Greengate Inn, 19-21 Hammond Street

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Hammond Street ran between Derby Street and Parrot Street. In 1851 the Staffordshire-born James Mullett lived in Parrot Street with his wife Alice and his mother Hannah and he worked as a boilermaker. Later in that decade the family moved to number 21 Hammond Street and opened the Greengate Inn. The census records for 1861 describe Mullett as a boilermaker and beerseller, so the pub was obviously a sideline most likely being run by his wife.

Alice Mullett died in July 1864 at the age of 50. James married again in March 1868, this time to Elizabeth Edgeler (nee Hough), a widow from Nelson Square. James and Elizabeth had a daughter, Alice, who was born in 1869, but the family left the Greengate a few years later.  James died in June 1875 and Elizabeth and Alice went to live with Elizabeth’s mother in Lever Street. They were at Leach Street, off Bridgeman Street, when Elizabeth died in 1898.

Levi Leach succeeded James Mullett at the Greengate around 1872. He was the son of James Leach who owned the Albert Inn and Leach’s Brewery on Derby Street and it is likely that Leach’s supplied the Greengate. Levi Leach died an early death. He passed away in 1895 at the age of 47, but by then he had moved on to the Tanners Arms on Lever Street.

The Greengate was bought by Robert Wood of the Prince Arthur brewery and was owned by that company until 1916 when it ceased trading. Wood's pubs were bought by William Tong’s of Deane Road and became the Greengate became a Walker’s pub when they took over Tong’s in 1923.

In 1933, Walker’s closed the Greengate as part of a complex deal with the local licensing magistrates. The brewery wanted the beerhouse licences of the Nightingale on Lever Street, the Vulcan on Junction Road, and the King William The Fourth on Manchester Road to be upgraded to full public licences enabling them to sell wines and spirits as well as beer. But the authorities would only countenance such a move if licences of beerhouses were given  up at a rate of two to one.

The Nightingale, the Vulcan and the King Bill all got their full licenses, but the Greengate was one of seven beerhouses that closed to facilitate the transfer. Also shutting their doors as part of the deal were the Masons Arms on Emblem Street, the Merehall Inn on Lyon Street, the Black Horse at Chew Moor, the Old Robin Hood on Lever Street, the Three Tuns on Chapel Street and the Arrowsmiths Arms on Mill Street.

The Greengate had started out at 21 Hammond Street, but by the 1890s it had expanded into the property next door, number 19. Following its closure the pub was converted back into two residential properties.

Hammond Street was demolished in the late-sixties. Burford Drive stands roughly on the same spot.

Burford Drive, off Parrot Street, pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View). The houses on the left of the row - seen here - corresponded to the row on the right-hand side of Hammond Street. The Greengate was roughly halfway along this row.