Kings Arms, 177 Chorley Old Road

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The Kings Arms pictured in the early-1930s. The shot was taken by Walkers as part of a pictorial review of their tied estate in the Bolton area. The old St Luke’s church is pictured to the right of the pub. Its foundation stone was linked by local dignitary Peter Ainsworth of Smithills Hall in 1869. The church opened by licence in 1871 and was consecrated in 1874. It was destroyed by fire in the early-1970s and was replaced by a single-story building. St Luke’s Street runs to the left of the pub. Note the separate entrance to the vault on the corner of the pub. That had long since been bricked over when this writer first drank there in the late-seventies.

The Kings Arms on Chorley Old Road dated back to the late-1870s. A small pub, its layout was similar to that of the Dog and Partridge on Manor Street: a small vault to the left of the main entrance, a pool room towards the rear and a large lounge running along the whole of the right-hand side of the pub.

The first recorded landlord was John Balshaw (1855-1894) who was already living at the pub in 1881 along with his wife Sarah. The couple married in 1876. Sarah’s family hailed from the Daubhill area and the 1871 Census has her living with her family on Swan Lane.

Oddly, the 1891 census has John and Sarah living around the corner in St Luke’s Street.

After John died in 1894, Sarah took over the pub. She met Walter Brown and the couple married in 1896, but they remained at the Kings Arms until at least 1911. However, the pub had earned the nickname of 'Balshaw's' by which it was known locally for many years after.

The Kings was owned by Robert Wood of the Prince Arthur brewery, but it was sold to Tong’s of Deane after wartime raw material restrictions forced Wood’s to cease brewing in 1917. Tong’s in turn sold out to Walker Cain Ltd of Liverpool in 1923 and the pub fell into the hands of Tetley after they bought Walker’s in 1960. Admiral Taverns were the owners when the Kings closed in the summer of 2010. The premises were converted  into offices and are now occupied by a legal firm.

The Kings Arms pictured around 1973. 

The Kings Arms pictured in 2014. (copyright Google Street View).

Papermakers Arms, 73 Bridgeman Place

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The Papermakers Arms was situated at 73 Bridgeman Place on a small row of houses between River Street and the bridge over the River Croal.

The pub was started by Mary Bolton, who was running a pub named, appropriately enough, the Bolton Arms on Bridgeman Street in 1848.  By 1853, she was at Bridgeman Place in premises that later became the Papermakers Arms. The papermaker in question was Robert Lever. By 1861, he was living at the pub with wife Jane, Mary Bolton’s daughter, and their children. When he took over the running of the pub, he named it after his previous profession.

But the Papermakers' life as a beerhouse was only brief. In 1869, all the town’s beerhouses had to re-apply for their licences. The licence of the Papermakers was objected to on the grounds that Police Constables Dearden and Fletcher had seen prostitutes drinking at the pub. [1]

An appeal on November of that year failed and Robert Lever went back to being a papermaker. He and his family were still living at the premises in 1871. Indeed, the premises survived as residential accommodation until the 1960s. They were eventually demolished to facilitate the construction of St Peters Way.

Bridgeman Place pictured in May 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The former National Union Of Mineworkers building is in the foreground with River Street running down the side of it. The traffic island in the foreground consisted of a small row of buildings including the former Papermakers Arms which stood at the corner of the junction with River Street.

[1] Bolton Evening News, 10 September 1869.

Bark Street Hotel (Bark Street Tavern), 251-253 Bark Street

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The Bark Street Hotel – known as the Bark Street Tavern for much of its history – stood at the junction of Bark Street and Pool Street.

The pub was founded by James Albinson, whose background was in the iron industry, and he converted part of his residence into a beerhouse in the early-1860s.

But the Bark Street Tavern was very nearly shut down in 1869. That was when licensing magistrates were given the power to close down beerhouses. Previously, they were in business on payment of a two guinea fee and other than that there was very little way of closing them down. But a good number were indeed closed down in Bolton in 1869 and the Bark Street Tavern was almost one of them.

At issue was the sale of alcohol on Sunday mornings. At that time, pubs were able to open pretty much when they pleased from Monday morning until midnight on Saturday night. But Sundays – and in particular Sunday mornings when people were expected to be in church - were a different matter.

On 1 September 1869, the process began whereby every beerhouse in Bolton had to re-apply for their licence. With a surname close to the top of the alphabet, James Albinson’s was the one of the first cases to be heard. He stated that he had worked at Messrs Dobson’s for Mr William Taylor for 14 years and previously for his uncle, John Albinson (the 1861 census shows James Albinson as a junior partner in a small iron foundry).  But the police objected to James Albinson’s licence. They said the Bark Street Tavern had been troublesome, that the beerhouse had ‘watchers’ stationed there on a Sunday morning to watch out for any approaching officers. It was because of these watchers that the police constables were unable to get at the pub to ascertain whether or not any illegal drinking was going on. Men had also been congregating around the pub at times when they ought not to be. In his defence, Mr Albinson said that there were two yards at the pub – it was essentially two premises converted into one - and he said he would do whatever he could in order that the bench might remove the objection. But if James Albinson had been selling beer on a Sunday morning then his system of watchers had done their job effectively. He had never been fined for any illegal activity, nor was the beerhouse used by thieves and prostitutes, another reason licenses were objected to. The bench, which included a notable teetotaller in the shape of Mayor James Barlow, allowed the licence to stand. [1]

James Albinson left the pub a few years later. He had continued to work as an iron moulder  and is believed to have gone back to his profession without the hassle of running licensed premises. He was succeeded by John Ridyard, who also worked as a joiner and builder while his wife Agnes ran the pub.

By the turn of the twentieth century the pub was in the hands of James Parkinson. His father had been the managing director of a cotton mill in Chorley Old Road in 1881, but his business acumen didn’t rub off on poor James. By 1911 he was living with his second wife off John Brown Street and was described as being out of employment.

William Blinkhorn on the I Belong To Bolton Facebook group claims that in the late-fifties and early-sixties the Bark Street Tavern was known as the 'Little Lads Pub' due to there being more  under-age drinkers in there than boozers of legal age.

The Bark Street Hotel was bought by Magees and it ended its days as a Greenalls pub. The area around Bark Street had been largely depopulated by the late-sixties. A few houses still remained towards the bottom end of Pool Street but there was no local catchment area to speak of. The pub closed in 1969 and it was demolished shortly afterwards. Pool Street South car park opened on the site in 1971. [2]

[1] Bolton Evening News, 1 September 1869

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

The corner of Bark Street and Pool Street, once the site of the Bark Street Tavern. Bark Street goes off to the left, Pool Street to the right on this 2014 view of the junction of the two streets (copyright Google Street View). Pool Street car park was built on the site of the Bark Street Tavern.

Brunswick Hotel - Railway Shipping Inn - Bowling Green, 91 Crook Street

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The Brunswick Hotel was situated at 91 Crook Street on the corner with Ormrod Street.

Like many beerhouses it began life as a shop. The 1841 census shows Wright Sutcliffe as a shopkeeper in Crook Street. Ten years later, in 1851, he is described as a provision dealer. However, Mr Sutcliffe was already a beerseller having appeared as such in the 1843 Bolton directory. A list of Great Bolton beerhouses for 1848 shows that Mr Sutcliffe was the landlord of the Bowling Green on Crook Street. This was the pub’s original name came from a nearby bowling green situated on the corner of Crook Street and Blackhorse Street.

Wright Sutcliffe also appears to have owned the Greengate Inn on Hammond Street. In 1854, he applied unsuccessfully to convert it from a beerhouse into a fully-licensed pub, but the application failed. He ran the Bowling Green until his death in March 1875 and was succeeded by his grandson, Wright Lever. He had been living at the pub in 1871 along with his wife Harriet, the first of his three wives and had previously lived in nearby Andrew Street.

The first thing Wright Lever did was to change the name of the pub from the Bowling Green to the Railway Shipping Hotel for the simple reason that the bowling green had long since been built over and Wright wanted to appeal to railway clerks from the nearby Great Moor Street station.

Wright Lever was at the pub in 1881 along with his second wife, Sarah Ann (nee Gerrard), her daughter Harriet from her first marriage and Sarah’s widowed mother Sarah Wardle. But by the early-1890s Wright Lever had given up the pub trade and was living at 142 Deane Road along with Sarah and grand-daughter Phyllis Elliott. Sarah died a few years later, but Wright Lever married for a third time. In 1901 he was 53 years old and still living at 142 Deane Road but with his third wife Louisa Ann (nee Smith), then aged just 19, and their five month-old son Wright. He died in 1930 aged 82.

The Railway Shipping Hotel was bought by local firm Atkinson’s whose Commission Street brewery was situated half a mile away from the pub. It received a full licence in 1888 following the closure of the Old Hen and Chickens, situated further down Deansgate from where the sole surviving Hen and Chickens (formerly the Higher Hen and Chickens) still stands.

By 1898, the pub was owned by Cornbrook’s of Manchester and it remained in their hands until it closed in 1955. It was renamed the Brunswick Hotel after the First World War. The licence was transferred to another of Cornbook’s Bolton pubs, the Bull’s Head (‘Bottom Bull’) on Bury Road.

The Brunswick remained standing until 1968 when it was demolished. The Trinity Street dual carriageway runs through the site of the pub.

Ormrod Street still exists, at least in part. It runs from Great Moor Street down the side of the Grosvenor Casino – the original Sainsbury’s. But part of the street running up towards Crook Street was closed off many years ago and is now as parking for residents of Hargreaves House.

Trinity Street pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View). The walled car park on the left marked the end of Ormrod Street. The Brunswick stood on the far corner of the junction as we look.

Hole I'Th Wall, 20 Ashburner Street

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The Hole I’The Wall was situated at 20 Ashburner Street. While we can only guess why this beerhouse was so named, Ashburner Street was named after the steelworks that stood at one end of the street where the market has stood since 1932.

The Hole I’Th Wall dated back to around 1840. Joseph Broughton ran the premises for many years. He was there at the first mention of a beerhouse in that part of Ashburner Street, which was on the 1841 Census. At that time he lived there with his wife Alice whom he married in 1830 when the couple were both aged 19.

The Broughtons appear not to have any children. The only person to live with them was Ann Spencer, a washer-woman who was Alice’s mother. Sadly, they were down to just Joseph Broughton and Ann Spencer in 1861 following Alice’s death in 1857. He married again, to Margaret Bentley in November 1863 and by 1871 he had moved to Davenport Street. Oddly, despite having spent much of his adult life in the licensed trade the census return for that year describes him as a ‘retired brickmaker’.

The Hole I’Th Wall was bought by Magees later in the nineteenth century. The pub closed in 1931 and was subsequently demolished. The Octagon Theatre now stands on the site.

 The bottom end of Ashburner Street looking up towards the library is shown in this September 2014 image (copyright Google Street View). The multi-story car park is on the left, the Octagon Theatre is on the right.  The Hole I’Th Wall was near to the top of the theatre building as shown on this image.

Royal Tiger, 4 Noble Street

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The Royal Tiger was situated at number 4 Noble Street. Some earlier directory and census listings put it at 1-3 Duncan Street, 1-3 Back Defence Street – as Duncan Street was known for a short time - or even on Pikes Lane, but it was the same building.

The pub was founded in the mid-1830s by James Greenhalgh, a carter by trade who, like so many people after the 1830 Beer House Act was passed, paid a fee of two guineas to allow their premises to sell beer.

The 1841 census shows the 48-year-old James living with his 30-year-old wife Alice. There are six children the elder two of whom, one might think, would have been from an earlier marriage. Thomas (17) and William (14) had both followed their father into business as carters.

The Greenhalghes ran the Royal Tiger for around 50 years from its conversion into a beerhouse right up to the 1880s. Alice Greenhalgh was a widow by 1861 and she lived with two of the children from her marriage to James: Joseph, aged 21, and Sarah, 15. There was a change of address, too. Duncan Street ran off Blackburn Street (now Deane Road), the next street along from Punch Street. Noble Street originally ran from Derby Street. The two streets initially ended a few yards apart from each other, but the waste land between the two was cobbled over in the 1850s and the whole stretch from Derby Street down to Blackburn Street was renamed Noble Street. The Royal Tiger was number 4.

In 1871, Alice Greenhalgh was still running the pub along with Sarah and her husband, a wheelwright named Squire Wolstenholme who was unemployed at the time. Squire and Sarah continued to run the pub after Alice’s death in 1880, but by 1891 they were living in Commission Street, not far from Noble Street, but Squire was back unemployed. He later had a spell as the licensee of the Lord Hill on Sidney Street and by 1901 he was working as a pigeon trapper and living – quite aptly – in Partridge Street.

The Royal Tiger was later run by Robert Buchan Richardson, a Scot who was possibly one of Bolton’s oldest ever landlords. He was at the pub for a decade from around 1894 and was well into his seventies when he took it over. Robert lived there with his wife, Hannah, whom he married in 1887 when he was 58 and she just 33. By 1911 he had left the pub and was living with his son.

The final landlord was Josiah Simons. Born in Norfolk in 1875, he was living with his wife, Hannah, her seven siblings and her parents in Bridgeman Street in 1901. Hannah’s father, Samuel Foulds, was an aquarium manager.Josiah and Hannah left the Royal Tiger for James Street where he set himself up in business as a draper.

The Royal Tiger closed in 1911 and later became a private residence. After the building was demolished in the 1960s, Derby Ward Labour Club was built on the site. 

Derby Ward Labour Club pictured in August 2008. Noble Street used to end at the right end of the club. They Royal Tiger was the second building up on the right-hand side of Noble Street.

Jolly Carter, 281 Derby Street

Derby Street runs across the centre of this 2012 image (copyright Google Street View). High Street runs off into the distance. The Jolly Carter was situated on the right-hand corner as we look, where the sign is. The Rams Head still stands on the opposite corner though it is now an Asian food shop.

The Jolly Carter was situated at 281 Derby Street on the corner of Derby Street and High Street, directly opposite the Rams Head.

James Green was a carter living on Derby Street in 1841. Aged 36, he lived with his wife Mary, also 36, and their five children. Business must have been good because the Greens were able to afford to employ a servant. While the image of domestic help is somebody working in a large house in an Upstairs, Downstairs setting it is surprising just how many tradespeople in more modest households utilised servants in the nineteenth century. Pubs were full of them.

James Green branched out into the beerselling business around 1842 and like many who converted their homes into beerhouses in the middle of the 18^th century he named his pub after his ‘other’ job and called it the Jolly Carter.

The Greens remained at the pub well into the 1850s; however, they were gone by 1861 when the pub was being run by John Smith. He was a coal miner living at Edge Fold with his wife and baby in 1851. Like James Green he remained in his other job working as a coal miner while his wife, Mary, ran the pub.

The Jolly Carter appears to have struggled as landlords came and went. But Derby Street at that time was a competitive market. The pub was bought by local brewers Magee Marshall & Co whose Cricket Street brewery was about 200 yards away from the Jolly Carter.

The problem for the Jolly Carter was that Magees owned a number of other pubs on Derby Street. Magees houses the Rams Head, the Crown and the Pike View were all nearby and Magees wanted a full licence for one of those pubs, the Pike View, enabling it to sell wines and spirits as well as beer. Licensing magistrates were loath to simply upgrade a beerhouse’s licence to a full licence. They expected some horse-trading to take place as they wanted to reduce the number of licensed premises. A brewery had to be prepared to give up other licences before the magistrates could be expected to grant a full licence.

In 1904, Magees applied for a full licence for the Pike View. In return they said they were prepared to give up the licence for the Jolly Carter, a beer off-licence at 68-70 Rosamund Street, as well as the Elephant and Castle on Blackhorse Street, a fully-licensed pub since 1804. The magistrates granted a full licence to the Pike View and the Jolly Carter closed.

The old beerhouse became a shop and for a number of years it was a tripe dressers owned by Vose and Sons who merged with a number of other Lancashire tripe shops in 1920 to form United Cattle Products (UCP). It was a poodle parlour in the seventies and was demolished along with the rest of the row in the 1980s.

As for the original Jolly Carter himself, James Green decided that he had to choose between selling beer and being a ‘lurryman’ as carters were also known. He was a carter by trade and in 1861 he was living at 74 John Street (now University Way) and was still working as a carrier of goods. He remained in the trade until his death in 1873 at the age of 68.

Albert, 30-32 Progress Street

Back Progress Street pictured in 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The former Prospect Mill No 3 is on the left and the Masjid –E-Noor-Ul-Islam mosque on the right where Progress Street once stood. The rear of the Albert pub backed onto this thoroughfare about half-way down the street on the right-hand side.  

The Albert was situated at 30-32 Progress Street, off Prospect Street.

The first record we have of the pub is William Casstles running a beerhouse in 1870 until his death in 1873. That area at the bottom of Halliwell Road was just being developed at the time. Prospect Mills opened in 1867. On the other side of Halliwell Road, Waterloo Mill was already in existence. Progress Street was a row of some 50 or so cottages built in the 1860s.

Halfway down Progress Street there was a break in the terrace with Linen Street connecting Progress Street with Back Progress Street. On the corner of Progress Street and Linen Street was the Albert.

Sometimes, having a pub on a residential street was a smart move. However, the fact that the Albert closed soon after the turn of the 20^th century suggests that wasn’t always the case. Over on the other side of Blackburn Road, Buxton Street supported two pubs, but Progress Street struggled to support one. It was a tough market and perhaps people gravitated towards the bright lights of Halliwell Road. Never mind the ‘Halliwell Mile’. The New Inn, the Windsor Castle, the Ship Royal George and the Black Dog weren’t much more than 100 yards away and all were competing for the same custom as the Albert.

In 1901, the pub’s owners, Magee, Marshall & Co, applied to have the beerhouse licence converted into an off-licence. The pub’s final licensee was Simeon Rigby (1840-1912) who left the Albert to go and live on Gibbon Street just off Derby Street where he worked as a coachman. The former pub premises were occupied by William Fallows in 1924.

Progress Street was demolished in the 1970s. The Masjid –E-Noor-Ul-Islam mosque stands on its site. Oddly, Back Progress Street still exists.

Milk Street Tavern (the Old Ivy House), Milk Street

Milk Street, Pump Street, Tin Street, Basil Street – there were some great street names around the bottom end of Daubhill in the nineteenth century. In fact the last two of those named still exist – at least on maps. Tin Street is a small thoroughfare that runs off Shaw Street between the children’s nursery and some industrial units, though it is now gated off outside working hours. Pump Street was renamed Basil Street in the 1920s and the street still runs off Houghton Street down to Derby Street.

Houghton Street pictured in 2012 (copyright Google Street View). Shaw Street runs across the image  in the near distance. Milk Street was closer but ran parallel to Shaw Street. 

Milk Street, though, is long gone but it was the only of those named to include a pub. The area was pretty well-pubbed towards the back end of the nineteenth century. The Houghton Street Tavern and the Rothwell Street Tavern were both nearby while the Bee Hive was at the end of Milk Street where it met Back Derby Street.

The Milk Street Tavern was originally named the Old Ivy House [1] but like two of its neighbours it lost its given name in favour of being named after the street on which it stood. [2]

In 1871, 70-year-old Mary Smith was running the pub along with her son John and his wife Ann. Mary had previously run a corner shop at 73 Rothwell Street. Her husband John was a tea dealer by trade but died in the 1850s.

Mary appears to have only turned to running a beerhouse quite late in life. She was still at the shop in 1861 so she must have moved to the pub later that decade.

By 1894, the Milk Street Tavern was being run by Nathan Entwistle. On 4 May that year, the night before a big race meeting at Kempton Park, the Milk Street Tavern was one of three pubs raided by police. [3] They found a variety of sporting literature at each of the pubs, but more damningly for Nathan Entwistle they found on his person a balance sheet.

They say you never meet a poor bookie and that was certainly the case with Nathan Entwistle. He had taken £32 in bets and profited to the tune of over £19. That’s the equivalent of over £2000 in today’s money – all in one afternoon. He must have been taking bets from all over the district.

Mr Entwistle was fined £25 plus costs and was given two months to pay the fine otherwise he faced two months of hard labour.

The licence of the Milk Street Tavern came up for renewal at the annual Brewster sessions a few months later. It was refused on the grounds that the pub was a “disorderly house”. It became a private residence and was demolished along with Milk Street and much of the rest of the area in the late sixties.

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

[2] The Houghton Street Tavern was originally the Bricklayers Arms, the Rothwell Street Tavern was once known as the Shakespeare.

[3] The other two were the Kay Street Arms on Kay Street, and Uncle’s Tom Cabin on Egyptian Street (not the one on Lever Street). Manchester Courier, 19 May 1894.

Bar Tavern, Deane Lane (Wigan Road)

Another long-lost Deane pub, the Bar Tavern was situated on Deane Lane, now known as Wigan Road. It was another example of a shop that became a beerhouse and was quite short-lived, lasting not much more than about 20 years in the middle of the nineteenth century.

The pub took its name from the nearby toll bar and was located nor far from the tollkeeper’s house which itself was on a stretch of the main road close to Deane church.

The Bar Tavern was owned by the Silcock family. Peter Silcock (born 1781) ran a general provisions store on the main road through Deane village. He must have had the idea to broaden his scope by selling beer but inevitably takings from beer must have overtaken those from other items. By the time the 1848 Bolton Directory was published Peter’s wife, Ann Silcock, was in charge, Peter having died  in 1845. It also had a name – the Bar Tavern.

Ann Silcock died in 1858 leaving an estate valued at just under £200.  The Bar Tavern was taken over by her son, John Silcock (born c1815) and his wife Elizabeth (born c1820).

John Silcock died in 1865 and the pub was sold. It later reverted back to a shop. John’s widow Elizabeth went to live with relatives, also named Silcock, on Platt Hill Farm situated not far from what later became Hulton Hospital. Bolton’s first council estate was built on the site of the farm in the 1920s.

Elizabeth was living on Wigan Road by 1881 when she is described as a retired grocer. She died in 1889.

New Brook House Inn, Junction Road

Junction Road tails off the right and the Kings Head is on the let on this 2012 shot (copyright Google Street View). Two properties stood where the area of trees is in the centre of the image and it is believed the New Brook House Inn was one of those properties. 

Like the rest of Bolton, the Deane area has suffered from pub closures in recent years. Two of the five pubs in the ‘village’ itself – the Church and the Stag’s Head – have both closed, but there are a couple of long lost pubs worth giving a mention to. The New Brook House Inn, was one of them. Long lost, indeed, as it appears on very few historical records.

The New Brook is numbered 52, Junction Road on old directories.  The Kings Head is today numbered 52-54 Junction Road. However, we believe the New Brook is likely to have been one of two now-demolished properties on the front of Junction Road just before the entrance to the Kings Head. Certainly, the 1911 Census enumerator surveyed Sunny Bank, the New Brook Inn and the Kings Head, in that order. Any information that proves us right or wrong on that would be gratefully received.

The first definitive record we have of the New Brook Inn is with Betsy Pasquill running a shop and beerhouse on Junction Road according to the Worralls Directory of 1871. That suggests the pub dates back to at least the late-1860s.

In 1891, the vicar of Deane church, the Reverend HS Patterson proposed the establishment of the Deane Village Club, a temperance and educational institution. The club was to incorporate a café, a gymnasium, meeting rooms and a bowling green and in a pamphlet detailing his plans, the Reverend Patterson gave notice of where he saw the club’s custom coming from: 

“This building will be situated on Junction road, opposite the Church, which is a street of 300 yards and has the following public-houses:- The Vulcan, Queen Anne, New Brook Inn, and King's Head. Here the forces are against thrift and social progress.” [1]

But the Reverend Patterson’s grand plans didn’t quite come to fruition on the scale he intended and in the end only a small corrugated building was constructed. Of the four pubs in the good reverend’s sights, the New Brook was to continue for another quarter-century or so, the rest a good deal longer with three still in existence.

Another member of the Pasquill family, Robert Pasquill, was running the New Brook by the early-1890s. Prior to taking over the pub he was living in Fernhill Gate and working as a coal miner, presumably at the Victoria Pit where the garden centre now stands.

Robert’s tenure didn’t last long and by 1894 the beerhouse was in the hands of the Workman family who ran it for the rest of its time that it was open to the public.

Landlord Thomas Workman was hauled before the magistrates in 1895 on a charge of having permitted betting at the pub. Then, as now, gambling in pubs was illegal, but the charge was of an extremely petty nature. Plain-clothes policemen entered the pub on 15 November 1895. There were nine men in the tap room, four of whom were sitting round a table playing dominoes.  The officers watched the four men play three games. At the conclusion of each game the losers paid for half-pints of beer for the winners. Despite a string of witnesses testifying that no gambling for booze took place the magistrates found Mr Workman guilty of allowing gambling on his premises. He was fined £2 with one guinea (£1.05) as an advocate’s fee - £3.05 in total or the equivalent of over £330 today. [2]

Fortunately, Mr Workman didn’t have his licence endorsed which may have affected his chances of renewal at the annual Brewster sessions.

The officers went straight from the New Brook to the nearby Church Inn on Wigan Road where they found ten men playing dominoes for cash stakes of two old pence (or 1p) per corner. The licensee, William Gaskell, was fined £5 plus a one guinea advocate’s fee.   

The New Brook continued as a pub until 1915. A few years before, in 1906, Deane Golf Club was formed. But in May 1915 their clubhouse was destroyed by fire. They were offered the New Brook Inn as alternative premises and occupied the former pub until their new club house was completed in 1920. [3] They continued to use the New Brook for some years after. It was probably demolished in the 1940s.

An aerial shot - date unknown - of the Kings Head in the top left of the photo with the building that was formerly the Newbrook Inn in front of it.

[1] Deane Church website. Accessed 5 June 2015.

[2] Manchester Courier, 30 November 1895.

[3] Deane Golf Club website. Accessed 5 June 2015.