at the corner of that junction (see below, copyright  Google Street View).

Turton Street in September 2014. The junction with Folds Road can be seen at the traffic lights in the distance. In the foreground is the junction with Waterloo Street which was re-directed to run via the former Arthur Street in the 1980s. The Masons was situated on the right-hand corner. 

Four Factories, Turton Street

Turton Street looking towards the junction of Topp Way with the St Peter’s Way extension.  By the end of the first decade of the 19^th century the Four Factories – Round Hill Mills – were on the right. Short rows of terraced housing were on the left, one of which included the Four Factories pub.

The Four Factories was situated on Turton Street and was opened as a pub around 1808.

It took it name from the ‘Four Factories’ of Faulkner’s, Dillon and Hart, Thomas Dixon and Roger Holland that were built on or around Turton Street between 1797 and 1802. Holland’s eventually bought the other three factories and the complex was renamed Round Hill Mills. [1]

The Bolton brewery of John Halliwell & Son of the Alexandra Brewery, Mount Street, Bolton owned the Four Factories pub at the end of the 19^th century. [2]  Mount Street was situated in the Haliwell area, close to Mere Hall, and was less than a mile away from the Four Factories. John Halliwell began brewing there in 1856 but the firm closed in December 1910 when it was taken over by Magee, Marshall and Co.

The Four Factories closed in 1935. Magee’s decided that the pub’s full licence would be put to better use at the Alexandra Hotel, ironically the former Halliwell brewery tap – the closest pub to the brewery. However, it was an ill-conceived plan as the Alexandra closed only a few months later.

Round Hill Mills later became part of the Peel Mills complex which continued until it closed as cotton mills in 1960. Part of the complex became part of Bolton Gate Company’s warehouse. A retail park now stands  on the site.

[1] St Mark’swebsite. David  Dunne. Retrieved 10 May 2014.

[2] Pubs Of Bolton, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (2000).