Queens Arms - Flax Tavern, 42 Bridge Street, Bolton

 

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Bridge Street pictured in June 2018 (copyright Google). Tuesday's Skate shop is at number 42, next to Bolton's last vinyl record store, X Records. Another pub, the New Market, was next door at number 40 until 1972. It was later pulled down and an advertising hoarding put on the site until Bow Street was widened.

The Queens Arms was situated at 42 Bridge Street – a building that still exists.

The pub was originally named the Flax Tavern and opened around 1860. Flax is a fibrous plant from which linen is produced. Nearby Bark Street Mill produced flax and was known as Flax Mill. Its chimney was demolished in 1972. There was a Flax Place on the other side of Bridge Street not far from the mill.

The pub's first mention is in an article in the Bolton Chronicle of 24 June 1865. The local council donated £5 towards a meal at the pub for workers on the new fish market situated just across the road. The fish market remained in place until 1932 when it moved to the newly-built market premises on Ashburner Street. It was demolished soon afterwards and the story goes that swarms of rats fled the building when demolition began.

In January 1870 the Flax Tavern was the scene of a bizarre incident involving landlord Joseph Hamer and his brother-in-law Samuel Wilson, a carter who lived in nearby Back Bow Street. One Sunday night Wilson went to the pub but over the course of the evening he became very drunk. Hamer tried to calm him down and the Bolton Chronicle of 24 January 1870 takes up the story:

“About ten o'clock he [Wilson] became very quarrelsome, and threw a dog at him [Hamer]. He then rushed at him and threw him to the ground, and a cry was raised that the prisoner was biting. He was taken off the prosecutor [Hamer], and it was then found that a piece of his left ear had been bitten off. The prisoner then ran away, and the piece of ear was found on the floor. Prisoner, who pleaded that he was very drunk at the time, was committed to the assizes for trial.”

Hamer died in 1872. He had previously worked as a stonemason and it is likely that he continued his work in that profession even while he had the pub. His wife Alice took over the licence on his death and she continued in the pub trade for at least 20 more years. She later ran two beerhouses off Bridgeman Street, the Coe Street Tavern and then the York Street Tavern where she was the landlady as late as 1895.

By 1881 the Flax Tavern had changed its name to the Queens Arms. In November of that year a laundress named Frances Hardman of Chapel Alley walked into the pub and asked to be shown the back yard. She was led through the kitchen and out the back door but after she had left, landlord Ellis Fletcher noticed that a shirt and towel were missing. Ms Hardman was also accused of stealing 12 brushes from a shop in Rushton Street and 50 yards of galatea cloth from a shop in Corporation Street. She had sold 16 yards of the cloth to the landlord of the George Hotel. Hardman admitted stealing the items and she was committed to the sessions for trial. [Bolton Evening News, 26 November 1881].

In 1899 the Queens Arms was one of a number of pubs put up for auction as part of the sale of its owners, Walkers Bolton Brewery Company Ltd. Pubs in Bolton and Preston as well as a brewery on Spa Road were included in the sale. The brewery was built in 1874 by George Walker, a pub landlord and brewer who had built up a small tied estate to be served by the brewery. However, the business had got into difficulties and in 1899 Walker decided to sell. Bidding started at £50,000 but the lot was withdrawn at £73,000. Instead, Walker formed the Spa Wells Brewery Company Ltd to buy the brewery and the pubs. By the end of 1903 that company was also in trouble and it was put up for sale. Walker appeared in the bankruptcy court claiming he had lost £7500 on the value of his shares in the Spa Wells Brewery.

The brewery and the Queens Arms, as well as a number of Spa Wells' other Bolton pubs, were bought by James Jackson who registered his business as a private company in 1913. That company was taken over George Shaw & Co Ltd of Leigh in 1927. The brewery was bought by the Bolton Free Brewery Co Ltd which became the Bolton and District Clubs Brewery Ltd in 1929. That lasted for eight years until it was bought by Howcroft's in 1937. It finally closed in 1969 after Howcroft's merged with B Cunningham Ltd of Warrington. Magnet Kitchens has been on the site for some years. Walker Street, next to the premises, are the only clue as to its former life as a brewery.

The end for the Queens Arms came in 1906 when its licence was objected to at the annual licensing sessions. Speaking for the council, Mr JH Hall stated that there were 11 fully-licenced pubs and three beerhouses within a radius of 200 yards of the Queens. One of those beerhouses was the New Market which was situated right next door. Police Inspectors Habgood and Clarke and Superintendent Lowe stated that the Queens was frequented by a large number of young girls and men as well as a number of “disorderly women”. In defence of Jackson and licensee William Singleton, Mr Russell said that the pub did a fair trade – five barrels a week plus bottles. In the few days since the announcement of the pub's impending closure, a petition against the decision had been signed by 200 people. Jackson, the pub's landlady Mrs Singleton and William Partington who lived two doors away at 46 Bridge Street gave evidence to the effect that the house was run in a straightforward manner. However, despite their best efforts the licensees orders its closure [Bolton Evening News, 9 May 1906]. Compensation was later set at £520. [Manchester Courier, 11 January 1907]

Since the Queens' closure the premises have been used by various enterprises. In 1924 it was Taylors pawnbrokers and according to the book Bolton Pubs 1800-2000 it has been partly rebuilt. It was Bolton Spinal Care for a number of years before becoming Tuesday's Skate Shop in 2016.