Shorn of its pub
signage, but still a classic example of late-nineteenth century pub
architecture, Arkwrights Ale House in late 2014. The pub was awaiting sale as a
residential property.
Article updated 18 January 2022 with photos of the pub from 1964 (see below).
In olden days, a pub
given the sign of the name of an occupation would denote that it was often used
as a meeting place for workers in that trade. But the increased number
of licensed premises when beerhouse licences became freely available after
1830 led to new entrants into the trade and many of those named their pubs after
a former profession or after the trade of members of their family.
In 1871, Ralph Southern
was a gardener living at number 2 Valletts Buildings, just off Valletts Lane.
Ralph was 61 and a widow and he lived with his two sons, William (25), who was
also a gardener, and 21-year-old Alfred who was working as a butcher and who,
before long, had opened up a meat stall in the Market Hall in town.
Next door to the
Southerns, at number 4 Valletts Buildings, was a beerhouse run by one of their
relatives, Moses Halliwell, and his family. This enterprise was short-lived,
but later in the 1870s, Alfred opened a beerhouse of his own at number 10 Cope
Bank, just a bit further up Valletts Lane, and he named it the Gardeners Arms
in honour of his father and his brother. Sadly, this venture didn’t work out.
In June 1883, Alfred Southern petitioned for bankruptcy at the Bolton County
Court with debts estimated at £1300 – a huge sum in those days.
The Gardeners Arms was bought by
local brewers Joseph Sharman’s. But as the nineteenth century wore on, the area
around Valletts Lane and Cope Bank became more populous and the decision was
made to rebuild the pub a little further down from Cope Bank on
Valletts Lane itself, next to a bowling
green that the brewery already owned. The new Gardeners Arms opened in 1895.
Sharman’s were taken
over by Shaw’s of Leigh in 1927 and like the rest of Shaw’s estate the pub was
bought by Walker Cain Ltd in 1931.
The Manchester Archives hold this image of the Gardeners during the Sharman’s era. It has been dated to
around 1920 when the landlord would have been Percy Stafford.
The Bolton News published
a piece about the pub towards the end of 2014 and they received this response
from a Mr Hardman:
"Valletts Lane
used to run from Church Road to Ivy Road and off the lane was Horrocks Street
and Benson Street. On the other side was a council land fill site.
"The pub was
called the Gardeners' Arms and the landlord was a former international football
called Donaldson.
"He turned the
bowling green into a football pitch for the young of the area, which put the
old men's backs up," he says. [1]
This would have been in
the 1950s. Alex Donaldson was born in 1890 in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire. An
outside forward, he was signed by Bolton Wanderers in 1912 from Scottish minor
side Ripley Athletic. He spent nine years at Burnden Park in a career that was
interrupted by World War I before leaving for Sunderland in 1921. He subsequently had
spells at Manchester City, Chorley and Ashton National and made six
international appearances for Scotland, most of those caps earned during his
time at Bolton. [2]
After his playing
career ended, Mr Donaldson opened a sports shop in Gorton, Manchester, but he
eventually went into the licensed trade and ran the Gardeners Arms during the
late-forties and early-fifties. He was running the pub in 1951 when his
20-year-old daughter June married a local motor mechanic, Frederick Parkinson and the couple lived at the pub after they wed. Alex Donaldson died in Bolton in
1972.
The layout of the
Gardeners was of a classic pub design. The lounge-best rooms were on the left
of the entrance while the vault – and its curved bar - was to the right of the
entrance.
The pub was nicknamed ‘The
Monkey’s Nest’ though the origin of this name isn’t known.
The Gardeners became a
Tetley pub when they took over Walkers in 1960. The bowling green was
eventually converted into a car park and after another licensee fell into
bankruptcy, the Gardeners was sold into the free trade in the mid-1980s. It
became Arkwrights Ale House in an attempt to give a typical down-to-earth feel
to a traditional pub.
But despite being based
in a built-up area, Arkwright’s struggled particularly during its final years.
Licensees came and went – there were 11 changes of supervisor between 2005 and
2013. The pub closed in June 2014 and was sold for residential use later that
year. Trust Inns, the Chorley company that were its final owners, were looking
for just £165,000 for what was a sizeable property.
The property’s
Rightmove entry for its 2014 may still be seen here.
The pub was sold and was later demolished to be replaced by housing.
The pub was sold and was later demolished to be replaced by housing.
[1] Bolton News, 21 January 2015. Accessed 27 May 2015.
[2] Wikipedia entry for Alex Donaldson.
Accessed, 27 May 2015.
Thanks to reader Tony Kelly for these photos of the Gardeners Arms taken in 1964.
