The Foresters Arms was situated at
the end of Smith Street, a thoroughfare that ran from Folds Road opposite the
junction with Phoenix Street down to Turner Street next to the Bolton to
Blackburn railway line.
The pub dated back to the 1850s and the first record we have is on the 1861 census when William Bridge was the landlord. By 1871 he was at the Horse and Jockey on Bradshawgate.
The pub dated back to the 1850s and the first record we have is on the 1861 census when William Bridge was the landlord. By 1871 he was at the Horse and Jockey on Bradshawgate.
By the time the pub had to re-apply
for its licence in 1868 the landlord was William Holden who had been at the
Foresters Arms for three years. The police objected to the licence application
after PC Greenhalgh said he had seen people congregating outside the pub and on
the street. However, Mr Holden managed to present testimonials as to his good
character and the licence was granted on appeal.
William Holden had gone by 1871 and
the Foresters was taken over by Henry Jackson. The pub was owned by Thomas
Holden who owned the nearby Lord Clyde on Folds Road. who may have been a
relative of William Holden. There is also a connection between the Holdens and
original landlord William Bridge, who was a witness to Thomas Holden’s third
marriage. One of Thomas Holden’s step-children was Susannah Drennan and there
was a Drennan Court to the rear of the Foresters Arms.
Thomas Holden died in 1884 leaving
a sizeable estate of some £1900 – worth around £250,000 in today’s money. The
Foresters was taken over by the Bury Brewery Company and they were pub’s owners
when its licence was refused in 1911. The building was demolished in the 1940s
though Smith Street itself was around for another twenty years. The area was
cleared and the Vernacare factory was built on the site in the 1970s.
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