Oddfellows Arms Hotel, 140 St Helens Road, Bolton

 

Oddfellows Arms pictured in 2014

SUMMARY

Opened c1840s. Became a Magee Marshall pub c1893 and was rebuilt in 1895. It became a Greenall Whitley pub following their takeover of Magees in 1958 and the closure of the brewery in 1970. It last opened in October 2020. In April 2021 it was announced that the pub would not be reopening.

ODDFELLOWS ARMS  HISTORY

Nobody knew that when pubs in Greater Manchester went into lockdown for a second time on 23 October 2020 it meant the end of the Oddfellows Arms after around 180 years as a pub. Six months later, in April 2021, the Bolton News reported that owner Admiral Taverns had taken the decision to close the pub. Landlady Margaret Wilson, who had run the Oddfellows for 15 years, said “I had an inkling that they would close the pub as there are lots of maintenance issues which need to be fixed.”

The story of the Oddfellows goes back to the middle of the 19^th century. The 1841 census shows John Crompton as a publican in Daubhill. The word 'publican' was used to describe the licensee of fully-licenced premises. The only fully-licenced pub in the area was the Stags Head, a little further up the Bolton to St Helens Turnpike Road - as St Helens Road was known at that time - and Peter Boardman was the licensee from the 1830s to the 1850s. So it is far more likely that John Crompton was a beerhouse owner at what was to become the Oddfellows.

John Crompton was succeeded as landlord by his son Richard who was listed as the pub's owner in 1855. By that time he would only have been in his early twenties. In 1854 he married Fanny Bowker, herself the daughter of a pub landlord in Atherton, and the couple would spend over 20 years at the Oddfellows. During that time the district of Daubhill changed immeasurably. The Bolton to Leigh railway pre-dated the pub having opened in 1828, but between 1862 and 1867 the local firm of Tootal, Broadhurst and Lee built Sunnyside Mills by the side of the railway line and just a couple of hundred yards away from the Oddfellows. That led to a boom in the local population. A whole network of streets were built on either side of St Helens Road to accommodate the new workforce.

The pub was sold in October 1878 and an article in the Bolton Evening News described it as “a beerhouse, the Oddfellows Arms, St Helens Road, Daubhill, with dwelling house, occupied by Richard Crompton, term 940 years, ground rent £2, £940.” A price of £940 equates to around £94,000 in 2025 prices.

The Oddfellows was one of a number of trades guilds and friendly societies that sprang up in England in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. The name comes from the term 'odd fellows' - craftsmen from an assortment of trades. In 1810 TheIndependent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity was formed and still exists to this day. In 1832 the Ancient Noble Order of United Oddfellows, Bolton Unity was formed and was in existence until 1962. The branch was meeting at the nearby Stags Head in St Helens Road in 1872 and it is possible that a move to Richard Crompton's beerhouse further down the road led to him naming the pub after the organisation. Oddfellows branches frequently met at local pubs and members would often take something “for the benefit of the house”. As a result pubs would name themselves the Oddfellows Arms. It's still a relatively common name and there were at least two other pubs in Bolton with that name. The Ancient Shepherd on Bold Street was known as the Oddfellows in 1843 and a pub on Bradshawgate carried the name from the 1850s until its closure in 1938. The Loyal Willow Tree lodge was meeting at the pub from at least the 1930s onwards. The lodge was wound up in 1968.

In 1892 the Manchester Courier reported that Mr W Edge, the owner of the Oddfellows, had applied for a spirits licence for the pub. Daubhill was described as “a rapidly growing part of Bolton” and Mr Edge offered to surrender a beerhouse licence at Queen Street in the town centre as well as an off-licence. He even offered the council a patch of land although the article failed to say where. Nevertheless, the council rejected the application.

In February 1895 a soup kitchen was opened at the pub. Poor weather had put many local people out of work and a number of businesses provided relief. The pub's landlord, Joseph Edge, put five shillings towards the cost of food; a local baker, Mr Small, provided bread.

By 1895 the Oddfellows was owned by Magee, Marshall and Co, a local brewery set up a few years earlier at Cricket Street, about half a mile away from the pub. Magees decided to rebuild the Oddfellows and re-construction was completed that year. An article in the Bolton Evening News on the Daubhill area in 1974 gave an idea of what the pub was like before the rebuild. Sarah Jane Brooks, then of Longfellow Avenue but a Daubhill resident for most of her life, remembered the Oddfellows as being a small, four-room beerhouse. However, she pointed out that in the nineteenth century most of the buildings on that part of St Helens Road – including the Oddfellows – were only reached from the roadside by going down several steps. “Everything looked as though it were built in a hole,” she said.

The Bolton Moor Boxing Club was headquartered at the pub from November 1947, but reports at the time suggested that the Oddfellows had been previously used by boxing professionals Arthur Killeen, Joe Greenwood and Jack Lord. Greenwood, who is said to have fought in over 500 bouts, was once described by Nat Lofthouse as being Bolton's greatest ever sportsman.

The pub's landlord for over 30 years was Jack Asma who took over in the late-twenties and was there until September 1960. His daughter Irene was a GI bride – one of a small number from Bolton. During the second world war Irene was a stenographer for General Dwight D Eisenhower at Bushy Park near London. She married an American soldier, Donald H DuBois, in 1944 and featured in a Bolton Evening News article in March 1946 immediately prior to leaving for Tidworth camp along with two other local women who had married American soldiers. The trio then sailed to the United States from Southampton. Later in life, Renee Dubois, as she was then known, featured in a Bolton News article reminiscing about her time growing up in the town. She died in January 2021 aged 97.

Part of the upstairs living quarters at the Oddfellows were damaged by fire in 1971. Temporary manager Brian Walker said the fire was caused by a cigarette that he left on an ashtray in a bedroom. “I went downstairs to answer a ring at the front door and when I came back there was all this smoke,” he said. The fire brigade were also called out to the pub in November 1980 – but for an entirely different reason, A punter playing on the pub's fruit machine thought his winnings were 10p down and tried to reach inside the machine to retrieve a missing coin, His hand got stuck and after 40 minutes of trying to free him the landlady dialled 999. “When we arrived at the pub a man was on his knees on the floor with his hand firmly stuck up the chute,” a spokesman for the fire brigade told the Bolton Evening News. “We took the back off the machine and unscrewed the tube to release him.”

But the perhaps the strangest occurrence involving the Oddfellows and the local fire brigade came in September 1997. Twenty firemen turned up to fight a fire in the upstairs room of an adjoining building – but the 15 people drinking in the pub knew nothing about it. "About 15 people were still drinking in the pub when we got there. There's a solid wall between the pub and the out-building so I don't think they knew it was on fire,” a spokesman for the fire brigade said.

Ad from October 1972

The Oddfellows began hosting regular music nights in the early seventies. Local guitarist Steve Bowie featured regularly, but like many local pubs the Oddies invested in an electric organ and hired someone to play it every weekend. Country and Western nights were added in early 1979 featuring 'Nashville Special' a band who were still playing at the pub in 1983. After a hiatus music was reintroduced on a fortnightly basis from November 1984.

In 1985 regulars got up a petition to have the relief manager Stan Lomax made permanent. Two hundred people signed the 'Save Our Stan' petition and sent it off to Greenall Whitley. “Since he took over this pub has become a really happy place and the place has improved 100 percent,” John Hamilton, chairman of the Oddfellows' sports and social club said. Stan, a local lad, was keen on the idea. “I know 90 percent of the people who come in here and would like to stay as manager if Greenalls will let me,” he said. However, Greenalls had already decided that the pub would be transferred to a tenancy and the petition failed.

John Hamilton's comment about the beer quality deserves a little more scrutiny. It was a keg-only pub for many years but the November 1983 edition of the Campaign for Real Ale's Manchester magazine What's Doing reported that Greenalls had put on their new beer, Original Bitter, although they served it at the Oddfellows through an electric pump rather than a handpump. Certainly the quality of the beer improved enough over the coming few years for the pub to be included in the national Good Beer Guide for 1991.

Greenalls eventually got out of brewing in the early nineties to become a pubco. But in 1999 they sold off the remainder off the remainder of their pub estate. Following its closure in 2021 the Oddfellows was put up for sale and Admiral Taverns got a price of £427,750 + VAT when they disposed of the building in September 2021.

The Bolton branch of Camra have an excellent page on the Oddfellows with links to photographs and articles on the pub. 

Rocket Hotel, New Lane, Bolton

 

The Rocket pictured in May 2012

In March 1960 Bolton Council granted planning permission to local brewery Magee, Marshall and Co for a new pub at New Lane on the Top O'the Brow estate. The following month a licence was granted and construction work began.

The Rocket Hotel opened on 29 November 1961, the first pint being pulled by Mr C. H. Barber, a hotel inspector who had worked for Magees for 61 years. The foaming pint of Magees Mild was handed to the company's chairman, Mr W. B. Shields. According to Mr Shields the pub's name came about because the brewery wanted to get away from traditional pub names. It had been thought that name was a nod to an early locomotive, the Rocket, built by George Stephenson in 1829, or even to the space race that was taking place in the early-sixties. There was also a bus service called the Rocket that began to run from the autumn of 1925 in a five-seat car owned by Henry Martin. The service, from the Royal Oak to Affetside, was so quick that Mr Martin's children nicknamed it The Rocket and the name was subsequently given to the fleet of buses that Mr Martin bought. When Bolton Corporation Transport took over The Rocket in July 1934 they amended the route to run from the Royal Oak to the Starkie Arms at Tonge Moor via Longsight, Harwood Church and Thicketford Road passing close to what was later to become The Rocket pub.

By the end of 1961 the Rocket was advertising for a pianist and in early 1963 live acts were being featured on Friday and Saturday nights. Johnny Dee and the Detours, Frank Barlow, Colin Carey, Hal Williamson, Mike Hale, Mike Wroe And The Pops and Tony Dennett (“Lancashire's Own Joe Brown”) were among the acts seen at the Rocket during 1963 and 1964.

Entertainment ad from March 1963

In January 1970 a fire broke out in the pub lounge. Landlord Clifford Mann had closed up for the night and was watching TV in the living quarters upstairs. His son Norman, aged 17, could smell smoke when he went on to the landing. Mr Mann, his wife Mary and their two sons went downstairs and tackled the fire themselves before the fire brigade arrived. “When we got downstairs we could see from the flashings and cracklings that it was an electrical fire,” he told the Bolton Evening News. However, he insisted that despite serious damage done to the lounge the Rocket would open as normal. “We haven't got any lights back in the pub yet, but we'll be open tonight even if it means by candlelight” he said. “We must remain open.”

It was perhaps with this incident in mind that a number of the pub's regulars came to the aid of a local church after fire damaged part of its premises in March 1972. Fire had wrecked part of the ground-floor rooms at the Independent Methodist Church on Thicketford Road and a number of Rocket regulars helped with the clean-up operation. There was also a whip-round at the pub that raised £10 (the equivalent of over £120 in 2026). What made the gesture somewhat out of the ordinary was that the church was anti-drink, but a number of the Rocket's regulars had past links with the church through its Sunday school and youth club.

“The most obvious thing about it is that these people have got some feelings about the place,” said the church's minister William Owen. Rocket landlord Clifford Mann said it was just a case of people helping each other in a time of crisis. “This is the usual thing among neighbours - if anyone has a fire they help.”

In March 1974, the pub's owners, Greenall Whitley, won an appeal after planning permission was turned down to install betting shops in the car parks of both the Rocket and the Willows Hotel on Willows Lane on the other side of town. Bolton Council objected to the plan on the grounds that the shops would be detrimental to the area and would cause congestion, claims Greenalls claimed were overblown and “in the realms of Alice In Wonderland.” The appeal was heard by a local government inspector who sided with Greenalls. Two betting firms applied to site shops at the Rocket, Arthur Roye in 1975 and D. B. & I. Collins in 1976, but nothing ever came of the plan.

By 1982 the Rocket had been opened for 21 years and for most of that time it had been run by Clifford Mann. But Cliff was now in his sixties and was ready to retire. Originally a Daubhill man he had spent 44 years in the licensed trade and had run a number of pubs in Farnworth before moving to the Rocket. He and his wife Mary were presented with a wall clock to mark his retirement.

Running the Rocket wasn't an easy gig for anyone as it could be one of Bolton's livelier pubs. In July 1967, two youths were charged after fighting outside the pub over the affections of a girl. There was a scandal the following year when the pub's Savings Club was defrauded – by its own treasurer. In 1984 a man was fined after head-butting one of the pub's windows after discovering that his jacket had been stolen from the pub. However, most people's memories of the Rocket are of a good community pub even though the local Camra branch's description was of it “having an enviable reputation that no other pub wanted”.

In 1993 the Rocket became a Burtonwood pub. Ownership changed again in 2005 when it became a Marstons house after they took over the Burtonwood tied estate.

But being a good community pub doesn't necessarily make it pay. In September 2015 plans were lodged by retail group Spar to demolish the Rocket and replace it with a convenience store. Marstons were willing to sell the pub. The plans made reference to anti-social behaviour including one incident where a man was attacked in the pub toilets.

The Rocket closed on 10 January 2016 a little more than 54 years after it opened as a pub. The building was subsequently demolished and the Spar opened on the site in March 2017.

Willows Hotel, 296 Willows Lane, Bolton

 

The church of St George The Martyr was opened in 1880 on land off St Helens Road. Living accommodation for the first vicar, the Rev T. A. Clarke, was provided a few hundred yards away on Willows Lane at an existing 14-room building known as Hawthorn Lodge.

In 1955 the vicarage was quietly sold to local brewery company Magee, Marshall and Co based just off Derby Street. Magees had their eye on a particular issue affecting one of their town centre pubs. Woolworths were looking to extend their Deansgate store and wanted to buy the Three Tuns on Bridge Street, a Magees house directly behind the store. What was particularly useful about the Three Tuns was that it had a full licence. This enabled them to sell wines and spirits as well as beer, and in the fifties these licences were difficult to come by – unless an existing licence was transferred. 

Magees did a deal with Woolworth and sold the Three Tuns; however, they then moved to transfer the pub's licence to their new pub, which they had named the Willows Hotel.

News of the decision to grant the application broke in the Bolton Evening News of 7 March 1956. “We are aware that the number of licensed premises in the town centre is probably too many,” Magees spokesman Mr W.C. Lawson told the paper. “The interesting thing about this is that within 220 yards of the Willows-lane premises there are no licensed houses. Within 440 yards there are three – all off-licenses.” Mr Lawson went on to produce a petition signed by 616 people all of whom lived within 220 yards of the premises. Of those 88 percent were in favour of the new pub, five percent were against and seven percent “couldn't care”. One of the supporters, Cormack Neary, a retired tailor, told the paper “I live behind the house and consider there to be room in the area for an hotel.” Another local resident, Thomas Gardner, pointed out that it was either a 20-minute walk or a bus ride to the nearest pub, the Oddfellows on St Helens Road.

The following night some opposing views appeared on the BEN's letters page. “Surely the members of St George The Martyr Church should have some explanation why the building was sold for this purpose,” wrote one correspondent. Another claimed that the new use for the building came as “a complete surprise.”

In April 1956 the licence transfer was rubber-stamped and Magees announced that the vicarage would open as a public house before Christmas. The lounge, dining room and part of the hall would become the pub lounge; the study would become a smoke room; the scullery and store would make way for a vault, and the kitchen and remainder of the hall would form the bar.

The Three Tuns closed its doors for the final time on 26 November 1956. At midday the following day the Willows Hotel opened with a small ceremony in the bar performed by the Mayor Of Bolton, Alderman Peter Lowe. Guests, including members of the town council, admired the contemporary style of decoration.

At the beginning of 1960 plans were approved to extend the pub. Food was introduced in 1966 and music, in the form of a pianist, was added the following year.

By March 1974 the Willows was owned by Greenall Whitley who had taken over Magee, Marshall in 1958 and closed the brewery in 1970. Greenalls tried to open betting shops on the site of two of their Bolton pubs, the Willows and the Rocket on New Lane at Top O'Th Brow. Initial plans had been rejected by Bolton Council on the grounds that the shop would be detrimental to the area and could bring parking problems. However, Greenalls appealed the decision claiming that the council's case was based on speculation on what might happen placing it “in the realms of Alice In Wonderland.” The appeal was heard by a local government inspector who found in Greenall's favour, but despite interest in June 1974 from a betting firm named Arthur Roye no bookies was ever opened on the site.

December 1975 lunchtime menu

A refurbishment in the autumn of 1975 led to the opening of the Regency Room and the expansion of the Willows' food offerings. In 1979 a single-storey extension to the rear of the pub saw tanks installed. This meant that beer was delivered in vehicles that resembled petrol tankers with the beer being stored in the tanks. But the Willows was never one for real ale-lovers, apart from a period in the late-nineties when Stones Bitter was served on handpump for a while. A 1982 CAMRA listing shows that it served keg Greenall beers on electric pumps.

The nineties saw jazz nights on Thursdays; there were quiz nights, a karaoke, a big screen for live football matches shown on TV. But by 1999 Greenalls had got out of brewing and pubs and the Willows was part of Scottish and Newcastle Breweries tied estate. It was subsequently sold to Admiral Taverns who in turn sold it on to Punch Taverns in 2005.

In 2010 the Willows closed down after just 54 years as a functioning pub. It never reopened and was finally de-licensed in 2014. In a strange quirk it reverted to religious use, albeit this time in the shape of an Islamic educational centre.

Corn Mill Tavern, 120 Blackburn Road, Bolton

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The Corn Mill Tavern was situated at 120 Blackburn Road just two doors down from the Victoria British Queen. The pub dated back to the 1840s but the building itself was older and its name suggests it may once have been in operation as a corn mill.

There is no record of the pub in the Bolton Directories of either 1843 or 1848. The first record we have of the building being licenced is in 1849 when John Seddon is named as licensee on the list of Little Bolton beerhouses.

By 1861 the Corn Mill was in the hands of the Grundy family and it would remain so for the next 20 years. John Grundy was a former crofter from the Waters Meeting area of Little Bolton close to Astley Bridge. In 1851 he and his family were all working at Thwaites bleachworks at Waters Meeting. Ten years later he was the landlord of the Corn Mill. John Grundy died in 1867 and the Corn Mill passed to his son William. He ran it until his death in 1882 at the age of 51.

The Corn Mill was noted not just as a pub but as a brewery. Certainly in 1895 William Green is listed as a brewer at the pub but he also had an office in the centre of town at 42 Silverwell Lane to organise the distribution of the brewery’s products to the wider area. He was one of nine so-called ‘common brewers’ in the town in 1895, i.e. brewers who sold products to other pubs. But while William Green is listed as the pub's brewer its licensee was Robert Rawsthorne. He committed suicide in 1895 shortly before a court appearance to answer allegations of an indecent assault. Shortly afterwards the Corn Mill and its brewery was sold to the much larger concern of Joseph Sharman & Co Ltd. By 1901 William Green was running another Sharman's pub, the Stanley Arms on Egytpian Street, less than a quarter of a mile away from the Corn Mill.

The Corn Mill lasted little more than a decade under Sharman's. There were numerous pubs at the bottom end of Blackburn Road and nearby Halliwell Road and Sharman's also owned the Bowling Green less than a hundred yards away. 

The Corn Mill closed in 1906. Gordon Readyhough writes in Bolton Pubs 1800-2000 that the licence was given up as part of a deal to grant a full licence to the Sunnyside Hotel  at the bottom of Adelaide Street, off St Helens Road. However, press reports at the time of the licensing session make no mention of the Corn Mill although it is entirely possible that magistrates insisted on Sharman's giving up one of its own licences. Sharman's paid £1500 to Bolton Council for the licence of a pub that they didn't own. the Ship Inn, a long-established inn on Bradshawgate that was being demolished as part of a road-widening scheme. The council had bought the Ship under a compulsory purchase order and the Ship's licence was transferred to the Sunnyside.

The Corn Mill eventually became part of Relphs Funeral Service, now Relphs Funeralcare and owned by the Co-Op. The building still stands.

Barley Mow, Higher Bridge Street/Prince Street, Bolton

 

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Prince Street at its junction with Higher Bridge Street, the site of the Barley Mow. Picture: Google

The Barley Mow appears to have been in existence for about 35 years in the middle of the 19^th century. In his book Bolton Pubs 1800-2000 Gordon Readyhough states the pub was on Higher Bridge Street close to its junction with Prince Street so it would have been just a few yards away from the Ploughboy.  However, local records suggest the address may have been 1 Prince Street which puts it at the corner with Higher Bridge Street.

The licensee was for much of the pub's existence was John Crompton. The 1841 Census has him as a publican on Bridge Street as the whole of that stretch of town was known from Deansgate to what is now the bottom end of Blackburn Road. This may well have been the Barley Mow. The 1843 Bolton Directory gives the pub's address as 1 Prince Street.

John Crompton remained at the Barley Mow until the late-1860s. He was succeeded by James Ridings who remained at the pub until 1869. Mr Ridings was in turn succeeded by Samuel Blackley who moved from the Corporation Arms, Mason Street off Blackburn Street (later Deane Road).

Blackley lived at the pub with his wife, his young daughter and his mother-in-law all of whom were named Elizabeth. Blackley was a printer by trade and he continued in that trade during his time at the Barley Mow. By 1881 he had moved to 151 Clarence Street and was running his own printing business. His wife Elizabeth was a dealer in old clothes.

The Blackleys' tenure at the Barley Mow was brief. They were succeeded in 1871 by Thomas Holden. He left the pub in 1873 and was succeeded by its final landlord, John Riley, formerly a cotton spinner living on Halliwell Road.

Dobson and Barlow's mill stood directly behind the pub and they were looking to expand their premises by purchasing the whole of the row. The nearby Ploughboy was closed in 1870 and bought by the firm. The Barley Mow lasted until 1875. By then it was owned by local brewer William Tong – one of his early tied pubs – but Tong sold out to Dobson and Barlow's. The pub was closed and subsequently demolished.

Dobson and Barlow's later became Osman Textiles. The mill closed in the early-nineties. It was demolished and an Aldi store built on the site. This opened in 1993 and still stands.

 

Blue Bell, 145 Kay Street, Bolton

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Kay Street pictured in 2020 (copyright Google Street View). The Blue Bell was situated approximately where the car park is.

The Blue Bell was situated at 145 Kay Street close to the junction with China Lane.

The pub dated back to the 1840s. James Graham is listed as the licensee in the Bolton Directory of 1848.

Landlady Jane Mason was in court in 1864 over the serving of beer on a Sunday morning. Undercover police were in the habit of entering pubs on Sundays at a time when the sale of beer was prohibited until after church services had taken place. When police entered the Blue Bell at a quarter to eleven one Sunday morning there were three men in the kitchen, two of them with half-pints of ale. While the police were there a woman walked into the pub placed twopence on the table and asked for a pint. Mrs Mason was fined 10 shillings plus costs. [Bolton Chroncle, 18 June 1864].

Four years later an infant death was recorded at the Blue Bell. John William McNalley, the illegitimate son of Margaret McNalley, a domestic servant at the pub, was found dead on the premises despite having been well when Miss McNalley took him to bed at midnight the previous night. At 4am he was well enough to feed but when the landlady called his mother at 20 minutes past six the infant was dead on her arm. The borough corner's inquest verdict was “found dead”. [Bolton Chronicle, 22 August 1868]

By 1869 the owner of the Blue Bell was a local brewer, William Young. He was sued by tenant Robert Haslam for £30. Haslam had signed an agreement to take beer from Young but he broke the agreement claiming the beer was inferior in quality and short in measure. Young in turn sued Haslam for £19 4 shillings (£19.20) for beer but in court he accepted £15. [Bolton Evening News, 10 July 1869]

Haslam left the Blue Bell in September. He was succeeded by Reuben Bennett whose family were to remain at the pub for the next 56 years. Bennett was a 27-year-old former wheelwright when he took over as licensee. He was landlord for 24 years until his death of a suspected heart attack during a bowls match at the Royal Oak in Bradshaw in 1893. His widow Mary took over the running of the pub and she was still there when she died in 1925.

The Blue Bell was owned for a number of years by Halliwell's Brewery which was situated next to the Alexandra beerhouse on Stewart Street. Founder John Halliwell slowly built up a small tied estate but he died in 1885 and his son Edward took over the running of the company. However, the executors of John Halliwell's estate decided to auction off the brewery along with its 12 tied pubs including the Blue Bell. Edward Halliwell managed to fend off interest from three of Bolton's bigger breweries: Tong's, Magee Marshall and Sharman's but it was to cost him £30,500. The deal included off-licences on Halliwell Road, Morris Green Lane, John Brown Street, Hill Lane, Back Turton Street, George Street and Balshaw Street. [Bolton Evening News, 4 December 1890]

In 1910 the Alexandra Brewery, along with its pubs and off-licences was bought by Magee Marshall.

The Blue Bell closed in 1933. The stretch of Kay Street that included the pub still stands although the building was demolished in the sixties.

China Lane ran from Higher Bridge Street, down the side of Holdsworth's Mill to Kay Sreet.

Royal Oak, 117 Kay Street, Bolton

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Site of the Royal Oak, Kay Street in June 2018. Photo from Google Street View.

The Royal Oak was situated on Kay Street at the junction with Haigh Street not far from the site of what was later the Britannia Service Station.

The pub opened around the middle of the nineteenth century and in November 1869 the licence was taken on by Isaac Halliwell, a man who was later to gain notoriety for his part in the so-called Dilke Riot.

Born in 1836, Halliwell was the son of Ellen Halliwell and her husband Henry, a labourer in an iron foundry, probably Benjamin Hick's on Crook Street. The family lived nearby in Horrocks Court, roughly behind what is now the Achari restaurant (formerly the Painters Arms). Isaac followed his father into employment as a foundryman and by 1861 he was living on Croasdale Street which linked Kay Street with Waterloo Street. He was most likely employed at the nearby Globe Iron Works. In 1869, Halliwell succeeded James Clough at the Royal Oak, but it was the events of 1871 and 1872 that saw him make his name.

Sir Charles Dilke was a charismatic Liberal politician who was very much on the left of his party. In 1868, at the age of 25, he won the Chelsea seat at the general election but his views were somewhat at odds with his party's leadership. In 1870 he made a speech in Newcastle calling for the abolition of the Monarchy and for Britain to become a republic. There was a public outcry leading to Dilke recanting his remarks and over the next few years his views slowly began to reflect those of the rest of the Liberal Party.

In November 1871, Dilke was due to make a speech at the 900-capacity Bolton Temperance Hall situated on the corner of St George's Street and Higher Bridge Street. Days before the speech a poster appeared on Bolton's streets that announced the intention to de-platform Dilke. It read:

“To the Loyal People of Bolton – Sir Charles Dilke, the Republican, is coming to address you on Thursday night. Let it be seen that you are true born Englishmen and refuse a hearing to any man who preaches sedition and treason.”

The poster went on to accuse Dilke of attacking Queen Victoria “in an unmanly and odious way” and it called for the people of Bolton to put aside their political differences and to rally in support of the throne.

On the night of the meeting, 30 November 1871, a crowd estimated at 1500 people congregated outside the Temperance Hall and before long the mood turned ugly. One agitator, a local chemist named Thomas Teal, was seen picking up stones on Bridge Street. A prominent Liberal from Halliwell, John Atkins, who was also the landlord of the Swiss Hotel, later claimed in court to have taken two large stones from Teal's pocket. The rocks were distributed by Teal among the demonstrators who then proceeded to pelt the Temperance Hall. An estimated 158 windows were broken in the hall, which had only been rebuilt in 1869.

Inside the hall, Dilke – who was there to speak not about the Monarchy but on another of his interests, the reform of the House of Commons – was unable to take to the stage. As stones were thrown from outside, glass shattered all around and when there was no glass left to be broken, stones were flung through the empty window frames. One hit a 56-year-old labourer named William Schofield on the head and he died a week later having suffered a fractured skull.

Although the Liberals called for assistance from the police only half a dozen members of the local constabulary were on hand. Seventeen people were arrested, including Isaac Halliwell who had been seen entering the hall along with the rest of a mob of around 200 demonstrators.

Two months later, on 1 February 1872, the defendants appeared in court accused of rioting, damage to property and the manslaughter of William Schofield. The pro-Liberal Bolton Evening News pulled no punches in its reporting of the case. “Prosecution Of The Tory Rioters” was the headline in its edition of 1 February 1872. 

One of the defendants, Major Thomas Hesketh, was a Justice of the Peace. He was excused from sitting in court with the rest of the accused and was given a place on the bench. The prosecution then pointed out that one of magistrates at the hearing, W.H Wright, had also been present at the demonstration and had stormed the building with the protestors. He was alleged to have shouted to those present at the meeting: “You brought it upon yourselves; you deserve all you are getting.” The chairman of the bench, the Mayor Of Bolton, William Cannon – a muslin manufacturer whose firm Cannon Brothers built Stanley Mill on Cannon Street – stated that Mr Wright had denied making the remarks but despite what appeared to be a clear conflict of interest he was allowed to remain on the bench for the hearing. 

The magistrates decided that the case would have to be heard at Manchester Assizes which met every few months to deal with offences too serious for the local courts.

By the time the case was heard, in March 1872, charges had been dropped against nine of the 17 defendants but Isaac Halliwell was amongst the eight who stood trial. One of the nine let off was Major Thomas Hesketh. This was despite witnesses telling magistrates that he was one of the 200 people who broke down the east door to the Temperance Hall. He is alleged to have shouted: “Follow me lads, break this door. We have a right to be in and we will get in!” and he was given three cheers by the crowd for his efforts. The Heskeths came from humble stock – his father was a mere grocer when Thomas was born in 1838 – but the family had become textile manufacturers in the town and were now very well connected. The major was the eldest son of Thomas Manley Hesketh, the founder of T.M. Hesketh & Sons Ltd whose mill was a large employer at Astley Bridge. Major Hesketh was later chairman of the Astley Bridge Local Board and one of his brothers, George Hesketh, was Conservative Mayor Of Bolton for 1905-06.

Almost 40 witnesses were called over the two-day trial all of whom stated that there had been a riot. After the evidence had been heard the judge then addressed the jury and told them to put aside any political feelings they had over the issue. He then sent them to consider their verdict. At 3.40pm on 19 March 1872 the jury retired; however, after little over an hour they sent a note to the judge saying they could not agree and asked to be discharged. The judge refused and insisted they continue their deliberations. When they returned again at just after eight o'clock the foreman of the jury said that 11 of the 12 jurors were agreed on a guilty verdict but there was one juror who was flatly refusing to convict any of the defendants. The judge sent the jury out again but at 9.50pm they returned with the foreman saying once again that they could not reach a unanimous verdict. As the judge would not accept a majority verdict he discharged the jury and said the trial would have to be heard again when the assizes next visited Manchester in July.

With that the tide turned very much in favour of Isaac Halliwell and his co-accused. The judge made a remarkable statement in which he said he would have been sorry to have had to pass sentence on the defendants had they been found guilty, although he added that would have been his duty. He went on to say that he hoped the feeling in Bolton would improve in the meantime and that the prosecution would offer no evidence at the re-trial – which is exactly what happened. This was a remarkable statement for the judge to make and it completely failed to take into account the fact that William Schofield had lost his life as a result of the actions of the rioters. But Schofield was a simple labourer and in nineteenth-century England the life of a member of the lower classes wasn't given much value. When a demonstration was held in the town following Schofield's death local Conservatives met at the Gibraltar Rock  on Pikes Lane and said that while no one was more sorry about his death than they were they wouldn't be shedding what they described as “crocodile tears.”

After discharging the jury the judge warned against the prisoners returning to Bolton as heroes but his call fell on deaf ears. Isaac Halliwell and the rest of the accused left the court and returned to the town by train. The Evening News reported on their reception:

“The discharged men and their friends returned to Bolton at about twenty minutes past eleven at night. They were met at the station by a large number of people, who cheered and sang most lustily, and were escorted down Newport Street, by Great Moor Street to the Junior Conservative Club in Mawdesly-Street, where the cheering was continued for some time.”

Bolton Evening News, 20 March 1872.

No doubt the trial did wonders for Isaac Halliwell's reputation and the rest of the 1870s were a prosperous period for him. In 1875 it was reported he had bought the Three Crowns on Deansgate for £1200. This wasn't the Old Three Crowns, which still stands today, but another pub on the other side of the road on the corner of Mealhouse Lane.

The following year the Three Crowns was pulled down for improvements to the road junction and Isaac Halliwell applied to have the its full licence transferred to a new pub he had just built on the corner of Great Moor Street and Deansgate to be called the Balmoral Hotel.  Halliwell claimed to have spent £5000 on the new building. At the licensing hearing in May 1876 he said the Balmoral was several storeys high and contained an extensive billiard room. Some land had been bought nearby and the intention was to build stables there. He added that this was not a new location for a fully-licenced pub. Two long-established public houses, the Horse and Jockey and the Horse and Groom, had stood on or near the site until their recent demolition. Another old pub, the Shakespeare on the other side of Deansgate near the junction with Bolling's Yard, was also about to close. So the granting of a full licence for the Balmoral would see “a fine hotel put in place of three fourth-rate houses.” The magistrates granted the licence and the Balmoral opened shortly afterwards in the summer of 1876.

Perhaps spending £5000 on the Balmoral stretched Isaac Halliwell financially because within a few months he was on the move again. He moved to Blackpool in early 1880 where he and his wife Janet took over the Prince Of Wales Hotel in York Street. Adverts for the pub and its accommodation were a regular feature in the Bolton press that year.

Halliwell died at the Prince Of Wales in January 1881 at the age of just 44. His estate was valued at less than £400. Janet Halliwell continued running the Prince Of Wales until her death in 1898. The pub was demolished in the late-1960s. The Gauntlet (later the Jaggy Thistle) was built on the site but that closed in 2010 and was demolished the following year. A car park is now on the site.

Back at the Royal Oak, Isaac Halliwell was succeeded by John Farrar; however, the owner of the building decided to sell the pub and it was bought by the Alexandra Brewery of Stewart Street, Brownlow Fold.

During the 1880s James Grundy took over as landlord and the Royal Oak was run by members of his family for around the next 20 years. Grundy died in 1893. He was a keen bowler and on the occasion of his death the Bolton Bowling Association passed a motion of condolence to his family. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, William Shipperbottom. The 1891 census shows that Shipperbottom was living at the pub along with his wife, Elizabeth – James Grundy's daughter – and their four children. By 1910 they were at the Union Arms, Eskrick Street. 

Shipperbottom was succeeded by Joshua S Porritt who died at the Royal Oak in 1920. Porritt had previously run the Founders Arms on St George's Street and the Swiss Hotel, Southern Street, Brownlow Fold.

By 1924 the landlady was Emma Bolan. Born Emma Mayoh in 1865 she married an American, Frank Bolan, in 1900 and the couple were at the Nelson's Monument on Blackburn Road from 1902 onwards. She succeeded Joshua Porritt at the Royal Oak and was living at the pub when she died in 1937. By then she had handed over control to her daughter Grace Davies (later Grace Banks).

The Royal Oak was owned by Halliwell's Alexandra Brewery until that firm was bought by Magee, Marshall and Company in 1910. It isn't known whether the Halliwell family were directly related to Isaac Halliwell.

Magee's was taken over by the Warrington firm of Greenall Whitley in 1958 but the Royal Oak continued to be supplied from Magee's brewery on Cricket Street, off Derby Street, until the pub's closure in 1968. It was demolished although the site remained empty for many years. The extension to St Peter's Way, which was begun in 1987, now runs through the pub's former site.