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.