Windsor Castle, 37 Halliwell Road, Bolton

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On the right of this image taken in August 2015 is the pharmacy built on the site of the New Inn. The Windsor Castle was opposite the New Inn on the corner of Lune Street. Adisham Drive was built in its place following the redevelopment of the area in the early seventies and can be seen here with the white car waiting to turn out. The Windsor Castle was on the corner nearest the camera. Image copyright  Google Street View.

The Windsor Castle was situated at the bottom of Halliwell Road on the corner of Lune Street. Most pubs on the infamous ‘Halliwell Mile’ pub crawl were situated on the right-hand side of the road as you head out of town. The Windsor Castle was on the left and, along with the New Inn, was one of the first pubs you walked into – or the last if, as tradition appeared to dictate, you started from the Ainsworth Arms at the top of the road.

Writingon the Closed Pubs website, Mary Gray says: “The Windsor Castle was on the end of the first row of shops. At the bottom end at the traffic lights was the District Bank on the corner of Moss street. All gone now of course. I was born in 17 Halliwell Rd and lived there until 1952.”

The Windsor Castle dated back to at least the 1850s although the row of properties that included the pub was standing as early as the 1840s.

James Beddows owned the pub from the late-1850s until his death in 1882. James was originally from Deane.

By 1895 the licensee was William Rogerson. Originally from Dunscar he left for the Cheetham Arms on Blackburn Road where he died in 1913 aged 62.

Joseph Goodlad, formerly of the Junction Inn on Egyptian Street and the Union Arms on Deane Road was another career publican who ran the Windsor Castle. He certainly made a good living out of it. When he died in 1920 he left an estate valued at over £5700 – the equivalent today of almost a quarter of a million pounds. He was succeeded by his son, George, who had previously worked as a joiner.

The Windsor Castle became a Sharman’s pub in the early part of the 20^th century. Through various takeovers ownership passed through George Shaw’s of Leigh in 1926, Walker Cain of Liverpool in 1931 and Tetley Walker of Warrington in 1961. The pub received a full licence in 1962.

The end for the Windsor Castle came in the early seventies when it was demolished along with much of the immediate area. Practically the only building to remain following those clearances was Moss Street Baths situated in a street to the rear of the pub. That has since made way for a health centre.

The Windsor Castle pictured around 1930

Black Dog, 82 Halliwell Road, Bolton

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The former Black Dog pub pictured in August 2015 (copyright Google Street View)

The Black Dog was situated at 82 Halliwell Road, a stone building that still stands today.

Ellis Howarth lived at the house in 1851 along with his wife Ellen, four children and a lodger. Howarth had only recently left the Bulls Head in Farnworth and he was at the Crown and Cushion in the mid-1840s. He decided to turn his house into licensed premises so he spent two guineas on the necessary licence to open a beerhouse and the Black Dog was in business. The Howarths remained at the pub until Ellis died in 1873.

James Patterson was at the Black Dog for over a decade from the early part of the 1890s. James was a cotton spinner living in Darbishire Street in 1891 and had moved to the pub by 1894. He was later at the Stanley Arms on Egyptian Street.

By the 1920s the landlord was Ernest Rycroft whose parents had run the Cotton Tree on Lever Street.

The pub was later sold to Magee’s and it became a Greenall’s pub when they took over Magee’s in 1958.

The Black Dog closed in 1984. Any reminiscences of the pub from the sixties to the eighties always point out that it was very popular with darts players.

The building is now used by the nearby Noor al Islam mosque.

A photo of the side of the Black Dog taken in the 1950s. Note Moorlands Mill on other side of the road.

An image taken from the same position - Prospect Street - in August 2015 (copyright Google Street View). 

Crawford Arms, 19 Bolton Street, Bolton

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The Crawford Arms on Bolton Street was built in 1869. Local builder Robert Bolton built the pub – and the whole street – on land off Draycott Street and he was offering the pub to let by the end of March that year. It was taken on by Isaac Greenhalgh, a former cotton spinner from Kestor Fold, who was there until he died in 1876.

By the 1890s it was being run by Mrs Emma Hargreaves while her husband Robert worked as a slater. They had left the pub by 1901 and were living in Hibbert Street next door to the Cricketers Arms. 

A later landlord was Jack Bradshaw. According to the author Alison Bruce, Bradshaw’s daughter’s grandfather-in-law was the executioner, William Billington, whose father kept the Derby Arms on Churchgate. More on Alison Bruce’s recollections of Jack Bradshaw can be seen here. 

The Crawford was bought by Hamers, a sizeable concern which managed to supply a tied estate of some 42 pubs from a relative small brewery at the back of the Volunteer Arms at Bromley Cross. The last of the Hamers, former Mayor of Turton John Hamer, sold out to Duttons of Blackburn for £316,000 in 1951. Duttons became part of the Whitbread group in 1964 and it was a Duttons pub that the Crawford Arms ended its days in 1979. [1]

The pub was demolished in the eighties.  

Bolton Street no longer exists, though Back Bolton Street is still visible off Draycott Street. A housing estate has been built on the site of both Bolton Street and Prospect Mill No 3 which stood to the street. 

[1] More on the sad story of John Hamer can be read here. 

Draycott Street runs along the bottom of this 2015 picture (copyright Google Street View). The electricity substation in the foreground is on the corner of Back Bolton Street. Bolton Street ran down the other side of the substation starting where the trees are situated.

Belle Vue, 242 Halliwell Road

The Belle Vue pictured in October 2009 less than two years before it closed (copyright Google Street View).

Part of the famous ‘Halliwell Mile’ the Belle Vue Hotel was situated at 242 Halliwell Road. If you started the crawl at the top of Halliwell Road it was one of the last pubs - or one of the first if you started at the bottom.

The first mention we have of the pub was on the 1871 Directory. At that time it was being run by 44-year-old Mathias Stones who lived at the premises along with his Hannah and their six children. The family had lived on Gaskell Street in 1861 where Mathias worked as a buttonmaker.

Mathias Stones died in 1886 and his widow Hannah Stones took over the running of the Belle Vue. She was aided by her son Matthew who brewed the pub’s beer. By 1901 Hannah had retired and was living with her daughter Emma Brownlow who was a brewer and beerseller at the Lord Raglan further up Halliwell Road. Hannah died in 1904.

David Rostron was running the Belle Vue by 1905. He had previously been at the Lodge Bank Tavern on Bridgeman Street. By 1911 the pub was in the hands of the Oliver family. William Oliver (1876-1913) ran the pub until death and his widow Mary Jane Oliver succeeded him as licensee.

By the 1930s the pub later became part of the small tied estate owned by Samuel Smith – not the Yorkshire firm but a Bolton brewer who also ran the Dog and Snipe on Folds Road along with a small tied estate of pubs in Bolton and Horwich.

The Belle Vue later became a John Smith’s pub. John Smith’s Smooth is sold in many Bolton pubs today but before that the brewery’s Magnet Ales – as they were known – were a rarity in the town. Perhaps as well as they didn’t have a great reputation.

John Smith’s got out of the pub-owning business in the 1990s and the Belle Vue ended up in the hands of Enterprise Inns. It closed in the early part of 2011 the final licensee being Zoe Eckersley.  It was delicensed on 14 July that year. The premises are now [2015] a bedroom showroom. 

The former Belle Vue pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View).

Albert, 30-32 Progress Street

Back Progress Street pictured in 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The former Prospect Mill No 3 is on the left and the Masjid –E-Noor-Ul-Islam mosque on the right where Progress Street once stood. The rear of the Albert pub backed onto this thoroughfare about half-way down the street on the right-hand side.  

The Albert was situated at 30-32 Progress Street, off Prospect Street.

The first record we have of the pub is William Casstles running a beerhouse in 1870 until his death in 1873. That area at the bottom of Halliwell Road was just being developed at the time. Prospect Mills opened in 1867. On the other side of Halliwell Road, Waterloo Mill was already in existence. Progress Street was a row of some 50 or so cottages built in the 1860s.

Halfway down Progress Street there was a break in the terrace with Linen Street connecting Progress Street with Back Progress Street. On the corner of Progress Street and Linen Street was the Albert.

Sometimes, having a pub on a residential street was a smart move. However, the fact that the Albert closed soon after the turn of the 20^th century suggests that wasn’t always the case. Over on the other side of Blackburn Road, Buxton Street supported two pubs, but Progress Street struggled to support one. It was a tough market and perhaps people gravitated towards the bright lights of Halliwell Road. Never mind the ‘Halliwell Mile’. The New Inn, the Windsor Castle, the Ship Royal George and the Black Dog weren’t much more than 100 yards away and all were competing for the same custom as the Albert.

In 1901, the pub’s owners, Magee, Marshall & Co, applied to have the beerhouse licence converted into an off-licence. The pub’s final licensee was Simeon Rigby (1840-1912) who left the Albert to go and live on Gibbon Street just off Derby Street where he worked as a coachman. The former pub premises were occupied by William Fallows in 1924.

Progress Street was demolished in the 1970s. The Masjid –E-Noor-Ul-Islam mosque stands on its site. Oddly, Back Progress Street still exists.

New Inn, 34 Halliwell Road

The New Inn was situated at 34 Halliwell Road and dated back to around the 1870s. It was either the last pub on the ‘Halliwell Mile,’ (or first depending on where you started)  a crawl of the dozen or so pubs that once ran the length of the road. [1]

When the landlord of the New Inn, Thomas Robertson, died in June 1909 the event was of sufficient importance to merit an article in the Bolton Evening  News, though perhaps that was due to his membership of another organisation as well as his career in the licensed trade:

“For 32 years he had held a licence in Bolton, coming to the borough 50 years ago from Perth, of which town he was a native.

He was at one time a member of the District Beer and Wine Sellers’ Association.

He was also a Freemason, being a member of the Earl of Ellesmere, No 678 Kearsley Lodge.

Formerly he kept the Railway Shipping Inn, now the Brunswick Inn, Crook-st.

Mr. Robertson had been ailing for the last six months though death occurred rather unexpectedly from heart failure.” [2]

The New Inn was a beerhouse for much of its existence only obtaining a full licence in 1961. By then it was owned by Cornbrook, a Manchester brewery that became part of Bass Charrington later in the 1960s.

From 1980 the pub was run by a professional wrestler, Colin Joynson, who made many an appearance on the wrestling segment during ITV’s Saturday afternoon programme, World Of Sport.

Colin is still fondly remembered amongst aficionados of what were for many the halcyon days of British wrestling and the Wrestling Heritage website speaks warmly of the regard in which he is still held in the sport.

“The word professional surfaces fairly quickly whenever thoughts turn to Colin Joynson. He was, and still is, the ultimate professional. Colin was always protective of the image of professional wrestling, and was not afraid to stand up to whoever he felt may harm the credibility of the sport or bring the business into disrepute. He remains so to this day, twenty-odd years after leaving the ring, and whilst willing to discuss the sport in a mature, honest way remains protective of the wrestling heritage in which he played such an important part. And rightly so.” [3]

Colin also fought a lengthy legal battle with Bass over the company’s insistence that he only bought beer only from the brewery. That was despite his status having changed from a pub tenant to a lessee as happened to a great many pub landlords in the 1990s. [4]

Like all big brewers Bass sold off their pubs during the nineties and the early part of the millennium. Discovery Inns bought the pub and were then taken over by Enterprise Inns. The last owners of the New Inn were Admiral Taverns.

The New Inn closed in 2008. The pub was gutted and the front rebuilt. A chemist now stands on the site.

Mary Gray wrote on the Lost Pubs project about her memories of the pub:

“I remembered the New Inn as having Cornbrook Ales. It was near the bottom of the road and a little back ran below it to Progress Street. Opposite on the other side of Halliwell Road was the Windsor Castle on the end of the first row of shops. At the bottom end at the traffic lights was the District Bank on the corner of Moss street. All gone now of course. I was born in 17 Halliwell Rd and lived there until 1952.” [5]

[1] For the record the others were: Black Dog, Pedro's, Derby, Belle Vue, Lamb, Robin Hood, Lord Raglan, Peel, Crofters, Fox and Stork (or Stork and Fox) and The Ainsworth Arms. Some also counted Halliwell Road Conservative Club, the Portland and the Weavers Arms (the ‘Mop’)as part of the crawl. Older readers will add the Windsor Castle, opposite the New In. Most have now closed.

[2] Bolton Evening News, 22 June 1909. Retrieved 11 May 2014. Among the other pubs Mr Robinson held the licence of were: the Bridgeman Arms on Bridgeman Street and the Cotton Tree on the corner of Lever Street and Nelson Street (opposite the Tanners )

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/historyben/4450956.print/

[3] Wrestling Heritage.  Retrieved 11 May 2014.

[4] See the Bolton Evening News report of 5 August 1996 for the case. Link retrieved 11 May 2014.

[5] Lost Pubs Project. Retrieved 11 May 2014. 

The site of the New Inn pictured in May 2012 (copyright Google Street View).