Derby Hotel, 2-4 Chorley Street, Bolton

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The Derby Hotel was situated at 2-4 Chorley Street, directly opposite the Bridge Foot Inn. Chorley Street begins after the bridge over the River Croal. The thoroughfare from Spa Road down the bridge is White Lion Brown.

The 1861 census shows a beerhouse at 2-4 Chorley Street being run by William Cross who was previously at the Wellington in nearby Gartside Street. Cross died in 1866 and the pub was taken over by Jonathan Waddington, previously a cotton spinner living in Halliwell.

Waddington found his licence in peril when he has to re-apply for it in September 1869. It didn’t help that he had been fined on four occasions, that there had been general complaints about the house, that there were cottages in the yard where customers could go and drink when the pub was not supposed to be open – usually Sunday mornings. [1] The licence was refused, but it was awarded on appeal at the end of October. [2]

The pub’s name in the second report is given as the Original Bridge Foot. That suggests that this was an alternative name for the Derby and that there were two pubs in the area known as the Bridge Foot.

Wiliam Ainsworth succeeded Jonathan Waddington in the mid-1870s. He was at the Star Inn on Churchgate by 1881 by which time James Paisley was at the Derby. He was later at the Rope and Anchor on Deansgate as well as the Halliwell Lodge.

Gordon Readyhough writes that the Derby Hotel closed in 1921. [3] However, the 1924 Directory reports that Henry McAndrew was still on the premises as a beer retailer. Either the directory was out of date or the Derby was operating as an off-licence.

[1] Bolton Evening News, 2 September 1869.

[2] Bolton Evening News, 30 October 1869.

[3] Bolton Pubs 1800-2000, published by Neil Richardson (2000).

Chorley Street pictured in August 2015. The Derby Hotel was situated where the trees are on the right-hand side.