Updated 11 June 2019
with details of the pub's early history.
The Howcroft on Pool
Street, just off Vernon Street, closed its doors for the final time
on 20 May 2012 after almost 160 years as licensed premises. The pub
was one of the few remaining in Bolton to have its own bowling green
but it would be more accurate to say that the bowling green was the
initial reason for the pub’s existence. indeed it pre-dates the pub
perhaps by over 60 years. Certainly, the green is marked as the
‘Howcroft Bowling Green’ on an 1849 map of the area and it is
also visible on the 1793 map of Little Bolton. At that time it was
situated in an area called Green Hill just off Back Lane, which was
the only approach road to the pub. Prior to the construction of St
George’s Road around the end of the 18th century, Back
Lane was a principal route out of Bolton, running from Blackburn Road
down to Chorley Street even though it was only about as wide then as
it is now – similar to a back street.
Just as it does now the
bowling season ran from April or May to October each year and in his
book Leisure In Bolton, written in 1982, Robert Poole claims that the
Howcroft bowling green regularly had 60-odd attendees at their end of
season dinner. [See reports at the end of this article].
However, the story of
the Howcroft's birth as a pub suggests it came to be licenced as a
result of a court case over a clampdown on 'hush shops' in Bolton.
From 1830 onwards anyone could open a beerhouse – licensed to sell
beer but not wine and spirits – on payment of 2 guineas (£2.10).
It was the Beerhouse Act of that year that led to an explosion of
pubs over the next 40 years often by people simply opening up a room
in their home. However, two guineas was still a lot of money for some
people when effectively all you were doing was to allow people into
your house to drink beer. Many decided to bypass the licensing
arrangements and save themselves 2 guineas by simply opening up their
houses and letting word of mouth get round – 'hush shops' as they
were known. It was a risky business but it was widespread. One local
brewer of the time claimed he had turned down 14 barrels' worth of
beer sales one weekend because he knew they were destined for 'hush
shops'.
The authorities had
regular crackdowns and in 1853 they were supported by a
newly-established Licensed Victuallers and Beersellers association in
Bolton which gathered evidence on hush shops and informed the police.
In October of that year, five cases came to court including one for
the then unlicensed Howcroft Bowling Green. Police had engaged the
services of a painter from Manchester named Thomas Fletcher as an
informant. On seven consecutive Saturdays he came to Bolton to check
out potential hush shops for the police. On Saturday 29 October 1853
he went to play bowls at the Howcroft Bowling Green. He said he
played for booze rather than money and stated that he saw beer being
poured from a 'quarter-barrel' – a nine-gallon wooden container.
The following morning he and Christopher Brownlow, the son of the
landlord of the Founders Arms on St George's Street, went to the Howcroft where Brownlow claimed
they could get a pint of beer. They were met at a hut next to the
bowling green by John Shepherd, who was employed as a greenkeeper by
the bowling club, and they were given beer poured from a small
barrel. Fletcher claimed Brownlow paid sixpence for the beer. In his
evidence, Brownlow claimed the sixpence was paid to Shepherd because
he owed that from the previous day's bowling. It was claimed in
Shepherd's defence that any beer at the bowling green had been
brought privately by members and that he simply wanted to get rid of
the beer before it went off. Such a tale stretched credibility as it
suggested that a quarter-barrel, the equivalent of 72 pints of beer,
had been brought in by a bowler. At stake was not so much that
Fletcher and Brownlow had been drinking beer but whether or not they
had been sold the beer by Shepherd. There was doubt in the
magistrates' minds over the sixpence paid over – was it for the
beer or was it a gambling debt from the previous day? However, the
case wasn't watertight and as the magistrates were split down the
middle the charge against Shepherd was dismissed.
It's almost certain
that beer been sold at the Howcroft Bowling Green, but the effect of
the case was to bring drinking at the green on to a firm legal
footing. Around 1855 the club paid two guineas and applied for a
licence to operate as a beerhouse. The 1849 map of the area shows a
small building next to the bowling green which is likely to have been
part of the current building. An 1893 map shows the pub in its
present form which means that an extension comprising the gents’
toilets and the longer back room was built some time in the late-19th
century. In that case the original pub would have consisted of the
bar area, the small lounge and the pool room behind the bar. The
building was used as housing accommodation prior to being licenced.
In 1840, a court heard of the death of a three-year-old child,
Richard Greenhalgh, who lived at the Howcroft along with his mother,
a widow named Nancy Greenhalgh. Richard drowned in a tank next to one
of the outbuildings. [Bolton Chronicle, 25 January 1840]
The first licensee was
a man named Gorse, but by 1859 Richard Bradshaw was in charge. To
celebrate his arrival he put on an opening dinner on Tuesday 9 June
1859 “on the table at Four o'clock in the afternoon”.
By 1869 the pub had a
bagatelle table but in January of that year a Glaswegian named John
Smith was in court over the theft of three bagatelle balls worth £1
and 3 shillings from the Howcroft. The landlord's sister-in-law
claimed Smith had spent two hours in the pub's bagatelle room one
day. He stole the balls and offered them to the landlord of the Star Inn in the centre of town.
Bizarrely, he was also charged with stealing a monkey from the Star
and was found with both the animal and the bagatelle balls in the Town Hall Hotel.
He claimed he hadn't stolen the monkey but merely taken it to give it
some beer as it had been unwell!
In 1870 the pub was
listed as the Duke Of Wellington, Back Lane rather than the Howcroft.
A potted history of the pub that was on display in the premises until
it closed claimed it was known as the Prince Of Wales towards the end
of the 19th century until changing its name to the
Howcroft. That isn't quite true. Licensee J Atkinson advertised in
1874 that the green was known as the Prince Of Wales Bowling Green
and that it was for the exclusive use of the Howcroft Bowling Club on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. But any change of name was of a temporary
nature and certainly by 1878 the pub was known as the Howcroft once
again.
The Howcroft gained a
number of additional licences. An application for a billiards licence
was successful in 1870 and licensee Daniel Booth obtained a music
licence in 1881. But his attempt to sell foreign wines at the pub
later that year was unsuccessful. However, a further application in
1900 saw the licence granted. The then landlord, James Shippobottom,
had been at the pub for the previous seven-and-a-half years and in
his application he stated that it was mainly used by bowlers who
utilised the green. There was a also a billiards room and a
semi-billiards room. It was apparently the only pub with a green of
that size that sold beer only.
The Howcroft was a
Sharman’s pub at that time and it remained so until it was
transferred to the Warrington firm of Peter Walker and then to
Tetley’s following their takeover of Walker’s in 1960.
As the nineteenth
century went on, the Green Hill area, which surrounded the Howcroft,
had taken on a different look. When the bowling green opened it was
on the edge of Bolton with countryside to the north. Indeed, the
Bolton Chronicle of 15 February 1845 carried an advertisement for the
letting of six acres of meadow land “near the Howcroft”. By the
end of the nineteenth century the pub and its bowling green were
surrounded by housing with the construction of Clarence Street,
Davenport Street, Kent Street and Church Street. By then the pub's
address was Pool Street which ran from the pub down the hill and
across St George’s Road to the River Croal. The Howcroft remained
part of Pool Street until the construction of Topp Way began in 1980
and cut off the top of the street from the portion on the other side
of the road. Even so, the pub retained Pool Street as its address.
In 1954 the landlady
was a Mrs A Doran but she relinquished the tenancy that year in
favour of Frank Hardcastle, an employee of the pub who worked as a
glass collector – described as ‘Mrs Doran’s pot boy’ in the
pub’s history. He took the pub along with his wife Olwyn and Frank
successfully applied for a full licence in 1957 allowing him to sell
spirits alongside beer and foreign wines.
Frank was a legendary
figure whose photograph was displayed in the Howcroft until the pub closed. Its halcyon days were probably from mid-seventies until
Frank's retirement in 1983. The pub had a reputation not only for the
high standard of its real ales but also for the cider it sold.
Coates’s Triple Vintage wasn’t available on draught. Instead it
was poured straight from litre bottles into a pint pot and Frank
limited consumption to people he didn't know or weren't regulars. The
pub was busy – heaving on a Friday and Saturday night but also with
good trade during the week. But the regulars weren't necessarily
people who lived locally. The Howcroft’s reputation was such that
it drew its custom from all over Bolton.
In 1974, one of the
pub's regulars, Pete Methy, instituted what became known as Methy's
Tour, an annual trip to two or three towns in the north of England.
Even after the pub closed the trips continued and run to this day.
Olwyn Hardcastle died
in 1980 and Frank carried on alone before retiring to Blackpool in
1983. He died there in March 1995.
During his final couple
of years in charge Frank Hardcastle had to oversee a major re-siting
of the pub’s bowling green due to the construction of Topp Way. The
new by-pass hacked off the pub from the rest of Pool Street, and with
the construction of the by-pass it was now only accessible from St
George’s Road taking a circuitous route via Vernon Street. The old
bowling green stood parallel to the pub and was bounded by Back Lane,
Church Street and Pool Street. It was moved a few yards and turned
diagonally – see Google Maps or Google Earth for an overhead view -
effectively cutting off Back Lane. Much of the housing constructed in
the surrounding streets in the late-nineteenth century was demolished
at the same time with new housing was built in its place. The work on
the bowling green was completed by July 1982 although it was not
ready for matches until the following summer. [What’s Doing, the
Greater Manchester beer drinkers’ monthly magazine, July 1982
issue].
Later that same year
the pub was branded a Walker’s outlet after Tetley’s revived the
name of the brewery they took over in the early sixties. They also
introduced a portfolio of Walker’s beers, some of which had been
based on the original recipes.
When Frank left in
September 1983 there was the potentially thorny problem of who was to
succeed him. The choice of the pub’s regulars were Tony and Carole
Bretherton, two popular members of the bar staff who had worked at
the Howcroft since the early seventies. [What’s Doing, October 1983
issue.] A petition was set up at the pub to allow the Brethertons to
take over the tenancy but it was not to be. Denis Lund and his wife
Marion arrived but the Brethertons moved to another Walker’s pub,
the Ainsworth Arms at the top of Halliwell Road where they spent over
25 highly successful years.
With Frank Hardcastle
gone Walker’s decided to give the Howcroft a long-overdue
refurbishment. The result was tasteful enough to win the Campaign For
Real Ale’s Joe Goodwin Award for the Best Urban Refurbishment of
1985. It is unthinkable today for a brewery or pub company to enlist
the licensee to advise on a pub’s refurbishment – they are
treated as hired hands at best - and to be honest it was just as
unusual in the eighties. But having successfully run another Walker's
pub, the Raven in Wigan, before moving to the Howcroft, Denis and
Marion Lund played a part in the plans for the Howcroft’s
refurbishment. In the pub'scitation the judges hailed the Lunds'
involvement in the refurbishment as being “as crucial as that of
Peter Walker’s architects in ensuring the traditional nature of the
pub was retained when the improvements were complete.” [What's
Doing, February 1985]
Denis left in late 1992
and was replaced by Clive Nightingale, a former soldier who will be
remembered for introducing a beer festival at the pub following the
demise of Great North Western Beer Festival which had taken place at
Bolton Sports Centre in Silverwell Street from 1987 to 1993. Over the
course of four days each October Clive would place boards and a huge
marquee over the bowling green for the event which was run in aid of
Bolton Lads and Girls Club. The beer festival lasted at the Howcroft
until 2007 before moving to Bolton Rugby Club. By then Clive had left
to run a boarding house in Austria. The festival still takes place
but at the University Of Bolton Stadium,
It is often said that
stability of management is the key to a successful football team. The
same could be said for pubs. By the time Clive Nightingale left the
Howcroft the pub had had just three licensees in over 50 years. But
after he left landlords came and went although the pub was dealt a
blow in 2010. Having been taken over in 2009 by Jane McDonald and
Frank Smith the Howcroft appeared to be on the up. Sadly, Mr Smith
died in September 2010 and in 2011 the owners decided to put the pub
up for sale.
The Howcroft was sold
in 2012 and was converted into student accommodation. However, the
bowling green remains. In 2014 it was reported that the green could be built on after civil
engineers George Cox reported that an offer for it to be rented for a
minimal fee hadn't been taken up. The flats were subsequently pub for
sale but the bowling green remains in place overgrown as Mark
Hampson's 2016 photograph for the I Belong To Bolton Facebook group
shows.
Howcroft Green – This
popular green was opened for the season on Thursday when near fifty
of the subscribers and their friends partook of an excellent dinner
in the greenhouse, which was served up in Mrs Greenwood's usual style
of excellence. A challenge, for Bolton to play all England, on two
greens, for any sum, according to annual custom; but as usual no one
appeared to dispute the claim of the Boltonians to superior skill in
this delightful game. - Bolton Chronicle, 9 April 1836.
Howcroft Bowling Green
– This nonpareil of green closed for the season on Thursday, when a
sumptuous dinner was served up by Mrs Greenwood, of the Hand and
Banner, in excellent style, to about sixty subscribers and friends.
The day was favourable, and a pleasant afternoon was spent on the
turf. The whist tables in the greenhouse were well attended, and a
most harmonious evening was spent. - Bolton Chronicle, 7 October
1837.
R Halliwell of Daubhill
and R Parr of Bolton contested a match of 51 up, on level terms, for
a £20 cup, on the Howcroft Hotel green, Pool-street, yesterday
afternoon. Result: Halliwell 51, Parr 33. - Bolton Evening News, 22
July 1908.
