This old postcard was from 1905 was put on Google Earth by Mel Travers. It shows the Railway on the left in the middle of the picture. Willows Lane runs down by the side of the pub.
The Railway Hotel was situated on the corner of Willows Lane
and St Helens Road, but at the time it opened in the 1860s the Railway Tavern,
as it was then known, was the first building beyond the Bolton borough boundary
which was marked by Willows Lane.
The first landlord was James Hodson. He was the son of Peter Hodson, who had run
the nearby Ram’s Head for a number of years and like his father he initially
opened the pub as a dual-purpose establishment. Not only was the Railway a
beerhouse, but it was also a butcher’s shop.
The pub’s name came from the Bolton to Leigh railway line
which opened in 1828 and which still ran just a couple of hundred yards away
along what is now Auburn Street. The route was diverted in 1885 to run under
Ellesmere Road and Higher Swan Lane.
But James wasn’t destined to be at the Railway for long. His
mother had been running the Ram’s Head following the death of his father and by
1870 and at the age of 62 she wanted to give up the pub trade. James made the
decision to quit the Railway and he moved to the Ram’s Head in 1870.
The new landlord of the Railway was perhaps the youngest
licensee in Bolton at that tome. Thomas Grundy Orrell was just 21 years old
when he moved into the pub. He was joined by his wife, Mary Ellen (nee Gee) –
who was only 18. The couple were married in February 1870, at which time Thomas
was a patternmaker. A child, Edith, was born in the middle of 1870.
But Thomas had lofty ambitions beyond the pub trade. Daubhill
formed part of the old township of Rumworth, part of which was incorporated
into the County Borough of Bolton in 1872. The new Rumworth ward was entitled
to send two councillors to the town hall, but in November 1880, one of the
ward’s councillors, Councillor John Miles was elevated to the post of Alderman.
That left a council vacancy for Rumworth. Thomas Grundy Orrell was named as the
Conservative party candidate and as the Liberals failed to put up a candidate
Orrell was elected unopposed. He was just 29 years old. [1]
Thomas wasn’t a councillor for long. He completed his
three-year term and then stepped down from the council and concentrated on
running his pub. And it was a fully-licensed public house before long. The
premises – now comprising number 2 and number 4 on St Helens Road – had been a
beerhouse since its inception, but the closure of the Rose and Crown on
Deansgate meant that a full licence was up for grabs. The Railway’s nearby
competitor, the Ram’s Head was already fully licensed and had been for many
years so to bring himself on a par with one of his competitors Thomas
successfully applied for a transfer of the Rose and Crown’s license. That means
the Railway could also serve wine and spirits.
Thomas Grundy Orrell died at the Railway on 5 February 1890,
just 40 years old and four days short of his 20th wedding
anniversary. Twenty years of being in the pub trade had been good to him and he
left an estate worth £1785 – the equivalent today of around £200,000 in today’s
money. His wife, Mary went to live in Blackpool where she died in 1923 at the age
of 73. She never remarried.
The immediate fate of the Railway lay within Mary’s family.
The Gees already owned the Royal Hotel on Vernon Street which was being run by
Mary’s brother, Robert. Another brother, John Heaton Gee, worked as a maltster
and he took over the Railway after Thomas Orrell’s death.
Perhaps John wasn’t cut out for the pub trade. By 1905
Joseph Rowlinson was in charge and according to the 1911 Census the pub was
doing well enough for Joseph to employ three bar staff who lived on the
premises.
In his reminiscences of the area, local historian Norman
Kenyon said that while he often drank at the Waggon and Horses further up St
Helens Road he and his father-in-law Bill Morgan occasionally drank at the
Railway, which Bill thought was a better class of pub.
Norman tells an amusing story of how his brother-in-law,
Cliff Atkinson, who suffered from poor eyesight at the best of times, spent one
winter’s Saturday night drinking at the Railway. He had been out earlier on in
the day and was somewhat the worst for wear so his pals decided to walk him
home to nearby Shepley Avenue. They left him at his garden gate and went back
to the pub just as it began to snow. Later, on their way home, they went back
to Shepley Avenue. As they approached Cliff’s gate they could see a huge pile
of snow. It was Cliff, still draped over his garden gate having passed out and
been covered in snow as it fell. [2]
Both the Railway and the Royal were taken over by the
Salford brewery Threlfalls and they owned both pubs until 1967 when the brewery
was taken over by Whitbread.
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| The Railway pictured in 1978 |
Real ale drinkers celebrated the sporadic return of cask
beer to the Railway on a number occasions. In 1978, a new real ale called
Special Cask Bitter was trialled at a number of local pubs, including the
Railway. [3]
In 1981, Dutton’s Cask Bitter was put on sale in the pub. [4]
In the early eighties Whitbread were refurbishing their pubs
in a distinct style that wasn’t altogether welcome by the brewery’s critics.
But the Railway was given just a lick of paint and escaped the usual peephole
barrels and sewing machines used as tables. [5] A couple of years later cask
Trophy Bitter (‘the pint that thinks it’s a quart’) was on sale. [6]
In the late eighties, the Blackburn brewer Matthew Brown
took over the Railway and in the early nineties they renamed it Shamrock’s, a
vaguely Irish-themed pub. But, as with pubs on all main routes in and out of
Bolton, Derby Street and St Helens Road have suffered from pub closures and the
Shamrock shut in 1997. The building has been subdivided into small retail units
on the ground floor and flats on the top floor.
* Anyone with any interest in the history of the area should look at the excellent Daubhill website containing articles and old photos of the area. Click here.
[1] Annals Of Bolton, John Clegg, 1888.
[2] Bolton, Daubhill and Deane: A Sentimental Journey, by
Norman Kenyon. Published by Neil Richardson (1998).
[3] What’s Doing. The Greater Manchester Beer Drinkers’
Monthly Magazine. October 1978 issue. Extract accessible here.
[4] What’s Doing. July 1981. Extract accessible here.
[5] What’s Doing, June 1983. Extract accessible here.
[6] What’s Doing, October 1983. Extract accessible here.
Thank you for the acknowledgement
ReplyDeleteMel Travers