New Inn, 45 Coe Street

The New Inn pictured shortly before its closure in 1960.

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The New Inn was situated at 45 Coe Street on the corner of the junction with Maxfield Street. It was known as the New Inn presumably to differentiate it from the Coe Street Tavern  just over the road. The Tavern was the senior of the two pubs with the New Inn opening in the 1860s.

William Hamer was an early landlord at this pub-brewery but he left in the mid-1870s and Joseph Mangnall took over. Joseph was a Chorley man and a joiner by trade, but his father had run a pub in Chorley so he was no stranger to the licensed trade. Joseph had married his wife Ann in Belmont and the couple’s son was born in the village, but by 1868 the family were living in Bolton and residing at Bamber Street, off Derby Street, by 1871.

The 1876 Directory shows Joseph Mangnall as the owner of the New Inn, but Ann died in 1882 at the age of just 50 and that may have been the catalyst for Joseph’s exit from the pub.  He re-married in 1886, to Hannah Walker, a widow from Great Lever, but his trade at the time of marriage is described as a joiner. By 1891 the couple were living on St Helens Road with Joseph described as an ‘out of work joiner’. He died in 1900.

As an aside, Joseph’s son James Ernest Mangnall achieved some fame in the world of football. Ernest – he dropped the first name - was educated at Bolton School and was a notable amateur goalkeeper in his youth playing for the Lancashire FA side. He was appointed a director of Bolton Wanderers in the 1890s, but he was approached to become manager of Burnley in 1899. He moved to Manchester United in 1903 where he was responsible for the building of the club’s Old Trafford ground. He led United to their first major honours with two league titles and an FA Cup before leaving in 1912 for a 12-year stint as manager of Manchester City. He wasn’t as successful at City, failing to win any trophies, but he oversaw the club’s move to Maine Road. He was also instrumental in setting up the Central League competition for reserve sides, and the Football Managers Association. [1] [2] [3]

 Joseph Mangnall was succeeded at the New Inn by Thomas Aspden. Thomas was another Chorley man who had spent a number of years living in Breightmet where he had worked as a brewer. There were no commercial breweries in Breightmet at that time so it is likely that he brewed for a number of individual pubs in the area that had their own small breweries.

The 45-year-old Thomas Apsden was listed at the New Inn on Coe Street in the 1891 Census. His wife Sarah was 47 and their daughter 21-year-old Mary helped out at the pub until her marriage to Frederick Beech in 1895. But Thomas wasn’t at the New Inn for long and was described as a ‘retired beer seller’ living on Chorley Old Road in 1901. He lived there until he died in 1922. His estate of £6020 wasn’t bad for a jobbing brewer and pub landlord – the equivalent of over £260,000 today.

The New Inn was sold to Wingfield’s of Nelson Square in the 1890s – perhaps by Thomas Aspden. The Nelson family took over from Thomas Aspden, first William Nelson and then, from 1912, his son Walter.

A series of takeovers saw the New Inn change hands. Wingfield’s were taken over by the Manchester Brewery Company in 1899. They were in turn taken over by the Salford firm of Walker and Homfray’s in 1912. Wilson’s bought out Walker and Homfray’s in 1949 and it was as a Wilson’s house that the New Inn closed. Gordon Readyhough puts this at around 1960. [4]

The properties on Coe Street and its neighbouring streets were all demolished during the late-fifties and early-sixties. The 1954 street map shows that the row of houses opposite the New Inn had already been demolished. Unlike Maxfield Street, Coe St wasn’t entirely wiped off the map, but instead of rows of terraced houses it has hosted an industrial estate for the past 50 years.

[1] Mangnall family. Accessed 16 February 2015  

[2] Wikipedia. Accessed 16 February 2015 

[3] Clarets Mad. Accessed 16 February 2015 

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

Coe Street pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View).  The spare land next to the Folsana works has never been built on, but the gates were once on the corner of Maxfield Street. The New Inn was on the far side of that corner.