Windmill, 60 Deane Road, Bolton

Follow @LostPubsBolton

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.