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.
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