Black Cow, Fernhill Gate, Bolton

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The Fernhill Gate area of Wigan Road looking towards the former Rumworth Hotel. The Black Cow is believed to have been situated in one of the houses immediately before the Rumworth. 

Fernhill Gate is the area of Deane that slopes down Wigan Road towards the junction with Beaumont Road. The name hasn't completely fallen out of use but any reference to the area is usually indicated by the Sutton Estate which was constructed in the area in the late fifties and early sixties.

A number of pubs came and went in this area of Deane and one of those was the Black Cow. The pub was run for the whole of its existence by a spinster, Ann Helme. 

Miss Helme was born around 1807 in the village of Longworth situated some five miles north of Bolton. The village was purchased by Bolton Council in 1907 and Delph Reservoir was constructed on its site. 

Little is known of Ann Helme's early life. However, by 1841 she was working as a servant at Grundy Fold, a small collection of buidlings situated not far from Fernhill Gate at the end of what is now Greenhill Lane (known at that time as Green Lane). 

By 1861, Ann Helme was living with a servant at the Black Cow beerhouse on the Bolton to Westhoughton road. This was sometimes referred to as the 'Old Road' and is now known as Wigan Road. Given that the beerhouse doesn't appear in the 1855 local directory we can only assume that it was set up in the late-1850s. 

 In 1863, Miss Helme was prosecuted for allowing her pub to be open before midday on a Sunday. Opening hours in those days were quite liberal the exception being on a Sunday morning when people were expected to be at church and pubs were forced to close. The 1830 Beerhouse Act enabled people to set up pubs on payment of 2 guineas (£2.10). Many pubs began in this fashion and were initially just a person's sitting room. There was no bar and because only beer was served there were no optics or bottles of spirits. Quite often there would be a beer barrel on a stillage. As a result, the cost of setting up a pub was minimal. 

This arrangement also made it easy to close down a pub and convert the premises back to a home residence. That's what appears to have happened in the case of the Black Cow. By 1881 Ann Helme was a retired beerseller living at 506 Fernhill Gate, which was how Wigan Road was known in those days. 

Number 506 still exists. It's one of a small row of houses near what used to be the Rumworth Hotel. 

The Black Cow was one of a number of pubs and beerhouses that have come and gone in the Fernhill Gate area over the years. James Heyes was running a beerhouse next door to the Black Cow in 1871. This was named the Wellington in 1881 but subsequently disappeared. There was also pubs in the area named the Colliers Arms that appears on maps from the 1890s. The most permanent pub in the area was the Rumworth Hotel which opened in 1893 and closed in 2011.

Bar Tavern, Deane Lane (Wigan Road)

Another long-lost Deane pub, the Bar Tavern was situated on Deane Lane, now known as Wigan Road. It was another example of a shop that became a beerhouse and was quite short-lived, lasting not much more than about 20 years in the middle of the nineteenth century.

The pub took its name from the nearby toll bar and was located nor far from the tollkeeper’s house which itself was on a stretch of the main road close to Deane church.

The Bar Tavern was owned by the Silcock family. Peter Silcock (born 1781) ran a general provisions store on the main road through Deane village. He must have had the idea to broaden his scope by selling beer but inevitably takings from beer must have overtaken those from other items. By the time the 1848 Bolton Directory was published Peter’s wife, Ann Silcock, was in charge, Peter having died  in 1845. It also had a name – the Bar Tavern.

Ann Silcock died in 1858 leaving an estate valued at just under £200.  The Bar Tavern was taken over by her son, John Silcock (born c1815) and his wife Elizabeth (born c1820).

John Silcock died in 1865 and the pub was sold. It later reverted back to a shop. John’s widow Elizabeth went to live with relatives, also named Silcock, on Platt Hill Farm situated not far from what later became Hulton Hospital. Bolton’s first council estate was built on the site of the farm in the 1920s.

Elizabeth was living on Wigan Road by 1881 when she is described as a retired grocer. She died in 1889.