Churchgate Tavern, 33 Churchgate, Bolton

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This pub is not the current Churchgate pub situated at 11-13 Churchgate and which was previously known as the Brass Cat, the Bears Paw and the Golden Lion.

A 1975 image of the Sandwich Inn. The left-hand side of the premises was number 33 Churchgate, the site of the former Churchgate Tavern. Image copyright Bolton Council.

This was the Churchgate Tavern situated at number 33 Churchgate next door to what is now the Pastie Shoppe and just a few doors up from the Boars Head (now Hogarth's). 

The pub lasted for just a few years in the 1850s and 1860s but it became notorious largely because of its licensees, George Smethurst and Isabella Dewhurst.

Born Isabella Walker in 1828 at Coverdale in the Yorkshire Dales, by 1841 Isabella and her older sister Margaret were living at Oakenbottom, Breightmet after their mother Jane had married a coal miner, Jonathan Shaw.

In December 1849, Isabella married Thomas Dewhurst, a Little Lever-born stonemason, and by 1851 the couple were living at 36 Back Turton Street. He was 27, she was 22.

Quite how Isabella Dewhurst got involved in the pub business isn’t clear, but while it was a career that lasted little more than a decade it became very profitable for her. However, any fortune is unlikely to have been made through the sale of beer.

George Smethurst and Isabella Dewhurst opened the Churchgate Tavern around 1853. Although the 1861 census states Isabella Dewhurst was married it is obvious her relationship with Thomas Dewhurst was at an end. Instead, she was living at the pub with the 33-year-old Smethurst along with a servant girl and two female lodgers.

Smethurst was charged with perjury in December 1859 following a case in which he was initially charged with staying open late. He had already been charged with illegal hours a couple of weeks earlier but a lack of evidence resulted in the charges were dropped on that occasion. This time a man named Nicholas Heyes, who owned 33 Churchgate and was the landlord of the Wellington beerhouse,  Union Buildings, was in the Churchgate when police arrived in the early hours of one Saturday morning just before Christmas. Heyes claimed he was there to see Smethurst having been to Manchester with someone who was claimed to be Smethurst's wife but was actually Isabella Dewhurst. The pair had been to look at a property he was thinking of buying and he wished to discuss the matter with Smethurst. The other people in the pub at the time were a female servant, a male lodger and a female lodger. Heyes claimed to have arrived at the Churchgate with 'Mrs Smethurst' some time between 11 and 11.30pm. However, the case turned on the evidence of a senior police officer, PC Holgate, who claimed he was at the pub at a quarter to eleven that night and saw Smethurst's wife there some time before Heyes claimed the pair had returned from Manchester. [Bolton Chronicle, 24 December 1859 and 31 December 1859]. Smethurst, Heyes, the female servant and female lodger were all sent for trial. But when the case came to trial at the South Lancashire Assizes at Liverpool in April 1860 no evidence was presented and the case was dismissed.

In July 1860, Isabella Dewhurst appeared in court accusing a beerseller from Radcliffe named Wright Jones of stealing £100 in gold sovereigns from her along with a gold watch. Mrs Dewhurst claimed she hadn't lived with her husband for nine years but had lived with Smethurst for the past seven years. She stated that she had a little money before she moved in with Smethurst but unbeknownst to him she had saved £100 – the equivalent today of around £12,000. How she had managed to save all that money wasn't explained. She did say that on the day in question, Smethurst had been drinking all day and left the Churchgate, but she was worried that he may find the £100 so she and Jones went to the bank to deposit the coins. The bank was closed so they went to two pubs: Holden's Vaults (the Higher Nag's Head) and the Three Crowns. Mrs Dewhurst went to the water closet – the toilet – and on her return her watch and the bag of money had gone – as had Wright Jones. An off-duty police officer, Thomas Chadwick, was in the Three Crowns and suggested that the money had gone missing in one of three places: either in the pub or during Mrs Dewhurst's journey to or from the toilet. She was described in the Bolton Chronicle's report of the case on 7 July 1860 as “a notorious woman” and when she was asked in court as to whether she had previously been charged with running a brothel she managed to avoid giving a straight answer. Perhaps her reputation went before her as the case against Jones was dismissed.

George Smethurst killed himself by hanging in March 1863. His relationship with Isabella Dewhurst had disintegrated largely due to his alcoholism. He had issued threats against her on a number of occasions and her stepfather Jonathan Shaw had moved in with her to offer some sort of protection.

In June 1863 Isabella Dewhurst was in court once again, this time alongside Edward Gordon who was said to come from a respectable family in Stockport. The pair were summoned for having acted in the management of “a house of ill-fame” [Bolton Chronicle 13 June 1863] on Churchgate – the Churchgate Tavern. The charge was only avoided when their representative pointed out that Gordon was due to report for duty with the Cheshire yeomanry the following morning or he would suffer a fine of £10. If the summons was withdrawn Gordon would undertake to ensure that the premises would be run properly and the magistrates agreed.

In 1866 the Churchgate was sold by Nicholas Heyes along with an adjoining cottage occupied by Isabella Dewhurst and shortly afterwards she moved to the Music Tavern on Gaskell Court off Churchgate. The pub no longer exists although Gaskell Court can still be seen. 

Later that decade, in 1869, Mrs Dewhurst testified at the London divorce court in the case of James Hardman, whose father was a well-known manufacturer in Bolton. Hardman had already obtained a decree nisi on the grounds of his wife’s adultery, but Mrs Dewhurst was one of a string of witnesses who claimed that he, too, was an adulterer. She claimed he had stayed for two nights at the Churchgate Tavern in 1865 with a young woman.

With the sale of 33 Churchgate, the Churchgate Tavern closed down. In 1870 it was occupied by a “painter and paper hanger” named William Goodwin and it later became a confectioners and a temperance bar. It was bought by the Sabini family in the 1930s and it was under their ownership that it is perhaps best remembered. The Sabinis later bought the property next door – number 35 – and sold ice cream alongside soft drinks. Dorina Sabini and her brother Bruno worked at the premises all their lives and it became the Sandwich Inn in 1970 two years after Dorina married Peter Green. The Sandwich Inn closed in December 2002 when Peter, Dorina and Bruno all retired. [Bolton Evening News, 9 June 2003.  Retrieved 15 October 2019]. It was converted into offices.

“A youth named Jabez Ratcliffe was in custody in Monday, at the Sessions Room, Bolton, on the charge of stealing on the 23rd June two pairs of boots and during the night of 5^th inst 14 shillings from a drawer in the house of his father Richard Ratcliffe in Lever-lane, Little Lever....During the Wednesday night....the prisoner took 14 shillings from a drawer in his father's house. Afterwards the robbery of the two pairs of boots was discovered; the prisoner had sold them to Mary Curran, a dealer in the Market Hall for 8 shillings. Police-sergeant Henderson succeeded in recovering one pair of boots. The prisoner had spent the night after he took the 14 shillings, at Isabella Dewhurst's beerhouse and brothel, Churchgate The prisoner was committed for trial." - Bolton Chronicle, 16 July 1864.

McCauleys, 77-83 Bradshawgate, Bolton

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McCauley's pictured in 2012. Copyright Google.

Long-standing pubs tend to be the ones that are most missed. More recent conversions to public houses – or 'bars' – are rarely remembered with any affection. McCauley's was one such pub.

McCauley's was situated on 77-83 Bradshawgate in premises that were at one time one of UCP's tripe restaurants and later an Italian restaurant.

Earlier than that, one part of the premises was used as a pub. The Bus Drivers Inn was situated at 77 Bradshawgate – McCauley's entrance – from around the 1860s until it lost its licence in 1883.

The 1905 Bolton directory showed that 79 Bradshawgate was occupied by John Robert Horrocks who was described as a 'tripe dealer. By 1924 the premises were owned by Vose & Son, a branch of United Cattle Product Ltd. Voses's were described as 'tripe dressers'. The outlet at 79 Bradshawgate was handy as it was just yards away from the company's tripe works on Silverwell Lane.

Vose's later joined forces with a number of other tripe shops and restaurants to form United Cattle Products. At its height in the fifties, UCP had no fewer than 146 shops across the north-west of England, mainly in Lancashire. The building at 79 Bradshawgate was remodelled in an art deco style in the 1930s that makes it stand out even now amidst the old and the new on that side of the street, The inside of the restaurant -as seen here and here made it one of UCP's swankiest and many a wedding meal was held there. However, tastes changed and tripe became less popular as the country moved out of post-war austerity.

79 Bradshawgate pictured in 1960 as one of Vose's UCP restaurants

In 1980 the premises became the Pizzeria Sorrento before changing its name to the Pizzeria Toscana in 1983. The distinctive raised circular sign was installed at that time. It initially contained the name of the establishment with letters laid out around the circle. However, it changed from red to green depending on whether the restaurant was open.

In 2003, the owner of the Pizzeria Toscana received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse. The restaurant, along with the adjoining branch of Motorist Discount Centre, were converted into McCauley's which opened in December of that year and described at the time as an 'upmarket' town-centre 'bar'. The sign was retained when McCauley's opened with the name Pizzeria Toscana replaced by a single, large letter M.

However, events took a predictable turn. Time after time 'upmarket' bars in Bolton have ended up as run-of-the-mill dumps, simply because there has never been the money in the town to pay the prices those outlets charge. McCauley's was no different. It quickly became a run-down town-centre boozer and was soon popular with those who need a drink at ten o'clock in the morning. In the evenings and weekends it continued to try and appeal to the younger end of the market.

A large-scale brawl at the club at 6.30 on the morning of Sunday 14 May 2017 sealed McCauley's fate. Up to 75 people were involved in the fight which began after a dispute with door staff but which spilled out on to Bradshawgate. The Bolton News reported  that no attempt was made by door staff to break up the fight. Three people were arrested and the pub's licence was temporarily suspended.

At a hearing in June 2017 the council's licensing sub-committee heard that drugs were an ongoing problem McCauley's. A bag of white powder was once found in the manager's office.

Sub-committee chairman Martin Donaghy said:

"The sub-committee felt that, despite the steps proposed by the licence holder, they had serious concerns about the existing management of the premises and could not rely on assurances given that future incidents of serious disorder would be effectively prevented or managed accordingly."

McCauley's manager Lisa Bowyer had tried to keep the pub open. She said she had taken "extreme measures" since the licence was suspended to rectify the ongoing issues, including hiring a new security firm and health and safety adviser.

She added that she had made "terrible decisions", some of which were down to fear of the drug-dealing ring associated with the pub and threats made to her family.

McCauley's didn't reopen after the incident on that Sunday morning in May 2017. The premises remain empty.

Sunray Hotel, 74 Mill Street, Bolton

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This motor dealer workshop marks the site of the Sunray Hotel. The original pub was situated between Bare Street and Barlow Street; however, Barlow Street disappeared when the area was redeveloped in the seventies. Image taken June 2018. Copyright Google.

The Sunray Hotel was situated on Mill Street, not far from the Bare Street Mission.

The pub was originally known as the Weavers Arms and was in existence by 1847 although the only evidence we have for that it when it came to a licence renewal in 1869, landlord John Hill claimed to have been at the pub for 22 years. [Bolton Evening News, 17 September 1869]. Police objected to the licence at that hearing with Sergeant Whittle and PC Dearden claiming men had been known to act suspiciously in the vicinity of the pub and had heard them call for beer. There was a suspicion on the part of the police that these men acted as lookout scouts for illegal opening, probably on a Sunday morning. There was also a grate which might afford facilities for the illegal sale of beer. That there were three other beerhouses in the immediate vicinity also counted against the Weavers. While the magistrates initially ruled against Hill he was successful in an appeal and regained his licence later that same year.

The Weavers Arms changed its name to the Sunray Hotel in the 1870s.

In 1880 the pub was one of six raided in a betting scandal. On Sunday 17 October 1880 around 60 officers were despatched to the Oliver Cromwell on Bridgeman Street, the Kay Street Arms  and the Black Horse  both on Kay Street, the Ancient Shepherd on Bold Street and the Turk's Head on Bridge Street. Officers were placed at each entrance of the six pubs to prevent anybody from leaving. Other officers entered the pubs and took away betting books, papers, lists and telegrams. Among the publications found were the Sporting Life and McColl's Turf Calendar. Sixty men were arrested and the Sunray's landlord Thomas Vickers was found with £10 on him – a huge sum in those days. The men were taken to the town hall where a large crowd of people gathered and remained until midnight.

When the came case to court at the end of October, Detective Peter Howcroft related how he went to the Sunray Hotel at just before eight o'clock on the evening of 17 October. He found various betting books on Vickers, while the cash was discovered when he was brought to the town hall. Detective Howcroft claimed Sunday was the settling night for the Cesarewitch, a race that had been run a day or two previously. He stated that when he arrived at the pub and warned Vickers he had a warrant, Vickers sajd: “I hope you'll not be hard with me; it is a hard job and if you go in other houses of the town you would have found more in.” When Vickers was searched at the police station the £10 was found on him. However, no evidence was found on other men arrested at the Sunray. Perhaps none of them had won, but the bench, led by the Mayor Of Bolton, Alderman Richardson, decided that there was no evidence linking Vickers with betting. The case was thrown out to much applause from the public gallery.

The Sunray was owned by the Crown Brewery of Bury. It lasted until 1907 when its licence was objected to on the grounds that it was not required for the wants of the neighbourhood. Six other pubs suffered a similar fate: the Coach and Horses, Deansgate; the Prince Of Wales, Paley Street; the Nailmakers Arms, Folds Road; the Queens Arms, Deansgate and the Sir Colin Campbell, Folds Road. 

The pub remained empty for a while. The following year three men were arrested after being seen entering the building and leaving with a sack filled with 40 pounds of lead flashing, torn off the washing boiler. One of the men, John Kervin of Barlow Street – the next street to the Sunray – claimed he had bought the lead from a woman in Little Lever. The three pleaded guilty and were committed to the Quarter Sessions. [Bolton Evening News 17 February 1908]

The Sunray was converted to a house. An engineer named Walter Thomson occupied the premises in 1924.

The Mill Hill area was cleared in the 1970s. The former Sunray Hotel was demolished along with Barlow Street. A workshop belonging to a local Audi dealership now stands on the site. The Bare Street Mission building still survives although it hasn't been used for some years. In 2017, Henry Lisowski took a number of photos for the I Belong To Bolton Facebook group showing the inside of the abandoned building.

Tramways Hotel, 307 Blackburn Road, Bolton

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Tramways Hotel pictured in October 2018. Copyright Google.

On 31 August 1880, Her Majesty's Inspector Of The Board Of Trade, Major-General Hutchinson, joined the Mayor of Bolton, Alderman Richardson, the Town Clerk, Mr Hinnell and the chairman of the Astley Bridge local board, Major-General Hesketh and a number of other local dignitaries on a horse-drawn tramcar driven by a Mr John Metcalf that had pulled up outside the Town Hall. The tram made its way along Newport Street and headed for Moses Gate. It then returned back to Bolton where the three horses at the front of the car were replaced by four for the journey on the remainder of what was Bolton's new tram network. Crowds gathered on all aspects of the route on what was a test run for the town's new transport network.

As the tram made its way towards the border that marked the border with Astley Bridge – then a separate township – it passed a building under construction on the site of an old beerhouse and butcher's shop and which would be named the Tramways Hotel in honour of this new mode of public transport.

Six days earlier on 25 August 1880, Thomas Morris, who had been granted a provisional licence the previous year, agreed to give notice for its confirmation on 30 September. By early November 1880 the Tramways was open. The pub was aimed both at billiards players and at hotel guests who wanted to stay within reasonable distance of Bolton without the bustle of town centre. The full licence of the Red Lion, Deansgate had been transferred to the Tramways and the pub had managed to gain a billiards licence. It employed James Craven, formerly of the Balmoral Hotel, as a marker. Craven marked when, in February 1881, Walter Grundy took on Herbert Wortley in a game billed as the championship of Bolton. Wortley was suffering from a cold and was no match for Grundy who won by 1000 to 397.

While Thomas Morris had applied for the licence of the Tramways he was neither the owner or the licensee. By the time the pub opened James Atkinson was the landlord. Born in Wigan in 1835, Atkinson was a brickmaker by trade and owned the Tanners Hole brickworks in Great Lever close to what is now the junction of Settle Street and Nugent Road. He had also turned his hand to property development and along with Robert Horridge, Barnard Henry and James Holden had formed the Great Lever Building Company. He was living in Sidney Street, off Bridgeman Street, in 1861 and by 1871 he was living with his wife Margaret at Woodside Terrace, Rishton Lane. He was a successful Liberal candidate for the election to the Bolton Board Of Guardians in 1876.

However, all was not well. In an advertisement in the Bolton Evening News of 26 November – little more than a year after the Tramways opened, Atkinson filed for bankruptcy with debts estimated at £4500 – the equivalent of over £500,000 today. This suggests Atkinson, perhaps with some of his partners, built the Tramways but in doing so he perhaps over-stretched himself. In January 1882 the licence of the pub was transferred to one of his business partners, Robert Horridge.

In March 1891, a former self-actor minder named Peter Thompson of no fixed address was found dying in the middle of Blackburn Road outside the Tramways. At his inquest it was heard that the 37-year-old Thompson hadn't worked for some 12 or 13 years but made small sums of money singing or dancing at pubs. When he was found his clothes were saturated with rain and he was helplessly drunk. Any attempts to obtain a name or address out of him elicited the response that he was “the champion singer and clog dancer of Farnworth”. A doctor was called for but Thompson died before medical help arrived [Bolton Evening News, 31 March 1891].

The Tramways remained a sporting pub. Bolton Harriers often started some of their inter-club matches outside the pub. The North End Angling Society were certainly meeting there in 1908 and around that time there is mention of a Tramways in the fixtures for the Bolton Wednesday Football League for 1908 playing against the likes of Market Hall, Farnworth Wednesday and Pawnbrokers. However, this may well have been employees of the local tramways department rather than the pub's customers.

There was unwelcome attention for the Tramways in 1905 when Herbert Taylor, a 22-year-old labourer, was accused of taking bets in the vicinity of the pub and its yard. He was fined £3.

The Tramways became a Magee's house before becoming a Greenalls pub in 1958 on their takeover of Magee's Crown Brewery.

The pub was sold by Greenall's in 1988. It remains licensed premises and there is a bar on site but it is no longer a pub. It has been run for a number of years as a guesthouse/bed-and-breakfast.

Windmill, 60 Deane Road, Bolton

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The Windmill was situated on Deane Road on the corner of Wareing Street. Its early address was given as Blackburn Street which was the name given to the bottom end of Deane Road.

The first mention we have of the pub is in the 1848 Bolton Directory where the landlord's name is given as James Wardle. A James Wardle was living in Kay Street according to the 1841 census where was working as a brewer. There is also a James Wardle listed as a beerseller, also on Kay Street, according to the 1843 Bolton Directory so it is possible that he moved across Bolton a few years later and set up the Windmill. However, the 1849 licensing list gives Henry Isherwood as the landlord – and the pub's name as the Wind Mill.

In 1852 there was an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a full licence for the Windmill. The building was actually owned by the Morris family and rented to Henry Isherwood. Representatives of the late Nathaniel Morris – who died just a few weeks before the licence hearing - applied for a licence which would enable the pub to sell wines and spirits as well as beer. The application was heard along with eight others at the annual Brewster Sessions. However, there was determined opposition. The borough coroner, Mr Taylor, gave a long address against any new licences and presented petitions from a public meeting. His arguments won the day and the magistrates rejected all nine applications.

Nathaniel Morris's widow Margaret applied once again for a full licence in 1854 and this continued on an annual basis even after her death in 1868. In all cases the application was thrown out although Mrs Morris failed to appear at the 1864 hearing. [Bolton Chronicle 29 August 1864]. All the applications by the pub failed and the Windmill remained a beerhouse until 1962.

In November 1873 the Windmill was sold for £1380. [Bolton Evening News, 27 November 1873]. That's the equivalent of £147,000 at 2018 prices. The newspaper report at the time suggested 14 lots of various properties and given that there are no other reports of the Windmill being sold prior to that there's a good chance that these properties were a portfolio built up by the Morrises. The 1841 census shows them living and working as shopkeepers on Bradshaw Street, a narrow thoroughfare at the back of Bradshawgate that can still be seen today running to the rear of the Alma. But the Morrises appear to have invested their money in property and the £5800 realised from the 1873 sale is worth over £600,000 today.

In 1904, the Windmill was one of six pubs to be granted a semi-billiards licence and to continue the sporting theme, in 1908 it was announced as one of a number of pubs from where Bolton United Harriers commenced their Saturday runs. [Bolton Evening News, 12 September 1908. The Windmill run was scheduled for 13 February 1909 with a "3pm start rain or fine"].

The Windmill became a Sharman's house in the early part of the 20^th century. Sharman's were taken over by the Leigh firm of George Shaw in 1927 before becoming part of the Peter Walker company in September 1931. It became a Tetley Walker pub in 1961 and closed in the early-seventies as part of the demolition of that end of Deane Road. New housing was built in the area but it was redeveloped again from 2010 onwards and Bolton College's STEM Centre opened in 2014 on the site formerly occupied by the Windmill.

“On Tuesday evening there was a brief but dashing thunderstorm; the water poured down profusely until the streets, windows and walls smoked and seethed with the heat and the battering.....The sign in front of the Windmill beerhouse on Blackburn Street, Great Bolton, was either struck or knocked down by the electric fluid, or blown to the ground by the high wind which prevailed.” - Bolton Chronicle, 19 June 1858.

An ad from the 1890s for the Windmill. Thomas Haddock (1852-1909) spent the best part of a decade at the pub. By 1901 he was living at Broom Terrace where he was described as a retired publican.

Shamrock, 31 Soho Street, Bolton

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This view of Soho Street dates from 2008 (copyright Google Streetview) and shows Section Street on the left leading to Newport Street with Morrisons supermarket in the distance. That part of the railway bridge on the left just past Section Street marks the site of the Shamrock Tavern. Further railway works as part of the electrification project in the Bolton area means the street has been blocked off just after Section Street.

Not to be confused by a similarly named pub that existed in the nineties on St Helens Road, the Shamrock Tavern was situated on Soho Street, a thoroughfare that once connected Crook Street with Great Moor Street. The street took its name from the Soho Ironworks situated on Crook Street and which later became Hick, Hargreaves & Co. Sainsbury's supermarket has stood on the site of the old ironworks since 2004. What remains of Soho Street runs down the side of the Griffin but only as far as Morrisons.

As its name might suggest the Shamrock served Bolton's Irish community most of whom lived in the Newtown area which is now covered by Morrisons. Newtown was regarded as one of the roughest parts of Bolton.

The pub dated back to the early-1860s.

When all Bolton's beerhouses had to re-apply for their licences in 1869 there were objections from the police. The landlord at that time was Michael Reddy who had taken over as licensee the previous year. At the hearing the police complained that there were three entrances to the pub. More entrances meant more chances of people sneaking in for illegal drinking – usually on a Sunday morning when people were expected to go to church. Police Sergeant Rhodes complained of there frequently being a crowd hanging around near the pub on Sunday mornings and whenever the police approached someone would shout “th' bobby's coming” and whistle. Sergeant Whittle said people frequently hung around outside Reddy's back yard.

Despite the complaints Reddy's re-application was successful largely because he'd had no convictions against him. He had spent 14 years working at the Hulton coal depot next to Great Moor Street railway station and W. F. Hulton, Esq gave a reference in Reddy's favour saying he had risen from labourer to head salesman and always had a good character.

Reddy left the Shamrock in 1870 and James Durkin took over. But in March 1871 Durkin was injured during a knife attack at the house of his father-in-law, James Foley, on Barrow's Court, off Newport Street. (The street existed until around 2013 when it was demolished as part of the development of the Bolton Interchange). Durkin went round to the house one Tuesday evening after hearing that the 63-year-old Foley was drunk and was beating his wife. On his arrival Foley took out a knife and told Durkin he would “stick either Durkin or the old woman”. There was a scuffle in which Durkin sustained a wound near the rib cage of some five or six inches in length [Bolton Evening News, 9 March 1871]. Four months later Foley was tried at the Manchester Assizes. Durkin said he was reluctant to press charges and the judge dismissed the case urging Foley to stay off the drink. [Bolton Chronicle, 29 July 1871] Foley left the Shamrock in September 1871 and moved four doors down to 39 Soho Street where he died in 1876.

Durkin was succeeded as landlord by Mark O'Boyle who spent five years at the Shamrock before moving to the Derby Arms at the bottom of Derby Street.

In 1893, the landlord faced a charge of permitting drunkenness at the pub but this was dismissed. [Bolton Evening News 30 August 1893]. Alterations were made to the Shamrock in 1898. [Bolton Evening News, 29 August 1898].

The Shamrock had already been closed and demolished by February 1904 when the town's chief constable announced at the annual licensing sessions that its licence and those of the Waggon and Horses on Moor Lane and the Temple Tavern on Dawes Street would not be renewed because of their closure. All three pubs had shut down during 1903 for improvements to the railway. The Shamrock was one of a number of properties demolished between Section Street and Wilson Street as the number of tracks on the line from Bolton to Preston was doubled. The railway bridge on Soho Street marks the site of the pub.

A Turbulent Fellow – Patrick Duffy, 17 Sydney Street, was charged with being drunk and disorderly and assaulting Police Constable Lewis on the 20^th inst. Whilst Police Constable Lewis was taking him into custody, the prisoner kicked him seriously on the legs. For the first offence he was fined 5 shillings and costs and for the second he was fined 10 shilling and costs. A further charge was brought against Duffy for striking James Lowe in the Shamrock beershop, Soho Street, on the same night. For this assault another sum of 10 shillings and costs was imposed upon him.

 - Bolton Evening News, 21 January 1875.

Fisherman's Hut, Churchgate

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The Grand Theatre, Churchgate, a possible site for the Fisherman's Hut

The Fisherman's Hut was short-lived pub situated on Churchgate. Whereabouts on Churchgate has not exactly been ascertained.

The pub doesn't appear on the list of licenced premises for 1849 but it was in existence by the beginning of 1851. On 4 January that year, the Bolton Chronicle reported that John O'Neil was sent to prison for a month over the theft of money from Robert Ramsden. The two men were in each other's company at the pub one Thursday morning and Ramsden offered to buy a round of drinks. He took out his purse and, as he was already drunk, O'Neil helped put the purse back in to Ramsden's pocket. However, he was seen by Richard Marriot, who was also present, to take something out of the purse. When challenged he threw two half-crown coins on to the floor. The case hinged on Marriot's evidence. Ramsden was not only too drunk to remember the incident but he was still too drunk to give evidence in court two days' later.

The Fisherman's Hut was let to William Sanderson in 1853. Sanderson was born in Warrington in 1803. He was a cabinet-maker by trade but he already had some experience of appearing in front of the magistrates. In 1845 he had been fined 5 shillings and ordered to pay 14 shillings costs after he committed an indecent assault on a woman named Mrs Seddon on Great Moor Street and “exposing his person before her” [Bolton Chronicle, 24 May 1845]. He was also fined 5 shillings in 1851 but this time for selling goods on Bradshawgate at a place not appointed for market purposes. In those days Bradshawgate was around 16 feet more narrow than today and traders would line the street with their wares often causing what can only be described as a nineteenth century traffic jam. Even so, his 5 shilling fine was the same as he received for an indecent assault. Such inconsistencies were not uncommon in Victorian times.

By 1851 Sanderson was living in lodgings near Shipgates, but he entered the pub trade shortly afterwards and took over the tap room of the Ship Inn on Bradshawgate. Tap rooms were often like a pub within a pub. They aimed at a lower class of customer than the main rooms and were only reached by a separate entrance. The bar now known as Barristers on Bradshawgate was the tap room of the Swan Hotel in the 19^th century and for much of the 20^th century.

Sanderson was back in front of the magistrates again after taking over at the Fisherman's Hut. In January 1855 he was found guilty of “harbouring bad company and prostitutes” at his pub and fined 20 shillings plus costs.

He was back in court again in January 1856 this time accused of a much more serious offence. In September 1855 a carter named Roger Walsh was followed from Oxford Street into Old Hall Street by three men. He was attacked and his cart robbed but his cries attracted the attention of a number of passers-by and the three men were eventually arrested for the robbery. One of the men was William Sanderson's son John. A week before the case came to trial Daniel Seddon, a horse dealer, went to Tottington where Walsh was living and brought him to the Fisherman's Hut. Sanderson was accused of offering Walsh £3 if he withdrew his evidence against John Sanderson and it was alleged he sent Walsh away to Liverpool for the duration of the trial. William Sanderson and Daniel Seddon were later arrested and charged with dissuading and preventing a witness bound over from giving evidence. Walsh's failure to appear in court meant the case against John Sanderson and the other two men collapsed. However, a warrant was out for Walsh's arrest and after he returned to the area he gave police information leading them to William Sanderson and Daniel Seddon. Sanderson and Seddon were sent for trial at the assizes in Liverpool; however, no evidence was offered against them and they were set free. Seven years later, John Sanderson was charged with stealing a looking glass from his father's shop in Bank Street. The report at the time [Bolton Chronicle, 31 January 1863] pointed out that he had three convictions against him and had spent a total of six years in jail. Despite William Sanderson's plea for leniency John Sanderson was jailed for three months.

William Sanderson's time at the Fisherman's Hut came to an end in the summer of 1856. Jane McCann, “a young woman of immoral habits” according to the Bolton Chronicle of 16 August that year, was accused of stealing 5 shillings from John Warbrick, whose company she had kept one afternoon at the pub. Warbrick fell asleep but he was awoke by a young man who asked him if he was missing anything. He put his hand in his pocket and found that his money had gone. He told a police officer but when Jane McCann was arrested no money was found on her. The case was dismissed and Warbrick was advised by magistrates to keep better company.

However, the police used the case to take the opportunity to bring William Sanderson to court once again and he was charged with “keeping a house of ill fame.” John Warbrick and two police officers were called as witnesses. Sanderson was found guilty and fined 10 shillings with 18 shillings costs. Later that month, the pub was up to let. William Sanderson moved to 6-8 Bank Street where he worked as a beerseller and cabinet maker. The Fisherman's Hut limped on for a couple more years and after being advertised to let once again in January 1858 it disappears from the records.

There is no indication as to where the Fisherman's Hut was situated on Churchgate. However, just as the pub closed in 1858 another pub, the Concert Tavern, opened at 28 Churchgate. Given that most of the drinking establishments on Churchgate were long-established public houses not many beerhouses came and went. It could be that licensee Thomas Worsley simply took over the Fisherman's Hut and renamed it the Concert in a bid to disassociate it from its past. The Concert lasted until 1908 when it closed and was incorporated into the entrance of the revamped Grand Theatre.

"James Simpson was brought up for taking a basket from the beerhouse of William Sanderson, Churchgate, on Tuesday night. He had had some drink and stated to the magistrates that he had been asleep and was “duzzy” and that he did not intend to steal the article. The complainant had got the basket and was satisfied. The prisoner was discharged." - Bolton Chronicle, 4 February 1854.

Ringers Pulling The Ropes, Churchgate

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A printed of Churchgate from 1822

Ringers Pulling The Ropes was apparently a public house on Churchgate, close to the Parish church.

The only record we have of the pub is a very tenuous one. It comes in an article called The Gates Of Bolton written by W.J. Redford, a series of which appeared in the Bolton Evening News in 1905.

On 18 February 1905, the paper published an article by Redford on the Churchgate area and he takes a look back a hundred years to the early part of the nineteenth century.

“Before leaving the parish church of St Peter's I wish to make a few remarks on the yard and surroundings. In the early part of the nineteenth century there were old houses nearly to the steeple and a public-house with the sign “Ringers pulling the ropes”. No huge wall existed in Churchbank as we see now, but a sloping bank adorned with trees.”

The earliest licensing records we have seen go back to 1778 and there is no mention of any pub whose sign could possibly be the “Ringers Pulling The Ropes”. There was a pub in 1778 called the Rising Sun and a pub by that name certainly existed later in Churchbank. Other than that there is nothing.

Mr Redford also makes comment on the Swan Hotel claiming there is a stone or sill inside the hotel dated 1637 which would make it just one year younger than the rebuilt Man and Scythe next door. However, he goes on to add an interesting suggestion about a former name.

“It has been suggested this old hostelry (formerly with its three-pointed roof) which can be entered from two gates, be the one referred to as Boltane by a Cistercian monk of Deane named Albertus, it is very interesting as once being known by the sign of the 'Jolly Cistercian' hanging from the corner of a strong wooden lintel swinging to and fro and creaking in the windy weather. There was a sundial upon a stone pillar, casement and steps and inscribed upon a plate 'Time flees, improve each fleetyng hour' with a horse-mount stone water trough and cross-stone.”

So was there a pub called Ringer Pulling The Ropes and was the Swan Hotel once known as the Jolly Cistercian?

Park View, (Dug Un Kennel), Tonge Fold Road

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The Park View around 1905 with Allen Clarke (Teddy Ashton) at the door.

The Park View, situated on Tonge Fold Road, existed as a pub for at least a hundred years. We don't have an exact start date for when it was licensed although the building is thought to date back to the early-eighteenth century.

In the nineteenth century, the Park View was the centre of celebrations in Tonge Fold for Oak Apple Day. This national holiday, first instituted in 1664 and celebrated on 29 May each year, commemorated the restoration of the monarchy four years earlier. The name comes from King Charles II hiding in an apple tree for a full day in 1651 following his defeat by Cromwell's forces at the Battle of Worcester. (Pubs are named the Royal Oak in honour of the event). He later offered sanctuary to French Huegenots and a number of them settled in the Tonge Fold area. The local celebrations are thought to have been instigated buy Huegenots as a mark of loyalty to the king. For many years a week-long fair took place but by the early part of the nineteenth century the fairs had ended and the day was celebrated at the Park View. The Tonge Trail website  tells us that a statue of the king would be hidden in a nearby oak tree. When found it would then be taken inside the pub to be kissed by locals. Those who had come from further afield could buy the right to kiss the statue with a gallon of beer and the oldest participant would then keep the statue until the following year. Oak Apple Day was abolished by Parliament in 1859 in attempt to get rid of national holidays associated with drinking. However, celebrations continued at the Park View. The statue is now in Bolton Museum having been found in the attic of the former pub in 1959,

The Park View was also known for the connection with the Lancashire dialect writer Allen Clarke (1863-1935). Using the pen name Teddy Ashton, Clarke composed his Tum Fowt Sketches – 'Tum Fowt' being the dialect word for Tonge Fold – in 1922. However, there is a photograph of Clarke – or Ashton as per the caption – from 1905 standing outside the pub. Clarke was born a mile-and-a-half away from Tonge Fold in Parrott Street, off Derby Street. He was a teacher before joining the Bolton Evening News but he became a left-wing writer and activist. Clarke was better known under the Teddy Ashton pseudonym for his newspapers the Bolton Trotter (1891-1893) and Teddy Ashton's Journal which he edited for 14 years from 1896 to 1910 and which at one time claimed a readership of over 50,000. One of Ashton's fictional characters was Bill Spriggs. Along with his wife Bet and supporting characters Joe Lung, Patsy Filligan, Ben Roke and other characters from ‘The Dug an’ Kennel’, Bill would poke fun at authority and affirm a strong sense of pride in being part of the Lancashire working class. A postcard of the pub from that time gave the Park View another nickname: "the Bill Spriggs committee rooms". By the time Tum Fowt Sketches were written Clarke had been living in Blackpool for 16 years. Paul Salveson's article on Clarke for The Big Issue is here and gives more details about Clarke's life. 

In January 1866, the Park View's landlord Samuel Royle was charged with allowing gaming in his pub. The Bolton Chronicle of the 13^th of that month said that at 10.15pm on Saturday 30^th December 1865, Police Constable Kay visited the house. On passing the tap room window he heard gaming going on and a voice say “play for another quart.” The door was shut and the officer was unable to open it. A woman opened the door and tried to close it in his face again when she saw that it was a policeman, but he managed to force his way in. Four men were in the tap room along with the woman and the landlord. One of the men said: “put Jack down” but before PC Kay could get to the table the landlord picked up the cards and Kay could hear the jingling of coins. However, the case swung on the evidence of two people: Henry Nuttall and Betty Leach. They said that although the men had been talking about playing cards there had been no card playing and the case was dismissed. Gambling in pubs was a serious offence and could cost the landlord his licence.

A few years later, in 1873, Royle's licence was again under threat. This time, magistrates argued that the pub did not meet the minimum rateable value of £15 per year. Beerhouses had to meet this level in order to gain a licence. Too low a rateable value meant the house wasn't large enough to be open to the general public. Royle appeared at the annual licensing hearing, known as the Brewster Sessions, but he could not speak as to the rateable value. Magistrates were trying to de-licence pubs by any means they could in order to reduce the number of licenced premises in the town. On this occasion they failed as Royle's rateable value was found to have reached the £15 threshold.

Samuel Royle died in 1877 and the Park View was run by his widow Mary for a short time before she left and John Bromley took over.

In February 1880, Richard Chadburn succeeded John Bromley as licensee of the Park View. Plans were passed the following year for additions to the pub. (Bolton Evening News, 23 August 1881).

The Chadburns and the Royles were shortly to become related through marriage as Richard Chadburn's daughter Margaret married Samuel Royle's son William around 1882.

Members of the Chadburn family were to run the Park View until it closed in 1949. Richard Chadburn died in 1895 and he was initially succeeded as licensee by his widow Ann. However, she soon passed it to their eldest son, John Richard Chadburn (1869-1952). He had married Betsy Davies in 1904 and when their daughter Ann (1905-79) was baptised the following year he was a farmer living at 61 Tonge Fold Road – next door to the pub. John Richard Chadburn also had an eye for the high-brow. In December 1907 he organised an exhibition of fine art at the pub.

The Park View had a bowling green situated across the road from the front of the pub. This may have been the 'park' the 'view' of which gave it its name. The bowling green remained in use until the pub closed. Maps from the sixties and seventies show allotments where the green used to stand although the site is now overgrown.

The green meant the pub was attractive to visitors from all over town who would organise days out for a game of bowls. An example is this report from the Bolton Evening News of 8 May 1906:

“The members of Lodges 6 and 253 of the Ancient Noble Order of United Oddfellows, Bolton Unity, Bolton District, met to have a friendly game of bowls on the Park View Bowling Green, Tonge Fold, on Saturday. A capital game ended in Lodge 6 beating Lodge 253. Afterwards, the teams settled down to an excellent repast to which full justice was done. Owing to the weather being unfavourable for further outdoor sport, a concert was arranged. Bro. Jos. Greenhalgh D.C.P presided, and the following brothers contributed towards the evening's entertainment: - Bros. Kershaw, Cubbage, Cooper, Watson, Frangleton, Hurst, Entwistle and Yates. The usual votes of thanks brought a very pleasant evening to a close.”

The end for the Park View came rather suddenly in 1949. Police announced they would object to the licence's annual renewal on the grounds of “redundancy” - that it was no longer needed. At the Brewster Sessions hearing that February, Superintendent Hodgson said that the inn stood in a derelict area. He claimed the building was damp, the woodwork was decayed and there was nothing to recommend it other than sentimental arguments. Although the immediate area is now built up those housing developments didn't commence until the 1970s and Tonge Fold was quite rural in 1949. The pub was being run by John Richard Chadbond's daughter, Mrs Annie Riley. She stated that repairs were schedule to take place later in the year and she presented a 500-name petition in a bid to try and keep the Park View open. Press reports before the hearing claimed the Park View was 250 years old. (See Manchester Evening News 8 February 1949 and 10 February 1949). But the pleas were all in vain. The pub was referred to the compensation board which was set up in the late-19^th century and which oversaw the closure of many a Bolton pub.

The Park View became a private residence and remains so to this day. John Richard Chadburn was living there when he died in March 1952. Annie Riley remained at the house until her death in April 1969.