Two
views of the Woodmans Cottage. The 1950s shot at the top shows the
pub on the left with Moor Lane bending away in the distance. The Old Three Tuns Hotel can just be seen on the right.
The second view (below) is from August 2015 (copyright Google Street
View) and shows roughly the same sport.
The
Woodmans Cottage was situated at the junction of three thoroughfares:
Deane Road, Moor Lane and Derby Street. Its address was variously
given as Moor Lane, Blackburn Street and finally, 2 Deane Road. While
that suggests it was the first building on the road it was actually
part of a block that ran from Stanley Street South to Lupton Street.
Its next door neighbour for many years was Kay's pawnbrokers (as can be seen in the image at the top of the page).
The
area from where Deane Road meets Mayor Street right down to the
junction of Moor Lane and Deansgate was one of the most
densely-pubbed areas of Bolton in the middle of the nineteenth
century. So much so that when local magistrates were given powers to
close down beerhouses in 1869 they targeted that area – Moor Lane
in particular.
However,
the Woodmans Cottage was one of the first beerhouses in the area
after an Act Of Parliament passed in 1830 made it easier to open
licenced premises selling beer only. It was certainly in existence by
the mid-1830s. Jonathan Haslam appears in the 1836 Bolton Directory
as a beer seller on Moor Lane a few doors along from the junction
with Stanley Street which ties in with the site of the Woodmans
Cottage. At that time, his only competition came from the Britannia
Hotel, just across the road, the Old Three Tuns, a little further
down from the Britannia,
and the Dog and Partridge at the junction of Partridge Street next to
the railway
bridge.
Jonathan
Haslam died in 1845 at the age of 65. By 1849 John Cooper was running
the Woodmans Cottage though by 1851 he was at the White Hart on Pikes
Lane. By 1861, his wife Jane was at Broom House on Deane Church Lane
where she was described as a 'fundholder' – or living off her
investments. Presumably, John Cooper had passed away.
William
Parkinson was at the pub by 1853, but by 1861 it was run by Samuel
Openshaw. He previously ran the Horse and Vulcan, a pub further along Blackburn Street, as the lower end of Deane Road
was then known. However, by 1861 he was brewer and beerseller at the
Woodmans Cottage where he lived with his wife Sarah. Sadly, Sarah
died in 1866 aged just 32. Samuel married Ann Barnes in 1867 and by
1871 he was at the Gibraltar Rock further up Pikes Lane. He died in
1874.
The
future of the Woodmans Cottage came under threat at the licensing
renewals of 1900. Three local inhabitants plus members of the local
temperance party objected to the pub's licence being renewed. They
claimed the pub's closure would be “for the good of the town”. [1] The licensee at the time was Ralph Hall. He had only been at the pub
for a few years and no offences had been reported against the house
for over 30 years. Quite what Mr Hall had done to raise the ire of
the temperance party isn't reported, but the magistrates agreed
to renew its licence only if he was dismissed. By 1901 he was living with
his in-laws in nearby Shaw Street and was working as a carder in a
local cotton mill.
Ralph
Hall was succeeded by Walter Copple – or, more likely, by his wife
Annie. Walter was a coach painter by trade and he was still painting
coaches while he was at the pub. Annie Copple had been brought up in
the pub trade – her father ran the Mill Hill Tavern
amongst others – so it's more likely that she ran the pub. The
couple went on to run the Queen Anne on Junction Road (by 1911) and
the Swiss Hotel on Southern Street in Halliwell (certainly by 1918
and he was still there in 1924).
Walter had retired to Osborne Grove, off Chorley Old Road, by the
time he died in 1928 at the age of 64.
Interestingly, in 1924, Walter
Copple's nephew, Walter Tyrer Copple, ran a cabinet-making business
from premises on Moor Lane just a few doors down and on the same row
as the Woodmans Cottage.
By
the early twentieth century, the Woodmans Cottage had become a rare
tied house in Bolton for the Openshaw Brewery Company of West Gorton
in Manchester. Openshaw was taken over by the Hope and Anchor
Breweries Ltd of Sheffield in 1957. Hope and Anchor was later to
become part of the Bass empire. However, the Woodmans Cottage didn't
get that far. It closed in 1959. The property was demolished in the
late-sixties and for many years the site formed part of the Stanley
Street car park next to the fire station (opened 1971).
Construction
of the Bolton Sixth Form College building began in 2009 on the site
of the car park. It was completed in 2010 and the furthest extremity
of the complex next to the fire station marks the site of Woodmans
Cottage.
