Duke Of Clarence, Bath Street

The top of Bath Street pictured in 1986. The Duke Of Clarence is on the left. Conversion of the former St George’s school into licensed premises known as Ben Topp’s was under way.  Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The Duke Of Clarence, at the top of Bath Street, dated back to the 1860s as licensed premises. The pub’s layout was a classic of much of the 20^th-century. There was a central bar on the right as you went in through the main Bath Street entrance. A lounge was situated on the left-hand side of the pub with a vault on the right that could also be accessed from Bath Street via a separate entrance.

In 1875 the pub’s owner was Robert Harrison. We noted Mr Harrison as the landlord of the Flag Hotel on Great Moor Street in the 1860s along with his wife, Ellen. By 1871 Mr Harrison was landlord of the Duke Of Clarence leaving Ellen Harrison to run the Flag, which she did until she died in 1888. 

The Duke Of Clarence was a beer house, but Robert Harrison wanted a wine and spirit licence. In 1875 he negotiated with the council to buy the full licence of the Horse And Groom on Bradshawgate. The owner of the Horse And Groom, Johnathan Gorse, had died and the council had bought his pub as part of a plan to widen Bradshawgate close to its junction with Great Moor Street.  Later that year, Harrison obtained the full licence thus enabling him to sell wine and spirits as his pub as well as beer.

The following year, 1876, the Bolton Evening News reported on an unusual wedding party that adjourned to the Duke Of Clarence following a ceremony at St George’s church at the bottom of Bath Street. One Tuesday morning, the clerk to the church, Mr Briscoe, was approached by a man whose wedding was due to take place the following day asking him if he would give away the bride. Mr Briscoe agreed and carried out his duty as requested. As the happy couple were walking up the aisle, the groom recognised a woman whom he recognised. It was his wife - he was already married! In what sounds like a sketch from the Benny Hill Show the groom ran off down Bath Street in the direction of St George’s Road hotly pursued by wife number 1. Wife number 2, meanwhile, headed in the direction of Clarence Street. The newly-weds then met up in the Duke Of Clarence for a post-wedding drink, though the BEN suggested the groom might expect a charge of bigamy. [1]

The Manchester brewery of Threlfall’s owned the Duke Of Clarence for much of its existence. It became a Whitbread pub in 1967 after their takeover of Threlfall-Chester’s as it then was.

The Duke Of Clarence limped on after the big brewers’ stranglehold was broken in the early nineties but it redevelopment of the housing around the pub led to a shrinking customer base. Houses on Bath Street were demolished in the early eighties and the land cleared for use as a car park. The pub closed around 1994 and was demolished in 1996. The Duke Street multi-storey car park was subsequently built on land from Bath Street to Duke Street, including land once occupied by the Duke Of Clarence.

The top of Bath Street pictured in 2012. The modest Bath Street car park has been replaced by the Duke Street multi-storey car park. The former Ben Topp’s hasn’t been used as a pub for some years. Image copyright Google Street View.

[1] Bolton Evening News, 15 July 1876 as recounted in the Looking Back feature of 21 August 2001. Retrieved 28 September2014.  

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

Joiners Arms, Deansgate

Joiners Arms pictured in 1900

The Joiners Arms was situated on Deansgate, opposite the Old Three Crowns.

The pub was one of Bolton’s oldest and appears on a 1778 list of Great Bolton licensed premises when Robert Yates was the licensee. [1]

By 1839 the Joiners Arms was in the hands of a wine and spirit merchant, Henry Bathe, and was nicknamed ‘Bathe’s Vaults’ – so called because of the area at the back of the pub where Bathe kept his stock. 

Bathe was there  until the 1860s and later retired to Wiltshire where he died in 1894.

The pub was later known as ‘T’Big Tub’.

The image above purports to show the Joiners Arms around 1870. It shows the landlord as being ‘R.Wright’. Richard Wright was the landlord in 1871, according to the local directory of the time. The modern-day image below shows architecture dating from the 1870s when the pub was rebuilt.

The Salford brewery Threlfalls took over the Joiners in 1891. Early in the twentieth century they sold off part of the front of the building to be converted into retail outlets. That left just the front entrace along with the rear of the building to continue to be used as a pub.

In 1937 the photographer Humphrey Spender took a number of photographs of the interior of the Joiners for the Mass Observation project. This is one of them. It’s from the Bolton Worktown website and is copyright Bolton Council. There are other examples of the inside of the pub here, here, and here. 

Threlfalls closed the pub and sold off the building in 1958. It continues to be used for a number of retail outlets.

The image below is of the building in April 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The entrance to the Joiners was at number 15, where Vision Express now is. 

The alleyway to the right of the building has been in existence since at least middle of the 19^th century and possibly earlier. At one time the thoroughfare led to a small street known as The Shambles, one of a number of small courts and alleyways in existence at that time in the centre of Bolton.

[1] Pubs Of Bolton Town Centre 1900-1986, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (1986).

St George's Hotel, St George's Road

Two images of the St George's Hotel on the corner of St George's Road and Knowsley Street. The image at the top dates from 1924 and is of the original building with W. Rothwell's chemist's shop next door. Both properties plus that at the top of Knowsley Street were demolished in 1927 and the new St George's Hotel arose in their place (see bottom picture). Images from the Bolton Libraries, Archive and Museum collection and are copyright Bolton Council. Click on the images for a larger view.

The St George’s Tavern – later the St George’s Hotel - was situated at the junction of St George’s Road and Knowsley Street, right opposite the church from which it and the street is was situated on took their names.

An early landlord was Henry Fishwick and he may well have been the founder of the St George’s Tavern. Fishwick was a tailor who, according to the 1841 Census, was living on St George’s Road along with his parents. It is likely that Fishwick persuaded his parents to open up their home as a pub - not just a beerhouse, as was common at the time, but as a public house fully licensed to sell wine and spirits as well as beer.

Unfortunately, Henry Fishwick didn’t have a long tenure at the St George’s. The pub opened in 1842 but he was dead just five years later. John Rollinson, previously the landlord at the Golden Lion on Churchgate, took over.

The St George’s Tavern later became the St George’s Hotel. The area around the pub changed as well. Knowsley Street didn’t exist when the pub opened in 1842. Instead Bath Street crossed St George’s Street, as it then was, and ended at Bark Street. A few yards beyond that a small wooden foot-bridge crossed the River Croal. There was a large timber yard where the Market Place shopping centre is now is. 

There was also a timber yard next door to the pub, where the Palais nightclub stood for many years. That remained in place until 1927 when work started on the Palais.

Also in 1927 the original St George’s Hotel closed and along with Rothwell’s chemist next door it was demolished and a new building replaced it. The original pub was owned by Magee’s but the Manchester brewery of JG Swales & Co Ltd were now in charge and they decided to completely rebuild it.

The new St George’s Hotel was a three-storey semi-circular building – an altogether much grander affair. But it was to last just a little more than 40 years.

The St George’s Hotel closed in January 1968. The building remained empty for four more years before being demolished in 1972. A number of other properties down as far as the Market Hall were also demolished, including the seemingly luckless Rothwell’s chemist’s shop which had moved just a few yards down Knowsley Street. Also demolished were Morris’s photographers, the Norweb showroom, the Scotch Wool and Hosiery Store and Proffit’s cycle service. [1]

The site remained empty for over 15 years, though it was used for parking until the Market Place was built in 1987-88. The shopping centre still stands on the site.

A number of images of the St George’s Hotel and Knowsley Street around the time of demolition in 1972 can be seen here, here  and here.

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

Two images of the area once occupied by the St George's Hotel. First is a 1975 view three years after the pub had been demolished. Secondly, from 2012, with the Market Place now on site (built 1987-88). 

Saddle Inn, 48 Bradshawgate

The Saddle Hotel, pictured shortly before it closed in 1970. Image taken from the Bolton Library and Museum Service collection (copyright Bolton Council).

The Saddle Hotel dated back to 1790 was originally known as the Weavers Arms. It stood on Bradshawgate, opposite the entrance to Wood Street and just two doors down from the Empire Inn (also known as the Volunteer). 

In his book, Bolton Pubs 1800 – 2000, Gordon Readyhough claims that the pub became known as the Saddle after the landlady married a local saddler. The tale does stand up to some scrutiny. In 1844 the landlady of the Weavers Arms was a spinster named Mary Kirkman. In December of that year she married Seth Holding, a local saddler. Certainly by 1848 the name of the pub had been changed to the Saddle.

While it may not necessarily have become popular with saddlers the pub did have its own club for local painters. However, the club was hit by tragedy in October 1852 with the suicide of the club's secretary Robert Lander. During the lunchtime of Friday 15 October 1852, Lander went to the Saddle and was served with threepence worth of gin by the landlady, Martha Ruff. He then took a green powder from his pocket and poured it into the glass before asking for another threepence worth of gin which he also poured into a glass. He then drank the substance but was found some time later by Mrs Ruff lying semi-conscious on a bench in the pub. She picked up the empty glass and on seeing a green residue at the bottom she gave it to a friend of Lander, William Goodwin. He tasted the substance and said it was some sort of medicine, something the semi-conscious Lander confirmed to Mrs Ruff. Goodwin, however, began to vomit although he was given hot tea that acted an emetic and he suffered no further ill-effects.

Lander was conveyed by cab to his home on Clarence Street but he was attended to by a doctor the following day after complaining of pains in the stomach and in the legs. He was visited by Goodwin although Lander told his friend he hadn't told the doctor about the green substance.

Lander made a partial recovery but died the following week aged just 23. At his inquest it transpired that immediately prior to going to the Saddle he had visited a druggist, Mr Morris, and bought two ounces of Emerald Green, a compound of arsenic and copper. He told Mr Morris it was for a special painting job he was doing but this was the green substance that eventually killed him, the arsenic having absorbed itself into his system. As to the reason for Lander's suicide it was reported that he had asked Mrs Ruff for her hand in marriage and been refused. She had been widowed – for the second time - earlier that year following the death of her husband, the German-born Ferdinand Ruff. At the inquest Mrs Ruff said there had been no intimacy between her and Lander that could have led him to expect that a marriage would have taken place.

By 1854, Martha Ruff had left the Saddle and it was now in the hands of William Morris. The connection with the Morris family was to last for the next 45 years.

Morris was in trouble on two occasions over the hours the pub kept: in July 1861 and in May 1864. On the first occasion he was fined 20 shillings plus costs. The second time he failed to appear in court but sent a woman who said she was in charge of the pub's vaults. On this occasion, though, William Morris was fined 40 shillings plus costs after police visited the vaults at eight o'clock one Sunday morning and found three men with glasses of ale in front of them having been served by the woman in charge. Sunday morning drinking was the most-committed hours offence with regards to pub licensing. It was the only day many people had off but they were expected to attend church on Sunday mornings and pubs officially remained closed until 12.30. Five years later, in 1869, Mr Morris converted his tap room into a restaurant.

Quite often the larger pubs in town had vaults or tap rooms that were reached by an entrance quite separate from the rest of the pub. Indeed, in 1873 the police took a number of pubs to court claiming vaults ought to be separately licensed. The Swan Hotel's vaults – still in existence and since 1992 known as Barrister's – was one of them. 

William Morris's son Nathaniel, was involved in a bizarre incident in 1868 on Crown Street bridge overlooking the River Croal. Young Morris and his companion, William Brierley, a bookkeeper of Kestor Street, fell into the river, a fall of some 40 feet. Morris broke both his thighs in the fall. Brierley wasn’t so lucky and died of his injuries some hours later.

William Morris died in 1872 and the licence of the Saddle was transferred to his widow, Elizabeth. But like her late husband, Elizabeth Morris was now in early seventies and it's likely that she took a back seat and left the running of the pub to her children, most likely to Nathaniel. Even so, she was active enough in 1882 – at the age of 81 – to oversee the catering on behalf of the pub at St George's church for the 50^th anniversary of Reverend Neville Jones' entry into the ministry. How successful the platter was can only be guessed at. The Bolton Evening News of 14 April that year seemed underwhelmed. “The proceedings commenced with what might be termed a cold collation supplied by Mrs Morris of the Saddle Hotel,” the paper's correspondent said.

By 1887 the Saddle was advertising itself on a weekly basis in a new publication, Cricket and Football Field. This Saturday evening newspaper was based in Mawdsley Street in Bolton. It began publication the previous year and published results of local and national sporting fixtures. Some readers may remember it under a later incarnation as The Buff.

Advertisements from the Saddle continued in Cricket and Football Field on a weekly basis until at least 1889. Certainly, this attracted a different kind of customer and a number of sporting bodies began to meet at the pub. The Bolton Cricket Association held its annual presentation night there, the Bolton Charity Cup football competition held its meetings, Bolton Rugby Union club held smoking concerts, while the Lancashire Football League practically made the pub its headquarters having been formed at a meeting there in 1889.

The landlord at this time was Nathaniel Morris (1854-1934) who had succeeded his mother as licensee. However, by 1901 he had given up the pub and was described on the census as a 'retired innkeeper' living at St Annes-On-Sea.

The two driving forces behind the Saddle as the 19^th century drew to a close were another of William Morris's sons, John James Morris, who succeeded Nathaniel as landlord and a man who was already well-known in the world of football, John James Bentley.

Between them the two JJ's had already made their marks outside the pub industry. John Morris was a successful architect who designed Wanderers' new ground at Burnden Park which opened in 1895 as well as the Rumworth Fever Hospital on Hulton Lane. JJ Bentley's football credentials were second to none. Born in Chapeltown near Turton in 1860 he was playing by 1878 for Turton FC – one of the pioneer clubs of football in Lancashire. In 1882 he began his own accountant's practice in Acresfield, just behind the Saddle. He already had experience of journalism having written match reports for Turton FC, but three years after setting up his accounting practice he became a journalist and was soon appointed editor of the influential Athletic News as well contributing columns to the Daily Express and Daily Mail. He also became secretary of Bolton Wanderers in 1885 at a time when the secretary was the de facto manager of the club. When Aston Villa director William McGregor came up with the idea of the Football League in 1888 he approached Bentley because of his influence within the Lancashire game. Bentley sold the idea to clubs in the north-west and Bolton, Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End and Burnley were all founder members when the league began on 30 September 1888. Bentley succeeded McGregor as the league's president in 1894, a position he would hold until 1910. When the League management committee held meetings in the north of the country in the 1890s they were often held at the Saddle.

John James Morris died in 1898. His estate was worth £10,750 – the equivalent today of around £1.3 million. His widow Louisa took on the pub but she soon decided to sell up. She oversaw a meal in April 1899 for the presentation of the Stanley Billiards Cup competed for by Conservative clubs in Westhoughton. The following month there was a meal and presentation for the Bolton Harriers athletics club (president JJ Bentley). But in June 1899 the Saddle Hotel Company Ltd was formed by Bentley to organise the purchase of the pub from Mrs Morris for the sum of £7000 – £880,000 at 2018 prices. Bentley himself became landlord even though he was still president of the Football League although he stepped aside in March 1901 when James Gorton took over.

Bentley was a shrewd operator in business as well as in football. He knew that Bolton Corporation wanted Bradshawgate near its junction with Deansgate. That meant a number of buildings would need to be demolished with the council planning new buildings to be constructed a few feet further back. The Saddle, the Ship Inn,  the Sun  and the Empire (formerly the Volunteer) were among the buildings that would need to be purchased by the council. As we have seen in the case of the Halliwell Lodge,  compulsory purchase powers were not always available and rather than go down the route of having an Act of Parliament passed the council would have to negotiate.

Just how much of a good deal Bentley got for the shareholders of the Saddle Hotel Company only became apparent in 1902. Robert Tootill, a candidate for the East ward in that year's borough elections and a future Labour MP for the town, demanded to know why the pub's “original price was so very seriously increased”. An auditor, Henry Duncan, was appointed by the Corporation to look at this and other matters raised by Mr Tootill.

The original Saddle pub is on the left of Preston's original shop on this image from the 1890s.

On 19 September 1903, the Bolton Evening News published Mr Duncan's report. JJ Bentley had indeed “very seriously increased” the price the Saddle Hotel Company Ltd paid for the pub. Their £7000 in 1899 investment had grown to a final selling price of £12,819 14 shillings and 9 pence in little more than three years. Mr Duncan reported that the pub was now being run as a 'Corporation Hotel' with takings running at between £50 and £56 a week over its first three weeks of operation. A manager was paid a wage of £6 17 shillings a week. But the purchase of the Saddle was to incur additional costs for the council. The owners of the Sun Hotel, realising the Saddle Hotel Company had got much more per yard of land than they did, went back to the Corporation to demand more – and got it.

Sport remained part of the Saddle in the final couple of years before its demolition for the Bradshawgate widening. It could be regarded as Bolton's first sports bar although perhaps not in the manner that we might recognise such an establishment today. However, it was still a venue for meetings and presentations of sporting organisations both local and regional.

Although JJ Bentley was no longer involved with the Saddle the Lancashire Football Association regularly met there. As for Bentley himself, he was regarded as “the most powerful man in English football” in the years before the close of the 19^th century – and yet he was running the Saddle for part of that time. He left the Football League's management committee in 1910 and two years' later he was appointed secretary-manager of Manchester United overseeing the club's relocation from its base at Clayton to Old Trafford. He stepped down from running the first team in 1914. His team-management style involved allowing the players to do as they pleased and that translated to poor results on the pitch. He finally ended his association with the club through ill-health in 1916 and he died at Chapeltown in 1918 at the age of 58.

The Corporation sold the Saddle before the Bradshawgate widening scheme got under way. The purchasers were Ross Monro, a local wine and spirit merchants who also ran a small number of public houses. Among those were the Bay Horse  on Deansgate and the Freemason'sArms  on Market Street in Farnworth. The latter is still known as "Monro's" to this day most likely due to the company's habit of plastering their corporate identity over their pubs at the expense of the pubs' real name.

Ross Monro put forward plans for a new Saddle in February 1904 but the plans were rejected by the Corporation. By now the council owned all the properties between Bromley's shop on the corner of Deansgate and the Pack Horse Hotel but with the exceptions of the Saddle and the Pack Horse. On 26 May 1904 there were applications for a licence for the proposed new Saddle as well as three other pubs: the Sun, the Empire and the Pack Horse. However, a doubt over whether the rebuilt pubs would be licensed was putting the whole of the widening scheme in doubt. Demolition of some of the old buildings had already begun and Bromley's were due to take possession of their land on 1 June – six days afterwards – to commence the building of their new premises. The council faced postponing their plans and a compensation bill of £40,000 so the licences for the three pubs were approved. The Saddle closed in June 1904 when Ross Monro began the sale of all its fixtures and fittings. Like the Pack Horse it was rebuilt and it reopened in 1905 16 feet behind its former site with rooms 12 feet high instead of eight feet to aid sanitation.

The new Saddle still entertained sporting organisations but its function rooms were also used for auctions. It was sold to the Warrington brewer Walker's who merged with Joshua Tetley of Leeds in 1960 to form Tetley Walker.

In the sixties the pub was on the circuit of popular watering holes for weekend drinkers. It also served 'Saddle pies', a delicacy made on the premises.

David Boardman on the I Belong To Bolton Facebook pagewrote: “Fantastic pub even before it was "done up". Could not move inside at the weekends.” Hilda Dearden Jones says:  Only pub to have a juke box in town centre early 60s."

There were also bands on in the upstairs room and Steve Crane says he attended folk clubs upstairs in the sixties. Bob Smalley adds: “Used to go to a folk club in the upstairs room every Sunday night in about 1965. A singer used to play there, a Welsh chap, Mike Stephens, always played a twelve string guitar, was very good. Happy memories.”

The Saddle was finally defeated by another scheme to improve Bradshawgate with the construction of the Arndale Centre. It was one of a block of properties between Fold Street up to but not including the Pack Horse that were all demolished in 1970.

The Arndale Centre was later renamed Crompton Place. Primark now stands on the site of the Saddle.

Stealing A Candlestick – A man named Wm Charnock was brought up for stealing a candlestick from the kitchen of the Saddle Inn, Bradshawgate. Henry Roberts, who was working in an adjoining room, saw the prisoner commit the theft. Charnock stated to the magistrates that he had come from Rochdale, that he had no work, and received 2 shillings a week in parochial relief. The bench committed him for fourteen days as a vagrant. - Bolton Chronicle, 22 April 1848.

Bradshawgate from Fold Street looking up towards Nelson Square pictured around 1900 shortly before the row was demolished for the widening of Bradshawgate. Looking from the street corner, T Bromley’s Fine Art Repository is followed by Preston’s jewellers and then the Saddle. The single-storey building at the far end of the row is the Pack Horse Hotel. Image taken from the Bolton Library and Museum Service collection (copyright Bolton Council).

Volunteer Inn, Empire Lounge, Jolly Sailor, Bradshawgate

This photograph shows the Volunteer Inn on the far right of the picture. It was taken just before its conversion into the Empire Lounge which took place in 1890.

The Volunteer Inn began life as the Jolly Sailor towards the end of the 18^th century. There was no pub by that name on the 1778 list of Great Bolton Ale Houses so it must have become licensed premises during the final two decades of that century.

The Volunteer was noted as a meeting place for one of Bolton’s earliest Masonic lodges. According to Lane’s Masonic Records the St John’s Lodge, which was instituted in 1795 and continued until as recently as 2005, met at the Volunteer from 1811 to 1812 and from 1816 to 1820. [1]

A fire at the pub in October 1877 caused £700 worth of damage.

In 1890 the Volunteer was refurbished as the Empire Lounge – and quite a refurbishment it sounds, as well. With Axminster carpets and mahogany fittings it was out of the league of most of the Bolton townsfolk. [2] No doubt there were prices to match but there is no word as to whether the proprietor had security on the doors or if more down-at-heel patrons began to be allowed in when the pub was quiet. 

Whatever, in 1904 the Empire Lounge was demolished. Bolton Council decided to widen Bradshawgate and in order to do this they had to clear  the whole of the western side of the street from the Deansgate end down to Nelson Square. The Empire was pulled down along with its near neighbour the Ship and a number of other properties. Neither were rebuilt. The Bradshawgate side of the Primark store marks the spot where the Volunteer once stood.

Four brewing companies had an interest in the property at one time or another: Allsopps of Burton-on-Trent and also the local firms of William Tong, John Atkinson and Magee, Marshall. It appears as a Magee’s pub in the above picture.

[1] Lane’s Masonic Records. Retrieved 23 September 2014. 

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

Junction Inn, Howell Croft

This photograph comes from the Bolton Museum collection and is copyright Bolton Council. It  was taken in 1910 and is practically the only record we have of the Junction Inn, a beerhouse that stood on the corner of Howell Croft and Spring Gardens.

Howell Croft still exists, though it is cut in two by the Town Hall. Spring Gardens no long exists, though its back street,  Back Spring Gardens is still there running in between Lever Chambers and the former Odeon Cinema.

The Junction Inn, which was owned by William Tong’s, had closed in 1908, two years before the photo was taken. It doesn’t appear to have been a pub for too  long. There is no beerhouse at its address - 21-23 Howell Croft - in the 1871 Bolton Directory, so it was only licensed premises for around 30 years or so. 

The empty pub has posters on the front advertising forthcoming shows at the Hippodrome, a theatre just a few yards from Howell Croft which was demolished in 1968. A car park now stands on the site of the Hippodrome.

The Junction, along with all the buildings in the forefront of this photograph, was later demolished. The Civic Centre and Bolton Central police station was later built on the site.

Note the chimneys of the Queens Foundry in the background to the picture.

Howell Croft North, as it now is, seen from the junction with Deansgate in May 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The Central Police station stood for many years on the site of the Junction Inn.

Scamps, Dance Factory, Bradshawgate

Scamps advert from 1983

The Lido Cinema was opened on Bradshawgate by John Buckley Theatres Ltd on 27 March 1937 with Jesse Matthews in Evergreen. However, the cinema was also able to accommodate live shows and George Formby, Laurel and Hardy, and Flanagan and Allen were among the acts to grace its stage. The cinema was bought by the Star Cinema chain in 1962 and was even used as a bingo hall and a casino for a short time. By 1963 it was the Studio Cinema and in 1970 the former cafe was converted into another screen known as Studio 2.

In 1973 Star Cinemas applied for planning permission to turn part of the premises into a discotheque to be known as Scamps. There would be a central dance floor with two bars, a DJ booth, and “cocoons” of tables and seating. With planning permission granted contractors W.R. Stott of Nelson completed the conversion in just 10 weeks at a cost of £130,000 – the equivalent of almost £1.5 million in 2026.

Scamps opened on 5 October 1973 promising some of the most technologically advanced lighting and sound systems in the country and a library of over 3000 records. The club would be open from 8pm to 2am every Monday to Saturday with admission prices ranging from 35p on Mondays to 80p at the weekends with surcharges after 10.30pm every Friday and Saturday nights. But a little more than 12 months after opening Scamps was hit by a fire that caused it to remain closed for over six weeks. The club had closed for the night in the early hours of 23 December 1974 and the fire was started by a Farnworth man who had been banned from the premises on three separate occasions and who had hidden himself on the premises. He was sent to jail for five years.

Ad from January 1977

Towards the end of 1976 the management of Scamps made the bold move of putting on strippers and topless go-go dancers at lunchtime. Admission was cut to 10p for the shows which lasted from 12.30 until 3 in the afternoon. Among the 'turns' appearing at that time were Pauline Smith and Her Amazing Dancing Bear and a Barbarella/2001: A Space Odyssey theme performed by 'Moon Girl'. But the strip shows didn't last and came to an end less than nine months later in September 1977. The 10p admission fee wasn't covering the cost of hiring one stripper and one topless dancer a day and a spokesman for the club hinted that perhaps the men of Bolton were suffering from stripper fatigue. The agency Scamps were using only had a limited supply of girls which meant the same ones were appearing again after a while. That meant the novelty value was wearing off.

One popular initiative at Scamps was the 'Roxy/Bowie' night that began in September 1979. By 1981 this was known as the 'Electric Night'. For older patron there were Beatles and Rolling Stone nights on a Tuesday.

In October 1981, the Greater Manchester real ale drinkers' magazine What's Doing noted with some surprise that Scamps was selling cask Greenall’s Bitter but at 70p a pint. That was when the average price of a pint in Bolton had yet to reach 50p. It was also unusual to find Greenall’s served through a handpump as it was in Scamps. Other real ale outlets in the town was selling Greenall's via electric meter dispense.

From around 1982 Scamps was appearing in the local press for all the wrong reasons with an increasing number of people appearing in court following fights at Scamps. In April of that year an unemployed youth from Little Hulton was fined following an altercation outside the club after his girlfriend's handbag had been kicked while she was dancing. In June a lone policeman faced up to 20 angry youths during an incident outside the club. One of the youths was sent to prison. In October a man was fined following an altercation with a bouncer. Police told the court that the night in question saw a number of fights in the vicinity of the club.

Gigs at Scamps around this time included local band Suma Suma, Howard The Duck, and jazz-funk outfits Men Of Brass and Animal Nightlife. The latter were promoted by Horwich fan Lorna McEveley. Animal Nightlife went on to have top 40 success with singles Mr Solitaire and Love Is Just The Great Pretender.

After almost ten years as Scamps it was time for a renovation and on 9 June 1983 the club re-opened as the Dance Factory. Over the coming months there were live appearances by Set The Tone and All About Eve. JoBoxers appeared in September 1983 after their single Boxerbeat had got to number 3 in the charts. But it was reported that some bands were having their sound checks cut short because the club's new sound system interfered with films being shown at the cinema next door.

Ad from May 1985

Dance Factory's electro-funk and soul nights were successful – good news for a Monday night, often the quietest night of the week. Disco dancing championships were also a success. There was controversy when the club booked topless girl boxers, known as Punch And Booby. The minister at Bank Street Chapel called the act “degrading and depraved”so the girls invited the minister to come and see the act. It isn't known if he went along. It was a little close to the bone for some, but perhaps not as much as the Miss Stockings And Suspenders competition held for the one and only time in 1986. The Bolton Evening News ran a report on the contest along with a photograph of the top three placed contestants. But there were red faces all round when someone pointed out that the girl who finished third was only 15 years old. Club manager Barry Mulrooney said she would have been asked to put her name, age and address on the form she had to fill in on entering, but the girl said that her age was never checked.

Despite the new identity the Dance Factory was still having the same problems with the police. After an incident in April 1985 where a policeman ended up in hospital after being hit by a breeze block trying to break up one of several fights outside the club, a senior officer said that trouble was happening “too often” at closing time. “We have been monitoring the situation for some time and intend to do everything in our power to stamp out this violence,” he added. The violence didn't end. In December 1985 there was a night of trouble involving a stag party from Lancaster, and the following March a couple leaving the cinema next door were attacked by people queuing to get into the club in what seems to have been an unprovoked attack.

Despite all that, the Dance Factory won the Top North West Disco award organised by trade newspaper Club Mirror. At that stage the club was presenting high-energy on Wednesdays, organised parties on Thursdays, and special events and promotions on Fridays. Saturdays saw the under-age disco Club 17 up to 10pm and mainstream pop and funk for an 18-25 audience thereafter. Entrance fees ranged from £1 to £2.50, beer was £1 a pint and shorts with a mixer around £1.15

By October 1987 the Dance Factory was up for sale. It closed down the following year and in 1992 the premises became Laser Quest. That lasted for 12 years until the whole building was demolished and apartments built in its place.

The former Lido/Studio 1,2 and 3/Cannon Cinema on Bradshawgate pictured in May 2012. Flats now occupy the site. A Bolton News article here on cinema in Bolton shows a shot from same angle in 1986 looking at the Dance Factory on the right side of the cinema building.

Flag Hotel, Great Moor Street

Great Moor Street looking towards the Flag Hotel circa 1962. This image taken from the Bolton Archive collection and is copyright Bolton Council. The row of shops on the right of the image were built just a few years earlier and are still there. In the near distance – in front of the Flag – is Howell Croft bus station.

The Flag Hotel stood on Great Moor Street just in front of where Elizabeth House is now situated.

The pub dates from the early-1820s and apparently got its name from a huge flagstone 15 feet square and weighing over six tons that was transported from a local quarry to Great Moor Street. [1] Eight dray horses using chains and rollers were deployed in  the operation and the flagstone was used to cover part of the floor. Only a small part. Fifteen feet square is equal to less than four feet long by four feet wide.

The pub first appears in the local directory for 1824 when the licensee was Robert Warr. By the time the 1836 record was published Warr had been succeeded by John Eglin who also ran the Bay Horse on Deansgate. Eglin was briefly succeeded by David Morris before James Lowe began a long tenureship around 1842.

From the late-1850s the Flag was run by the Harrison family. Robert Harrison hailed from Liverpool, his wife Ellen was a Bolton girl. By 1871 Robert was off the scene - the Duke Of Clarence on Bath Street was owned at the same time by a Robert Harrison who may have been the same person. Meanwhile, Ellen Harrison was running the Flag alongside her mother, Elizabeth Ratcliffe. Indeed, the 1871 Bolton Directory gives Mrs Ratcliffe as the licensee. But it was Ellen Harrison who was not only the proprietor but was also the brewer as the Flag produced its own ales in a small brewery at the back of the pub.

Ellen Harrison died in 1888 at the early age of just 51. The Flag was eventually bought by Magee, Marshall and Co and remained a Magee’s house until their takeover by Greenall Whitley in 1958. Many Magee’s pubs retained their livery until the brewery was closed by Greenall’s in 1970.

The Flag was eventually bought by Magee, Marshall and Co and remained a Magee's house until their takeover by Greenall Whitley in 1958. Many Magee’s pubs retained their livery until the brewery was closed by Greenall’s in 1970.

It’s hard to believe but in those days the Flag was in the middle of a residential area. Howell Croft ran from Deansgate to Great Moor Street and right behind the pub – on the site of what is now Elizabeth House – was a row of houses.  Houses were also situated at the side of the pub on land that for many years was Bolton Wholesale Market but which is now the Octagon Car Park. When the market moved to Ashburner Street in 1932 the site became Howell Croft bus station until 1969. A post office and the Railway Hotel stood on the opposite side of Great Moor Street to the Flag.

In the end, the needs of the motor car and, to a lesser degree, of local government marked the end for the Flag. The closure of Howell Croft bus station in 1969 robbed the pub of some of its passing trade, but in any case its days were already numbered. The construction of local government offices at Elizabeth House meant the pub was to be cleared to make way for parking. This photograph from the Bolton News archive shows the Flag in 1970. Elizabeth House can be seen rising in the background.

The Flag closed in November 1970 and was demolished three months later in February 1971. The exact spot of the pub is by the pelican crossing in front of Elizabeth House.

This image of the Flag comes from 1937 and comes from the Bolton Worktown collection (copyright Bolton Council). It is one of only three shots taken by photographer Humphrey Spender using flash photography. The  image depicts the Flag with its customers leaving at last orders, which in those days were at 10pm every night of the week.

Soho Tavern, Trinity Street

Crook Street at the junction of Thynne Street and Trinity Street. The Soho Tavern stood on the corner of Trinity Street and Crook Street at a time when Trinity Street curved round by the front of Holy Trinity church in the distance to meet Crook Street.

The Soho Tavern was situated at number 1, Trinity Street. It took its name from the Soho Foundry, built across the road on Crook Street in 1832 and which was, until 2002, the headquarters of Hick, Hargreaves and Co.

The Soho Tavern came much later. It dated from the late-1850s and existed as licensed premises for little more than 50 years. William Edgerley was the licensee in both 1861 1871. Edgerley was a brewer by trade and may well have brewed his own beer at the pub. By 1880 he was gone -living in Union Buildings where the Wellington had its own brewery - and Preston-born Robert Wilcock was in charge of the Soho. He died just two years later.

Competition was tough at that end of town. The British Queen was just a few doors along while the Railway Hotel  across the road where the interchange now stands. The Sweet Green Tavern and the Painters Arms were both just a few yards away and there were numerous beer houses along Crook Street.

In 1910 the Soho Tavern closed. It was used as a hairdressers in the twenties and thirties and was later demolished. John Doherty is listed as the proprietor of a gentleman's hairdressers on the premises in the 1924 Bolton Directory.

Although the pub was situated on Trinity Street, the layout of the roads in the area was somewhat different prior to the construction of the dual carriageway in 1978-79. In those days Trinity Street curved round in front of Holy Trinity church to meet Crook Street. The Soho would have been almost in front of the church near to the slip road leading from what is now the end of Thynne Street onto the extended Trinity Street dual carriageway.

Ancient Shepherd, Bold Street

Bold Street in 1962. This picture is from the Bolton Archives collection. Copyright Bolton Council. 

The Ancient Shepherd is on the left-hand side in the distance. Shops on the left include  Openshaw's Surgical Aid store and Orrell's DIY ("Don't hesitate - decorate!"). 

Bold Street in May 2012 (copyright Google Street View). Openshaw's and Orrell's have gone, the latter replaced by The Hub, built in 1990.



On the 1841 Census results for Bolton, Samuel Boardman of Bold Street was listed as a Mechanic. By the time the 1843 Bolton Directory was printed, Samuel was a ‘beer retailer’ and his modest home at number 11 was a beer house named the Odd Fellows Arms. Boardman ran the pub until he died in 1851, aged 49. His wife Margaret then took over.

Lawrence Kenyon was the licensee in 1871. He moved to the pub in 1865 having married another widowed landlady, Ellen Whalley. Her first husband, Gilbert Whalley, was licensee after the Boardmans.

The pub was renamed the Ancient Shepherd.  It was bought by Magee’s and it became a Greenall’s pub when they sold out in 1958. 

The Ancient Shep was sold on to Thwaites’ in the early eighties.

Ancient Shepherd in 1978

Through all that time the pub retained its unspoilt traditional look: a central entrance leading to a vault on the left-hand side and a lounge on the right. And that’s pretty much how it remained until 1998.

That’s when Thwaites decided that the Ancient  Shepherd’s licence would be put to be  better use at a new property they were developing on Nelson Square.  So in 1998 the Ancient Shepherd closed and the licence was transferred to Red On The Square. That lasted until around 2005 before becoming the Olive Press restaurant and is now Blind Tiger.

The Ancient Shepherd was sold by Thwaites and converted into small flats.  This picture, from 1990, shows the pub with its Thwaites livery and new building just finishing construction next door.