Merehall Inn, 2-4 Lyon Street

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The Merehall Inn (sometimes spelt Mere Hall – two words) was situated at 2-4 Lyon Street, just on the corner of Vernon Street and directly opposite the Caledonia Inn with Mossfield Mill on the other side of Vernon Street.   The took its name from nearby Mere Hall although Mere Hall Street was the next street along from Lyon Street.

The first record we have of the pub is in the 1871 Bolton Directory when it was being run by James Hodgkinson and his wife Martha (nee Rostron). The premises were initially a corner shop, but members of Martha’s family had run pubs and it seems the Hodgkinsons hit upon the idea of opening up their shop as a beerhouse.

The 1871 Census describes James as a ‘grocer and beerseller’. But owning a pub has never been an easy business to be in and by 1881 he was working in a foundry and living in nearby Faraday Street. The pub was then bought by George Walker of the Park View brewery on Spa Road.

A similar fate befell a later licensee, Major Mangnall. Despite sounding like a military man, Major Gerrard Mangnall was actually christened thus. He was born in Cheshire in 1862 and he was a carter in Ainscow Street, the next street to Lyon Street as you go down Vernon  Street (Ainscow Street no longer insists though, oddly, Back Ainscow Street has survived; it’s the cobbled street leading from Vernon Street to the Gaskell Primary School football pitch).

By 1894, Major Mangnall and his wife Margaret were running the Merehall Inn, but within five years he was back in Ainscow Street and working as a labourer. He eventually went back to being a carter and was then a gardener until he retired. He died in 1934.

The Warburton family appear to have had more success. They were in charge at the Merehall Inn for over 20 years with James Warburton succeeding his late father John after being demobbed from active service following the First World War.

The Merehall closed in 1933. It was owned by the Liverpool company Walker Cain Ltd who came by the pub as part of their takeover of Leigh brewer, George Shaw and Son. Walker’s decided to transfer the full licenses of the Old Robin Hood on Lever Street, the Three Tuns on Chapel Street, and the Arrowsmith Arms on Mill Street, to three other pubs: the Vulcan on Junction Road, the Greyhound on Manchester Road and the Nightingale on Lever Street. But before the licensing authorities allowed the deal to be done they insisted that Walker’s surrendered three beerhouse licenses, as well. The Merehall was one of the unlucky pubs.

The building was demolished in the sixties along with the rest of Lyon Street, Merehall Street and Ainscow Street. New housing stands on the site.

The approximate site of Lyon Street shown in 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The Merehall Inn was on the right-hand corner at the junction with Vernon Street.

Poplar Inn, Vernon Street - Kent Street

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The Poplar Inn was situated at 74 Kent Street, but it was on the corner of Vernon Street and at times its address was given as 82 or 84 Vernon Street.

The first mention of the pub comes in the 1871 Bolton Directory when it was being run by Robert Lyne. But in the census return of that year Robert is said to be an iron turner so it is likely that the pub was being run by his wife, Mary Ann. Both Robert and Mary Ann came from families with connections with the licensed trade. Robert’s father was Peter Lyne, who ran the Rainforth Hotel on nearby School Hill. Mary Ann’s father, Thomas Suttle, had been a brewer. The couple later went on to run the Duke Of Connaught on Mill Street.

The Poplar Inn was taken over Winfield’s Silverwell brewery on Nelson Square in the 1890s. Brewery takeovers ensured the pub’s ownership changed at regular intervals over the years. Wingfield’s sold out to the Manchester Brewery Company in 1899. MBC were bought out by Salford-based Walker and Homfray’s in 1912 and finally Wilson’s took over Walker and Homfray’s in 1949.

The Poplar was a Wilson’s pub when it closed around 1970. The building remained empty for a few years before being demolished. New housing was built on the site in the early-eighties.

Vernon Street, pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View). The Poplar was situated on the corner of Kent Street and Vernon Street. Part of Kent Street still exists, but at the opposite end to where the Poplar Inn was. Pleasant Gardens - seen here going off to the right - was built at the Vernon Street end. The Poplar was on the far corner as we look.

Caledonian Inn

Vernon Street looking towards the town centre. The Caledonian Inn was situated on the corner of Lyon Street and Vernon Street, roughly where the path runs off to the right.

The Caledonian Inn stood on the corner of Lyon Street and Vernon Street and dated back to the late nineteenth-century. [1]

The pub was owned by Robert Wood & Sons of the Prince Arthur Brewery on St John Street but the brewery ceased to operate during the first world war. The pub then passed to William Tong’s brewery of Deane until that company was taken over by Walker Cain Ltd of Warrington in 1923.

The Caledonian closed in the sixties by which time it would have been owned by Tetley Walker. The pub was demolished when the area was cleared away in the early seventies and new housing was subsequently built on the site.

The pub was captured for posterity by photographer Humphrey Spender during Mass Observation’s Worktown project around 1936. The photo can be viewed here.  

[1] Bolton Pubs 1800-2000, Gordon Readyhough, published by Neil Richardson (2000).