Horse and Vulcan, 59 Deane Road, Bolton

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The word ‘Vulcan’ keeps cropping up in our research into Bolton’s pubs. The name still exists at the Vulcan on Junction Road, Deane and in Walkden at the Vulcan on Bolton Road, but there aren’t many other examples of the name. WhatPub – not a comprehensive list but a decent enough guide – lists just 12 in the whole of the country.

The name comes from the Roman god of fires, volcanoes and metalworking and with the number of foundries and steelworks in the area it isn’t difficult to see why variations have cropped up at a number of pubs in Bolton. There was the Vulcan Inn on Derby Street, the Eagle and Vulcan on Folds Road, the Old Vulcan on Croasdale Street and this, the Horse and Vulcan on Deane Road.

Edward Kearsley was a butcher in Blackburn Street in 1841. By 1843 he is a beerhouse keeper, also in Blackburn Street. It wasn’t unusual for premises to be used for dual purposes and it is likely that Edward Kearsley was also serving beer at his butcher’s shop.

Edward Kearsley died in 1848 and the pub was taken over by his brother, Wright Kearsley. Wright was a carrier living in Chancery Lane in 1841 and he carried on in that trade even after he moved to the pub. It is entirely possible that he named the pub the Horse and Vulcan, perhaps as a nod to his profession but also to the presence not far from the pub of the Union Foundry on Blackhorse Street and the Soho Foundry on Crook Street, which later became Hick, Hargreaves.

Wright Kearsley eventually went back to being a courier. He left the Horse and Vulcan in the late-1850s and by 1871 he was 60-years-old, working as a courier and living in Kirk Street, the next street off Blackburn Street, as it still was.

Ellis Boardman succeeded Wright Kearsley and spent over 15 years at the Horse and Vulcan. A native of Deane and a former miner he moved to the pub along with his wife Jane and was there until the mid-1870s.

Like many pubs, the Horse and Vulcan brewed its own beer in the early days, but by the end of the 19^th century it was owned by a local brewery, Joseph Sharman.

The 1905 Bolton Directory shows Walter Copple as the licensee. He married in to the pub trade – his father-in-law ran the Mill Hill Tavern on Mill Hill Street – and Walter would later go on to run the Swiss Hotel at Halliwell. But it was the occupant in 1905 of number 57 Deane Road - the premises next door to the Horse and Vulcan- that was to be key to the pub’s future. Joseph Foster had been making his ‘running pumps’ since 1895 and his business was expanding. There is no record as to what the catalyst was behind the Horse and Vulcan’s closure in 1912, but Joseph Foster was looking to expand his business. He bought the Horse and Vulcan and opened what is believed to be the world’s first athletic shoes factory in the enlarged premises.

The former Horse and Vulcan is pictured here as part of the enlarged Joseph Foster premises, the Olympic works, shortly before it was demolished in 1966 to make way for the Bolton Institute Of Technology. It was situated on Deane Road in the block between Ebenezer Street and John Street.

Union Arms, 63 - 65 Deane Road, Bolton

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The Union Arms on Deane Road, close to the junction with John Street which later became College Way (now University Way).

The Union Arms was a beerhouse situated at 65 Deane Road. the road was known as Blackburn Street until the 1880s.

The first record we have of the Union Arms is when it was run by John Allen. Born in 1829, John was a confectioner by trade. He married Jane Gibson in 1852 when he was already in the business of selling – and perhaps even making – sweets.

The couple had a shop not far from Blackburn Street in 1861 but the 1869 Bolton Directory had him down as a beerseller at 65 Blackburn Street. Selling sweets alongside beer wasn’t exactly common but it wasn’t unique. At about the same time another confectioner, Miles Pollitt, had turned his sweet shop on Folds Road into a beer house, the Duke Of Bolton and was selling confectionery alongside beer.

John Allen continued at the Union Arms until the late-1870s. By 1881 he was widowed and running a confectionery business in Church Street, off St George’s Road – though without the sideline of selling beer.

By October 1899 the Union Arms was owned by Walker’s Bolton Brewery Ltd whose Park View Brewery was situated on Spa Road. (Walker Street next to the Magnet kitchen outlet takes its name from the site’s former occupant). 

Walker’s were in trouble and they decided to sell up in order to pay off the company’s debts. They owned the brewery on Spa Road along with 19 pubs situated in Bolton, Preston and Walkden. The Red Lion at Four Lane Ends, the Three Pigeons on Wigan Road and the Church Hotel in Kearsley were among the company's other Bolton pubs. [1]

The auction was not a success. Despite a large attendance at Manchester’s Albion Hotel the sale was pulled. Bidding started at £50,000 and continued up to £73,000, but Walker’s owner, George Walker – who despite having built up a sizeable brewing business was still the landlord of the Wheatsheaf Hotel on Great Moor Street – decided not to proceed. [2]

The Union, its 18 stablemates and the Park View brewery remained in George Walker’s hands for a few more months until in June 1900, Walker was a shareholder in the Spa Wells Brewery Company Ltd, newly registered to take on the former Walker’s business. [3]

The Union was owned by Spa Wells for four years until the brewery and its pubs was taken over James Jackson & Co Ltd in 1904. The landlord of the Union at this time – paying the princely sum of £35 a year – was Joseph Goodlad who later moved to the Junction Inn  on Egyptian Street and the Windsor Castle on Halliwell Road. 

The Union became a Shaw’s house when that company took over Jackson’s in 1927. Shaw’s were themselves taken over by Walker Cain of Liverpool (no relation to the Walker’s on Spa Road).

It was during a review of pubs taken over by Walker Cain that the Union was deemed as surplus to requirements. Stand at the front door of the pub and you could see the Wheatsheaf on Deane Road,  the Weavers, the Gladstone  and Derby Ward Labour Club – all within 50 yards.

The Union closed in 1933 although the building survived as retail premises until the area was cleared in the mid-sixties. 

[1] Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 14 October 1899.

[2] Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 14 October 1899.

[3] Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 18 June 1900.

Jolly Sailor, 5 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Jolly Sailor lasted for about a decade in the middle of the 18^th century. It was a beerhouse situated at number 5 Kay Street, just two doors away from the fully-licensed Roebuck Hotel.

The Jolly Sailor was run by Richard Cashmore. Born in Warwickshire in 1766, Mr Cashmore was running a pub in Great Moor Street in 1836. By 1841 he was at the Jolly Sailor along with his wife Ann. However, despite being some twenty years younger than Richard, Ann died in 1846.

Richard was described as a Chelsea pensioner on the 1851 census which suggests he may have had a previous career in the armed forces. He died later that year and the Jolly Sailor was certainly closed by the time the 1853 Bolton Directory was compiled.

In the early part of the 20^th century number 5 Kay Street was part of Mrs Anne Bentley’s bakery which was certainly up and running by 1905 and was still in business almost twenty years later.

All Saints Street car park now occupies the site.

The bottom end of Kay Street on this August 2015 image (copyright Google Street View). The Jolly Sailor was on the left-hand side.

Brinks Brow Tavern, Chorley Street, Bolton

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The Brinks Brow district of Bolton was the top of the hill around the Chorley Street/St George’s Road area. The name has long since fallen out of use with the exception of Brinks Place, a short thoroughfare leading off Chorley Street to some industrial units to the rear of Sherrington’s solicitors’ offices.

The Brinks Brow Tavern is shown on the 1849 listing of Bolton licensed premises. The landlord at that time was Robert Crawford. A beerhouse run by John Hurst is on the 1841 census as being close to the top of Chorley Street and may have been the same premises. But by 1853 the pub has gone and there is no further mention.

Windsor Castle, 37 Halliwell Road, Bolton

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On the right of this image taken in August 2015 is the pharmacy built on the site of the New Inn. The Windsor Castle was opposite the New Inn on the corner of Lune Street. Adisham Drive was built in its place following the redevelopment of the area in the early seventies and can be seen here with the white car waiting to turn out. The Windsor Castle was on the corner nearest the camera. Image copyright  Google Street View.

The Windsor Castle was situated at the bottom of Halliwell Road on the corner of Lune Street. Most pubs on the infamous ‘Halliwell Mile’ pub crawl were situated on the right-hand side of the road as you head out of town. The Windsor Castle was on the left and, along with the New Inn, was one of the first pubs you walked into – or the last if, as tradition appeared to dictate, you started from the Ainsworth Arms at the top of the road.

Writingon the Closed Pubs website, Mary Gray says: “The Windsor Castle was on the end of the first row of shops. At the bottom end at the traffic lights was the District Bank on the corner of Moss street. All gone now of course. I was born in 17 Halliwell Rd and lived there until 1952.”

The Windsor Castle dated back to at least the 1850s although the row of properties that included the pub was standing as early as the 1840s.

James Beddows owned the pub from the late-1850s until his death in 1882. James was originally from Deane.

By 1895 the licensee was William Rogerson. Originally from Dunscar he left for the Cheetham Arms on Blackburn Road where he died in 1913 aged 62.

Joseph Goodlad, formerly of the Junction Inn on Egyptian Street and the Union Arms on Deane Road was another career publican who ran the Windsor Castle. He certainly made a good living out of it. When he died in 1920 he left an estate valued at over £5700 – the equivalent today of almost a quarter of a million pounds. He was succeeded by his son, George, who had previously worked as a joiner.

The Windsor Castle became a Sharman’s pub in the early part of the 20^th century. Through various takeovers ownership passed through George Shaw’s of Leigh in 1926, Walker Cain of Liverpool in 1931 and Tetley Walker of Warrington in 1961. The pub received a full licence in 1962.

The end for the Windsor Castle came in the early seventies when it was demolished along with much of the immediate area. Practically the only building to remain following those clearances was Moss Street Baths situated in a street to the rear of the pub. That has since made way for a health centre.

The Windsor Castle pictured around 1930

Junction Inn - Smoothing Iron, 77 - 79 Egyptian Street, Bolton

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The Junction Inn was situated at the meeting of three thoroughfares: Egyptian Street, St John’s Street and the northernmost part of Higher Bridge Street close to where it meets Blackburn Road and Kay Street.

The building was used as a pub in at least the 1860s. The first record we have of it as licensed premises is from 1869 when the licensee, George Pownall decided to sell the lease. [1]

However, the advertisement suggested that the lease agreement dated back to 1837, the likely date of construction although it may not necessarily have been a pub right from the start. At that time of the 1869 sale the pub was known as the Smoothing Iron due to its unusual rectangular shape and it was still known by that name as late as 1876.

For over ten years, the Junction was in the hands of Martha Cope and it seems to have taken on that name under her tenure. Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1859, Martha moved in to the pub in the 1880s with her first husband, Joseph Smith. He died in 1890 leaving Martha and three children and she took over the running of the pub.

In 1893, Martha married the pub’s barman, the Nottingham-born William Henry Cope, who was already living at the pub according to the 1891 census. They went on to have two children together, but in March 1898 on a visit to his home town, William died at the age of just 26.

Martha Cope died in 1901. By the time of the 1911 Census the eldest child, Minnie Smith, was married to William Kirkman. The two other children she had with Joseph Smith were living with their aunt and uncle in Darbishire Street. Two other children, Ethel and Martha, later emigrated to Canada.

Martha Cope was succeeded by Joseph John Goodlad, a career licensee who had previously been at the Union Arms on Deane Road. At the time of his death in 1920 he had moved on again, this time to the Windsor Castle at the bottom of Halliwell Road.

By then the Junction Inn was in the hands of Magee’s brewery after their takeover of previous owners, Halliwell’s Alexandra Brewery in 1910. Although Greenall Whitley were the owners when the pub closed in the 1960s it was still being supplied by beer brewed by Magee’s Crown Brewery just off Derby Street.

 [1] Bolton Evening News, 12 May 1869.

Blackburn Road goes off to the right and Egyptian Street to the left in this August 2015 image (copyright Google Street View). The Junction Inn stood where the trees are in the middle distance. The short thoroughfare heading off to the right of where the pub stood was once the bottom end of St John’s Street.

Black Cock, Harwood

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The Four Lane Ends area of Harwood where the Black Cock stood for over 30 years.

The Black Cock was situated at Four Lane Ends, Longsight, Harwood at the junction with Brookfold Lane, Hardy Mill Road and Ruins Lane.

The pub was established in the middle of the 19th-century by John Greenhalgh and it was run by the family for almost all of its existence. 

John Greenhalgh was already noted as the licensee of a beerhouse according to the 1853 Bolton Directory, but this is not believed to be the Black Cock. In his diary Samuel Scowcroft notes that on 6 October 1860 that Mr Greenhalgh had opened a ‘jerry shop’ at premises named the Black Cock. A ‘jerry shop’ was a name for a low-grade beerhouse. [1]

John Greenhalgh – ‘Black Jack’ to natives of Harwood – died in 1881. The Black Cock continued until 1894 when its licence was revoked. At the Brewster session hearing in September 1894 the police objected to the renewal of the licensee, Patrick Riley, claiming he was not a person of good character. Furthermore, the house had been run in a disorderly manner and that the licensee had twice been charged with permitting drunkenness and gaming on the premises. [2]

The Black Cock closed shortly afterwards.

[1] The Scowcroft diaries. Transcribed by AW Critchley for British Isles Family History Of Greater Ottawa.

[2] Manchester Courier, Saturday 29 September 1894.