Queens Hotel, Darley Street

The Queens Hotel pictured around 1964. Darley Street runs across the centre of this image from the Bolton Library and Museum collection (copyright Bolton Council). The photographer is standing at the top of Southern Street. On the other side of the junction, where the Ford Anglia car is parked in the distance, is Carlyle Street. The Woodman Inn can be seen almost directly behind the Queens. Behind the photographer would have been the Swiss Hotel – a nice little hat-trick of pubs in the space of around a hundred yards.

The Queens Hotel was situated on Darley Street at the corner of Carlyle Street. 

That part of Halliwell was built up in the 1870s and 1880s with the streets named after popular historical and contemporary literary figures such as George Darley, Thomas Carlyle, Homer and Virgil. Tennyson Street was added around the turn of the 20^th century. 

Croft Mills, Brownlow Mills and the Mortfield Bleachworks provided work for many of the residents, and beer houses such as the Queens sprang up in the 1880s.

The Queens was bought by Magee, Marshalls and closed around 1968. The whole of the area surrounding the pub was re-developed with the demolition of housing that had been built little more than 80 years previously. New housing was built in its place.

The image below is taken from roughly the same position as the photograph at the top of the page. Kirkhope Drive was built on the site of Southern Street. Carlyle Street has gone while the Croft Mills, out of shot on the older picture and on the right-hand side of Carlyle Street as we look, was demolished in the eighties. 

Globe Inn, Higher Bridge Street

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Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The Globe is the distinctive white building in the near distance on this photo of Higher Bridge Street from around 1975. The heating firm of J Smethurst and Son (Bolton) Ltd, just a few doors down, continued in business until the late-nineties, though not from the same premises.

The Globe Inn on Higher Bridge Street was one of those street-corner locals that began to spring up in the middle of the 19^th-century – a small beer house in a residential area.

It dated back to the 1860s and the building was a pub for pretty much the whole of its existence. That part of Higher Bridge Street was undeveloped on the 1849 map but we know the Globe was in existence by 1870 at the latest.

The Globe was situated on the main road out of Bolton with Heywood Street running down one side of the pub and Graham Street down the other. Until the 1930s there was a small row of three houses directly to the rear of the pub on Heywood Street. There was also housing on Edmund Street which ran behind the Globe so there was an immediate catchment area.

The Globe was a traditional multi-roomed pub but by the eighties any walls between the various rooms had been torn down and it had more of an open-plan look. There was a small vault to the left of the entrance, next to the bar; a lounge was on the right and there a pool room at the back. The efficient use of space meant the pub looked bigger than it actually was from the outside. The building was actually situated on a small incline and there was a notable slope from the front door down to the back room.

The Globe was bought by Wingfield’s Brewery which was situated on Nelson Square until the late-1890s in premises that were eventually demolished to become part of an extended Pack Horse Hotel. Wingfield’s were bought out by the Manchester Brewery Company. That business collapsed in 1912 and the pubs were bought by Walker and Homfray’s of Salford. In 1949 Walker and Homfray’s were taken over by Wilson’s.

The Wilson’s beers were usually pretty well kept, though. The brewery, in Newton Heath, Manchester, became part of the national Grand Metropolitan combine along with the Halifax brewery of Samuel Webster’s. However, Wilson’s brewed their own beers for a tied estate largely based in the Greater Manchester area but which reached out to the whole of the north-west.

The Globe pictured in the 1980s in a photograph sent in by Josh Bladen. The gentleman in the doorway is his grandfather who was the pub's landlord at the time.

But Wilson’s closed in 1986 with its beers now supplied from Halifax. It was the beginning of the end as GrandMet eventually got out of brewing and its pub empire was eventually packaged up and sold out to the resurgent pub retailers.

The Globe also began to suffer from a lack of local custom. The housing behind the pub disappeared in the fifties, sixties and seventies and while the rows of terraced houses on the other side of Higher Bridge Street also disappeared there was a  little compensation in that a number of pubs – the Hearts Of Oak and the  Haydock Arms on Haydock Street to name but two examples – also closed. That had the effect of driving custom from the new flats at Skagen Court to the likes of the Globe and the Borough higher up the street. Casual lunchtime custom was also affected by the closure of a number of mills in the area.

The Globe continued until around 2002 when it closed down. It can be seen here in 2000, a couple of years before it shut and with the Wilson's sign still showing on the side of the pub. A little further down Higher Bridge Street the local motor firm of Gordons Of Bolton had expanded in the eighties and nineties and began to buy up land along Higher Bridge Street. The Globe was subsequently demolished and its site is now part of Gordon’s car park.

Many of the regulars at the pub moved to the Rock House Hotel a couple of hundred yards away on Duke Street. The Rock House was renamed the New Globe. It closed at the end of 2013.

Two views of the site of the Globe after its demolition. Above, in August 2008, the site of the pub is fenced off. Heywood Street and Graham Street flank either side of the pub's location. Below, a similar view in May 2012 showing all the land now part of Gordon’s Of Bolton. The former Heywood Street is now just the entrance to the car park. The white van in the foreground is parked on the site of the Globe. Both images are copyright Google Street View.

Harp Tavern, Moor Lane

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The Harp Tavern was a beerhouse situated on Moor Lane opposite what is now the Bolton fire station.

The pub dated back to the 1860s and drew its custom from Flash Street and Back Crook Street. But this was a heavily-pubbed area with something like 13 licensed premises in just a few hundred yards from what is now the fire station up to the junction with University Way.

Magee’s owned the Harp and they took the decision to close it in 1913. [1]

Alan Jenkinson writes on the Ancestry forum that his ancestor, John Helm, ran the pub from shortly before the 1911 Census until shortly afterwards which suggests he was probably the pub's last landlord.

The building later became a motor repair garage and remained in use for over 60 years. It was demolished in 1974 along with a number of other buildings on that row and the site was later developed to form a junction for part of the southern limb of Bolton’s inner relief road.

The photo at the top of the page shows the Harp garage, clearly marked, shortly before its demolition. Flash Street runs by the handwritten ‘No Parking’ sign. Further along, next to the white building is the former Old Three Tuns Hotel which opened in 1804 and closed in 1973. The Division One furniture store can be seen in the distance. The image is from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The image below shows a view from much the same position in April 2012. Copyright Google Street View.

[1] Bolton Pubs 1800-2000, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (2000).

Town Hall Hotel, Old Hall Street South

A side view of the Town Hall Hotel taken in the 1920s from the side of the town hall itself. The entrance was on Old Hall Street South, which ran down the side of the pub.

Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The Town Hall Hotel – not to be confused with the nearby Town Hall Tavern – stood on Old Hall Street South. It dated back to the 1840s and was originally known as the Stork.

Old Hall Street South no longer exists, though Old Street North is still there. It is the small side street that runs down the side of Beale’s to Le Mans Crescent. In the 1840s it went as far as Ashburner Street, but it was split into two in the 1870s with the building of Bolton Town Hall. This majestic symbol of civic pride cost taxpayers £167,000 having originally been slated to cost only £60,000.

In the early 1860s the town’s mayor, Alderman James Wolfenden, championed the idea of a new town hall on the site of the old pot market. What is now Victoria Square was, at that time, the town’s market place.

As plans came to fruition and the imposing building arose at the side of his pub, the landlord of the Stork, Henry Grindrod, had an idea. He renamed his pub the Town Hall Hotel and in doing so he pre-dated the actual town hall. By the time the new building was declared open on 5 June 1873, Grindrod’s Town Hall Hotel had been trading under its new moniker for quite some time.

The construction also meant that the Town Hall Hotel was now at the end of its row as previously it was in the middle of a terrace. The laying out of the new Town Hall Square meant the demolition of some of the pub’s neighbouring properties and the partition of Old Hall Street. The Town Hall Hotel was now on Old Hall Street South.

The Crown Brewery Company of Bury bought the Town Hall Hotel during the First World War but in 1933 they decided to close the pub. The former pub remained standing until 1947 when it was demolished along with a number of other buildings on Old Hall Street South. The area was landscaped and became a grass enclosure surrounded by benches. In 1967 the Octagon Theatre was built on part of the enclosure. The Wellsprings was built on the rest of the site in 1983.

Old Hall Street South no longer exists. The rebuilding of the west side of Newport Street in 1957 meant that Coronation Street was slightly diverted and extended to meet what was then the Town Hall Square.

For pub-goers of a more recent vintage, the entrance to entrance to the former Oscar’s bar (now the Motorcise gym) is on part of the site of the former Town Hall Hotel.  

Old Hall Street South pictured in 1957. The area once occupied by the Town Hall Hotel is now a grassed enclosure with benches placed at various intervals around the perimeter.  The Market Hotel (T'Crate Egg) can be seen in the distance.

Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The Wellsprings in 2012 (copyright Google Street View).Coronation Street can be seen running down the side of the building. The street was slightly re-routed to include the former Old Hall Street after the west side of Newport Street was re-developed in the late-fifties.

Lower Nags Head - Oliver's, Deansgate

Two versions of the Lower Nags Head  pictured in 1927. At the top is the original eighteenth-century building. Below the grander, version, rebuilt in that year. That building still stands and is currently used as a bank .

Images from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The Lower Nags Head stood Deansgate, close to the junction with Bridge Street and Mealhouse Lane and a few doors along from where Marks and Spencer’s now stands.

The area around the pub once belonged to the Brownlow family who built Hall-I’th-Wood in the sixteenth century. Gardens and orchards extended over what is now Market Street and Victoria Square.

The original Lower Nags Head building dated back to the eighteenth-century. It was originally known simply as the Nag’s Head and appears on the Great Bolton licensing records of 1778. It pre-dated as a pub its similarly-named neighbour the Higher Nags Head by over 40 years.

By the 1840s the pub was being styled ‘the Old Nags Head’ to differentiate it from its upstart neighbour which only became a pub in around 1820. The landlord at that time was James Isherwood and he had a sideline as a coach proprietor. His Prince William stagecoach would head off to Manchester from outside the pub once every day.

The local brewery of Magee, Marshall and Co eventually took over the pub. By the twenties they also owned the Higher Nags Head and decided to close down both pubs and rebuild the Lower Nags Head (as it  had been styled since the 1860s).

The Higher Nags Head was demolished in 1929 and converted into shops which can still be seen in between Market Street and Oxford Street. The Lower Nags Head survived – in name only and not without radical change. The tiny, eighteenth-century building was deemed not fit for purpose and Magee’s rebuilt the Lower Nags  a couple of doors down in 1927.

The photo at the top of the page shows the two buildings side-by-side. The difference is remarkable; the old building looks like a shack compared to the newer Lower Nags Head with its impressive Doric columns and its ornate rooftop.

But while the old building had served as a pub for 150 years the new pub, for all its fancy architecture, lasted considerably less as licensed premises. Magee’s had sold out to Greenall Whitley in fifties and Greenall's obviously considered the Lower Nags to have more potential as a retail outlet than as a pub.

When Magee’s rebuilt the Lower Nag's they put in a huge cellar along with a downstairs lounge. In 1966 Greenall’s closed the two ground floor bars and extended the downstairs lounge into part of the cellar. The Doric columns were torn down and the street-level entrance was divided into two with stairs leading down to a Nags Head that really was ‘lower’, but with Hepworth’s tailors taking up the rest of the entrance and the whole of the ground floor.

But the Lower Nags Head received a new lease of life. A resident DJ was put in and the pub is fondly remembered on various internet forums. The 70s Bolton group on Facebook has numerous reminiscences from customers, licensees, doormen and DJs at the Lower Nags and it is clear that a great deal affection remains for the pub amongst its former customers.

However, it wasn’t to last. There was a refurbishment in 1982 and a name change to Oliver’s in 1985 but Greenall’s pulled the plug in 1989 and the pub closed.

The Abbey National building society converted the whole of the ground floor into one of their branches. It is now a branch of the Santander following their takeover of the Abbey National.

The Magee Marshall insignia can still be seen on the roof of the former pub premises.

The Lower Nags Head in 1980. Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

Higher Nags Head - Holden's Vaults, Deansgate

The Higher Nags Head pictured a few years before it closed in 1929.  Image from the Bolton Library And Museums Service collection. Copyright Bolton Council.

The Higher Nags Head was situated on Deansgate in between Market Street and Oxford Street.

The building was a private residence for some years before becoming a pub. It was built in 1735 as a townhouse for John Andrews (1684-1743). Andrews’ principle residence was Rivington  Hall, which he bought from the Breres family in 1729 but he needed a residence in the centre of town.

Andrews was famous for having built the beacon on top of Rivington Pike in 1733.

Around 1820 the house became licensed premises. It wasn’t uncommon for there to be two pubs of the same name not too far away from each other. For example, Whellan and Co’s Directory of 1853 shows the Millstone on Crown Street and the Old Millstone on Deansgate; a Three Crowns and an Old Three Crowns, both on Deansgate, and about 20 yards away from each other a Higher Nags Head and the Lower Nags Head, both of which were named the Nags Head  in 1853.

For a number of years people differentiated between the two pubs by referring to the Higher Nags Head as Holden’s Vaults. That was after John B Holden and Co, a firm of wine and spirit merchants who owned the pub and used it to store their stock.

John Brown Holden was born in Bolton in 1797 to the family that owned the George and Dragon in Oxford Street, just around the corner from the Higher Nags Head. The Great Bolton licensing records of 1778 show that Holden’s grandfather, John Brown, was in charge of the George and Dragon at that time. His mother, Mary, was later a licensee of the pub, certainly around 1818 and John was in charge by 1824. He added the Higher Nags Head around 1840 and used it as a base for his wine and spirits business.

Like a number of people in the drinks trade Holden entered politics. He was also a councillor for six years from 1851 to 1857 representing Exchange Ward for the Liberal Party. He was also a subscriber to the Bank Of Bolton.

John Brown Holden died in 1866, aged 69, the George and Dragon having been relinquished but with the Higher Nags Head still in the possession of John B. Holden and Co. Indeed, Holden’s were still charge into the early part of the 20^th century.

The Higher Nags Head was eventually taken over by Magee, Marshall and Co of Daubhill. By then they also owned the Lower Nags Head. Having two pubs with similar names just a matter of feet from each other obviously made no sense to Magee’s. Two decisions were made in the late-1920s. First of all, in 1927 the Lower Nags Head was completely rebuilt and the old building demolished. Then, in 1929, the Higher Nags Head was sold.

The building was subsequently demolished and shops built on the site between Market Street and Oxford Street.

White Horse, Mealhouse Lane

This photograph shows Mealhouse Lane around the turn of the 20^th-century. There was a good pub crawl within about 100 yards in the late-1890s - and probably for some considerable time before that.  Behind the photographer – and out of shot – was the Queen Anne. On the right is the Crown and Cushion which was rebuilt around 1901. At the bottom of the block – where the HSBC Bank now is – was the Old Woolpack. A left turn around the corner would have brought you to the Bay Horse.

However, it the area to the right of the photograph that concerns us, the board covered with posters. This was the site of the White Horse Hotel. It dated back to around the 18^th century and appears in the 1778 list of Great Bolton Alehouses.

The White Horse closed in 1901 and was demolished soon afterwards. The above pictured comes from the Bolton Museums collection  (copyright Bolton Council). The caption on the photo has a date of 1890 but that seems unlikely. The newly-rebuilt Crown and Cushion is complete so it is obviously after that.

The site of the White Horse is covered in posters suggesting it has already been demolished. One of the posters advertisers a match between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City – a sunny day, the shadows short. We’re guessing it was shortly before the Trotters’ 2-1 home defeat to the Potters in September 1905.

The Bolton Evening News extended their offices and the new building was completed in 1907. The Crompton Place shopping centre now stands on the site.

An image of the White Horse prior to its demolition. Shipgates is the very narrow thoroughfare running down the side of the pub.