The site of the Ram's Head at the Derby Street junction with High Street.
The Ram’s Head was situated at 275 Derby Street on the
corner of High Street and operated as a pub for around 150 years. It was
initially a beer house, meaning it opened after the 1830 Beer House Act was
passed, and as such it was able to sell beer but not wines and spirits.
It seems we have a man named Peter Hodson to thank for the
Ram’s Head. The 1836 Bolton Directory lists Mr Hodson as a beer retailer on
Derby Street but by the time the 1843 Bolton Directory was published he was a
licensed victualler, meaning he had a full licence to sell the harder stuff as
well as beer. However, the 1841 census lists Mr Hodson as a ‘publican’ – in
other words he had a public house licence by then. He ran the pub for some
years as he is listed as the landlord in the 1853 Bolton Directory. [1]
The pub was later taken over by the local firm of Magee,
Marshall and Co, whose brewery was situated just a couple of hundred yards away
from the Ram’s Head on Cricket Street. It later became a Greenall’s pub as a
result of their takeover of Magee’s in 1958.
The Ram’s Head had a classic pub layout: a lounge to the
right of the front entrance and a ‘vault’ or pool room to the left with the bar
laid out in the middle.It continued as licensed premises until the early part of
the millennium, but the end for the Ram’s Head as a pub came in 1987. [2]
The
Crown Hotel, a little further down Derby Street, had been bought from Greenall's in 1980 by the Royal
Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes. At one time the Crown was Magees
brewery tap, but despite the brewery being closed by Greenall’s in 1970 the company
still owned the brewery site for its Cambrian soft drinks subsidiary.
Someone had the bright idea of knocking down the Crown Hotel
to free up the land for a few more parking spaces – but what about the
Buffaloes? Greenall’s offered them the
Ram’s Head instead. The premises closed as a pub and continued for around the
next 15 years as the RAOB Club. When it finally closed its doors it was
converted into an Asian grocery store.
The Ram's Head can be seen on the right of this view down Derby Street from the 1950s.
[1] Four Bolton Directories: 1821/2, 1836, 1843, 1853.
Reprinted by Neil Richardson (1982).
Peter Hodson was my Great Great Great Grandfather. Steve Priestley
ReplyDeletePeter Hodson was my Great Great Great Grandfather. Steve Priestley
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