New Inn, 34 Halliwell Road

The New Inn was situated at 34 Halliwell Road and dated back to around the 1870s. It was either the last pub on the ‘Halliwell Mile,’ (or first depending on where you started)  a crawl of the dozen or so pubs that once ran the length of the road. [1]

When the landlord of the New Inn, Thomas Robertson, died in June 1909 the event was of sufficient importance to merit an article in the Bolton Evening  News, though perhaps that was due to his membership of another organisation as well as his career in the licensed trade:

“For 32 years he had held a licence in Bolton, coming to the borough 50 years ago from Perth, of which town he was a native.

He was at one time a member of the District Beer and Wine Sellers’ Association.

He was also a Freemason, being a member of the Earl of Ellesmere, No 678 Kearsley Lodge.

Formerly he kept the Railway Shipping Inn, now the Brunswick Inn, Crook-st.

Mr. Robertson had been ailing for the last six months though death occurred rather unexpectedly from heart failure.” [2]

The New Inn was a beerhouse for much of its existence only obtaining a full licence in 1961. By then it was owned by Cornbrook, a Manchester brewery that became part of Bass Charrington later in the 1960s.

From 1980 the pub was run by a professional wrestler, Colin Joynson, who made many an appearance on the wrestling segment during ITV’s Saturday afternoon programme, World Of Sport.

Colin is still fondly remembered amongst aficionados of what were for many the halcyon days of British wrestling and the Wrestling Heritage website speaks warmly of the regard in which he is still held in the sport.

“The word professional surfaces fairly quickly whenever thoughts turn to Colin Joynson. He was, and still is, the ultimate professional. Colin was always protective of the image of professional wrestling, and was not afraid to stand up to whoever he felt may harm the credibility of the sport or bring the business into disrepute. He remains so to this day, twenty-odd years after leaving the ring, and whilst willing to discuss the sport in a mature, honest way remains protective of the wrestling heritage in which he played such an important part. And rightly so.” [3]

Colin also fought a lengthy legal battle with Bass over the company’s insistence that he only bought beer only from the brewery. That was despite his status having changed from a pub tenant to a lessee as happened to a great many pub landlords in the 1990s. [4]

Like all big brewers Bass sold off their pubs during the nineties and the early part of the millennium. Discovery Inns bought the pub and were then taken over by Enterprise Inns. The last owners of the New Inn were Admiral Taverns.

The New Inn closed in 2008. The pub was gutted and the front rebuilt. A chemist now stands on the site.

Mary Gray wrote on the Lost Pubs project about her memories of the pub:

“I remembered the New Inn as having Cornbrook Ales. It was near the bottom of the road and a little back ran below it to Progress Street. Opposite on the other side of Halliwell Road was the Windsor Castle on the end of the first row of shops. At the bottom end at the traffic lights was the District Bank on the corner of Moss street. All gone now of course. I was born in 17 Halliwell Rd and lived there until 1952.” [5]

[1] For the record the others were: Black Dog, Pedro's, Derby, Belle Vue, Lamb, Robin Hood, Lord Raglan, Peel, Crofters, Fox and Stork (or Stork and Fox) and The Ainsworth Arms. Some also counted Halliwell Road Conservative Club, the Portland and the Weavers Arms (the ‘Mop’)as part of the crawl. Older readers will add the Windsor Castle, opposite the New In. Most have now closed.

[2] Bolton Evening News, 22 June 1909. Retrieved 11 May 2014. Among the other pubs Mr Robinson held the licence of were: the Bridgeman Arms on Bridgeman Street and the Cotton Tree on the corner of Lever Street and Nelson Street (opposite the Tanners )

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/historyben/4450956.print/

[3] Wrestling Heritage.  Retrieved 11 May 2014.

[4] See the Bolton Evening News report of 5 August 1996 for the case. Link retrieved 11 May 2014.

[5] Lost Pubs Project. Retrieved 11 May 2014. 

The site of the New Inn pictured in May 2012 (copyright Google Street View).

Arrowsmiths Arms, Mill Street

Well Street, Bolton. On the other side of the wall at the end of the street is St Peter’s Way, but it also marks the spot where Well Street met Mill Street. The Arrowsmiths Arms stood on the corner of those two streets.

The Arrowsmith family were early industrialists in Bolton. James Arrowsmith was a counterpane and quilt manufacturer, who had a warehouse built in Craddock Lane in the Mill Hill area. Not far away, on Mill Street, David Morris opened a beer house and shop which was in existence by 1836 and which he named the Arrowsmiths Arms, presumably after the local industrialist.

Soon after it opened Morris obtained a full licence for the pub. The 1843 Bolton Directory shows that Morris was still a ‘beer seller’ – in other words, he hadn’t yet obtained the full licence. However, the 1849 licensing list shows that the Arrowsmiths Arms was a public house licensed to serve wine and spirits as well as beer. [1]

In February 1905 a tragedy occurred at the pub when the landlord, Robert Tonge, fell downstairs and died the following day of his injuries. His widow, Edith, continued to run the pub after his death.

The Arrowsmith’s was owned by Sharman’s brewery and was one of 20 pubs transferred to George Shaw of Leigh when they took over Sharman’s in 1926. Shaw’s was in turn taken over by Walker Cain Ltd of Warrington in 1931.

As we have seen with the Old Robin Hood on Lever Street  when Walker’s reviewed their Bolton estate with the acquisition of Shaw’s and the earlier purchase of another Bolton brewery, William Tong’s, 

they decided that the Arrowsmith’s full licence was more valuable than the pub itself as a going concern. The King William IV beerhouse on Manchester Road opposite Burnden Park could do with a full licence so in 1933 the Arrowsmiths Arms closed down and its licence was transferred to the King Bill.

The location for the Arrowsmiths was on Mill Street the corner of Well St, which means that St Peters Way now runs over the site of the pub.

[1] Four Bolton Directories: 1821/2, 1836, 1843, 1853. Reprinted by Neil Richardson (2000).

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).

Peel Hotel, Higher Bridge Street

The Peel pictured in 1975. The entrance to Gordon's car showroom can just be seen on the left-hand side of the photograph. Falcon Street runs down the side of the Peel. The building directly next to the pub is slightly set back and out of shot of the camera. After the chemist’s and the property next door to that was the entrance to Clarence Street, again slightly out of shot.   Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council 

The Peel Hotel was a nineteenth-century pub that was fully licensed by the end of that century. It stood on Higher Bridge Street on the right-hand side as you go out of the town centre and on the opposite corner of  Falcon Street to Gordon’s car showroom.

The pub was one of four in the town to be named after Sir Robert Peel, along with three pubs named the Peel Arms: one on Halliwell Road, one on Sidney Street and one on Waterloo Street.

The Peel on Higher Bridge Street was owned by Threlfalls brewery of Salford at one time, but it was sold to local brewer Magees and passed to Greenall Whitley when they took over Magees in 1958.

It had a lounge area on the right as you entered the pub. A vault – or public bar – was on the left and was also accessible via another entrance on Falcon Street.

In the summer of 1985 it was being reported that the Peel had been closed and was boarded up, along with the Tanners Arms on Nelson Street.  At the time it was up for sale with an asking price of  £48,000; however, just over a year later, in September 1986, it was announced that the Peel had been bought by Bolton Metropolitan Borough  Council and would be demolished as part of the Topp Way extension.

Ironically, Falcon Street was named after a pub at the opposite end, the Falcon, which was bought at the same time.

Both the Peel and the Falcon were demolished in 1987. The following year, in a guide book entitled, Vintage Pubs And Real Ale In The Manchester Area, the Campaign for Real Ale said of the Peel:

“This pub had an elegant façade and a spacious interior with large public bar, comfortable lounge and an upstairs function room. Among the pub ‘memorabilia’ was a fascinating price list from the 1950s.”

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

[2] What’s Doing, the Greater Manchester Beer Drinkers Monthly Magazine, June 1985 issue.

[3] What’s Doing, September 1986.

[4] Vintage Pubs And Real Ale In The Manchester Area. Edited by Peter Barnes.  Published by the Campaign for Real Ale (1988).

A May 2012 image of the area where the Peel used to stand (Copyright Google Street View). The pub was situated roughly where the cars are coming towards us on the right-hand side of the shot. The tree-lined traffic island is where the chemist was on the 1975 shot, with the entrance to Clarence Street now visible next to the row of houses in the distance.

Cottage/Jolly Huxter, 58 Cannon Street

Female customers outside the Cottage circa 1950s.

The Cottage was situated at number 58, Cannon Street, not far from Emmanuel Church.

In his study of the Whittle family, who lived in the area in the nineteenth century, John Partington states that in the 1861 census James Whittle lived with his family at 58 Cannon Street and worked as a cordwainer - or shoemaker – and provision dealer. [1] The Bolton directories for 1836, 1843 and 1853 all list one James Whittle as a beer seller in Cannon Street and while there is no note of any number it is likely that this would have been at the premises that became known as the Cottage.  [2]

Only it wasn't initially known as the Cottage. The 1849 of beerhouses in  Bolton lists James Whittle as the proprietor of a pub named the Jolly Huxter on Cannon Street. This was likely to be the Cottage. A huxter - or 'huckster' - was a deal in small goods so if James Whittle was a provision dealer - or 'huxter' - it suggests that the Cottage was used as more than just a drinking house. It was probably also a grocery store and even a cobbler’s.

James doesn’t appear on the 1841 census but his 70-year-old father - also named James - appears that year as a farmer living on Cannon Street, a reminder that other than a few houses on the street much of that area of Deane was a largely agricultural community.

The Whittles had gone by the time of the 1871 census and by the end of the 1880s the Cottage was owned by Henry Greenwood. Henry grew up in the licensed trade. His father was the landlord of the Hand And Banner on Deansgate, while Henry himself had run the Lower Nag’s Head before taking over as the proprietor of the Swan Hotel in 1886. He was also a brewer and lived in Crown Street off Deansgate.

Greenwood sold the Cottage after a few years, this time to Wingfield’s Silverwell Brewery, whose story we dealt with when we looked at the Queen Anne on Chancery Lane. Wingfield’s sold out to the Manchester Brewery Company in 1899 and Walker & Homfray’s of Salford took over the Manchester Brewery Company in 1912. Walker & Homfray’s were taken over by another Manchester brewery, Wilson’s of Newton Heath, in 1949.

Six years after this final takeover, in 1955, the Cottage closed down for good. [3]

The lower part of Cannon Street, pictured in April 2012 (Copyright Google Street View). The older-looking houses in the foreground on the right-hand side are the only older houses now left on the street. The Cottage was situated further up  on the right-hand side.

[1] Whittle family history – John Partington. Retrieved 8 May 2014.

[2] Bolton Directories 1821/2, 1836, 1843, 1853. Reprinted by Neil Richardson (1982).

[3] Pubs Of Bolton 1800-2000, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (2000).

Cricketers Arms, Hibbert Street

The site of the former Cricketers Arms pictured in May 2012. Copyright Google Street View.

The Cricketers Arms was situated at 33-35 Hibbert Street, off Blackburn Road.

The bottom end of Blackburn Road from Waterloo Street up towards was often referred to as Back O’Th Bank, owing to its proximity to the banks of the River Tonge. Back O’Th Bank House was owned by the Slater family who owned the Little Bolton Bleachworks on Slater Lane.

Bolton Cricket Club played in the Back O’Th Bank area during its formative years but the cricket club left for a new home at Green Lane in 1875.  A few years before their exit the Cricketers Arms opened in premises not far away from Back O’Th Bank House.

The Cricketers Arms provided liquid sustenance for the residents of the recently-built rows of terraced houses: streets such as Hibbert Street, Charles Rupert Street and Blackbank Street. In 1874 William Lee, the pub’s landlord who was also the owner of the pub, obtained a full licence after the closure of the Millstone on Deansgate (not to be confused with another Millstone, on Crown Street, which still stands). [1]

In later years it also drew custom from Warburton’s Bakery, built on the site of Back O’th Bank House and which opened in 1916.

The Cricketers became a Threlfall’s pub and then a Whitbread pub after Threlfall’s were taken over in 1967.

A refurbishment in the early-eighties was done in the Whitbread style of the day. Not as garish as the "House Of Horrors" treatment meted out to the Trotters’ which was fashionable amongst Whitbread’s design teams for a while in the north-west – it was a little more tasteful.

The whole area around Hibbert Street has been redeveloped and while the street is still there the old terraced houses have all gone. But while the Cricketers closed in the 1990s the building still exists, the last of the originals left standing. It was sold off by Whitbread and is now a youth and education centre.  

The Cricketers was one of those ‘street corner’ locals that are dying breed. With the explosion of licensed premises following the 1830 Beer House Act there were many street-corner locals such as the Cricketers. Mill Hill, Halliwell and part of Great Lever were full of them. Now, in Bolton at any rate, these places are few and far between. The New Globe (formerly the Rock) closed earlier in 2014; the Portland  went in the nineties; the Spread Eagle earlier than that. The Edge Tavern and the Howcroft shut a few years ago, while estate pubs such as the Prince Rupert  and the Schooner have also taken a hammering. There aren’t many of these places left. 

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

Jolly Angler, Hulme Street

The site of the former Hulme Street. Nowadays it is confusingly called Cross Street on this stretch although Cross Street still goes along the top of the street. Hulme Street used to go all the way down to Folds Road and at one time it contained five pubs or beerhouses of which the Jolly Angler was one (the others were the Premier, the Standard, the Hulme Street Tavern and the Spread Eagle). The Jolly Angler was at 74-76 Hulme Street at the Cross Street end, roughly where the houses are on the left-hand side of this image.

When we looked at the General Havelock on Sidney Street we came across the formidable Mrs Mahalah Harcastle. Now we encounter Mrs Hardcastle once again as the owner of the Jolly Angler on Hulme Street in the nineteenth century.

The Jolly Angler was constructed in the early part of that century as the whole ‘hinterland’ beyond Folds Road up towards Turton Street was built up.  However, number 74-76 Hulme Street appears not to have become a beer house until the second half of the century.  It was taken over by Mahalah Hardcastle although it isn’t known whether or not ownership ran concurrently with her ownership of two other pubs: the York and the General Havelock.

Mrs Hardcastle was perhaps best-known in the latter part of that century as the landlady and owner of the York Hotel on Newport Street which she ran from the 1860s until her death in 1881 and the age of 72. However, along with her husband John she also ran the George Hotel in the 1830s. After John Hardcastle’s death she was described on the 1851 census as a laundress and a brickmaker at number 13 Deansgate. The brickmaking business did well enough to employ eight men. However, the Bolton Directory of 1853 describes Mrs Hardcastle as the landlady of a pub at 13, Deansgate, the Old Woolpack, before moving to the York a few years later. [1]

The Jolly Angler remained outside the tied house system of pub ownership that developed in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. However, it closed in 1919 having remained in private hands for the whole of the 50 or 60 years it was in existence. By the following year it was back as a private residence.

[1] Four Bolton Directories: 1821/2, 1836, 1843, 1853. Published by Neil Richardson (1982).