Pike View Hotel, 321 Derby Street, Bolton

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The Pike View pictured in 2008

The Pike View Hotel was situated on Derby Street on the corner of Swan Lane*. There are two theories as to how the pub got its name. The most likely is that it was named after a view of Rivington Pike which was uninterrupted until properties were built on the other side of Derby Street. But there is also a theory that it was named due to its proximity to The Pike, Robert Heywood's former home not far away from the pub on High Street and which would have been clearly visible until the 1880s.

The Pike View dated back to the 1850s and the first mention we have is in a report in the Bolton Chronicle of 23 May 1857. Thomas Boardman, described in court as “half-witted”, was accused of causing a disturbance at the pub. However, it emerged that other customers would often torment Boardman after he'd had a drink. They would pluck at his hair and pinch him, much to his annoyance, and this disturbance was the result of such provocation. Boardman's father said he'd been run over at the age of seven and suffered from fits. He was blind in one eye and had lost the use of one arm. The landlord of the Pike View said he didn't know what to do and on the face of it the locals could be accused of behaving callously towards someone with obvious disabilities. While some people were in favour of Boardman being allowed in the pub others were against it. The magistrates decided there was no case for Boardman to answer and dismissed the case.

In 1862, landlord Samuel Partington applied for a spirit licence. He was refused and it was over 40 years before spirits were sold at the Pike View. When he applied again the following year a meeting at the Temperance Hall was told that eight of the 16 applications for new spirit licences came from pubs between the Pike View and the Flag Hotel as housing development continued along Derby Street and beerhouses applied for spirits licence to satisfy what they perceived as a demand for those drinks.

Samuel Partington died in 1872. His daughter Elizabeth Partington, a dressmaker by trade, took over the licence after his death but she sold the pub at an auction in 1875 shortly before her marriage to John France. An assumption could be made that Mr France wasn't interested in the licensed trade, hence the sale; however, by 1881 the Frances were living in Bollington and running a pub.

The purchaser at the auction was Robert Dobson of the Parkfield Inn  on Crook Street. The Parkfield had its own brewery and Dobson supplied the Pike View with beers from the Parkfield until his death in 1888.

Ads for the 1875 auction made reference to a club room at the pub and the Pike View was used as the meeting place of a number of organisations over the years. The Welcome Stranger Lodge Number 53 of the Loyal Order Of Female Druids met at the pub in 1859 and at least two early football clubs used it as its headquarters. In the 1881-82 season Pike View Rangers were based there. The Bolton Evening News reported in its edition of 20 March 1882 that the Rangers were involved in a local derby against a side named Willows Rangers. It was a home game for Pike View, although the location of their ground isn't revealed in the report. The visitors were triumphant by scoring three goals to Pike View's one goal and a disputed goal. A team was still active at the pub in the 1893-94 season although by now they were simply known as Pike View. The Evening News of 21 October 1893 reported that they were held to a 2-2 draw by Rumworth St George's which was most likely a church team based at St George The Martyr on Church Avenue. Although there was an organised league in Bolton at that time, made up mostly of church teams, most clubs played friendly matches and an extensive list of results in the paper show the teams that were active in the Bolton area at that time: Bolton Orlando, Bark Street Alliance, St Luke's Choir, Arden Street Rangers, Alma Swifts, Dixon Green Rovers, Deane Association and many others. By 1895, Daubhill Wednesday of the Lancashire Wednesday League were based at the Pike View and were active into the twentieth century.

The 1895 Bolton Directory shows that a Percy Orrell was the manager of the Pike View. Percy had been brought up in the pub business – his father was Thomas Orrell, a local councillor who ran the Railway Hotel on St Helens Road. Census records from four years earlier show that Percy was indeed a public house manager but that he was just 19 years old. He didn't live on the premises but in nearby Howcroft Street along with his wife Mary and their young son. Mr Orrell later left the Pike View and joined the Duke Of Lancaster's Own Regiment. He was killed in the Boer War at Faber's Spruit in 1900.

There was a large increase in the population of the locality around the Pike View towards the end of the 19^th century. In 1885 the Bolton to Leigh railway, which for 57 years had run a couple of hundreds yards behind the pub, was re-routed with the opening of a new line that ran between Daubhill station and Great Moor Street via a cutting that ran beneath Crawshaw Lane (later Ellesmere Road) and Higher Swan Lane. The old railway line had followed an incline from Swan Lane down to town and the new route removed that. The old line was pulled up and houses built between Adelaide Street and High Street. Auburn Street, Essingdon Street and Bowness Road were among the streets that were constructed in the 1890s and all survive to this day. Employment in the area was boosted by the newly-built Swan Lane Mills. Number 1 mill was built in 1902 with Number 2 mill following three years later. This double-mill was the largest in the world at that time.

With the area booming the Pike View underwent alterations in 1898 but in 1904 another application was made for a spirit licence. By now the pub was owned by Magee, Marshall and Co whose Crown Brewery at Cricket Street was just a quarter of a mile away. However, in order for the application to be granted Magee's had to offer up the licences of one fully-licensed pub, one beerhouse and one off-licence. The fully-licensed Elephant and Castle on Blackhorse Street was sacrificed along with the Jolly Carter  beerhouse on the corner of Derby Street and High Street and an off-licence at 68-70 Rosamond Street.

Magee's owned the Pike View until they sold out to Greenall Whitley in 1958 although their tied estate was served by the brewery at Cricket Street until its closure in 1970.

The Pike View served real ale up to 1979. According to the issue of Greater Manchester beer drinkers' magazine What's Doing in July of that year, a refurbishment brought about the installation of cellar tanks and the removal of handpumps. The article mourned the pub's loss as a real ale outlet describing is as “a traditional, well-kept local”. A number of pubs went back to real ale over the ensuing years, but not the Pike View.

Plans were afoot in 1987 for the first-floor living accommodation at the pub to become a branch of the Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffaloes. This followed the closure of the RAOB's former premises, the Crown Hotel on Derby Street which was demolished to make way for extra parking at Cambrian Soft Drinks, the Greenall's subsidiary that succeeded Magees in their occupancy of the Crown Brewery. However, the application was withdrawn and the Buffs moved instead to the Ram's Head on Derby Street.

Greenalls got out of brewing in the early nineties and the Pike View became part of Admiral Taverns. As with just about all the pubs on the so-called 'Daubhill mile' trade at the Pike View slowly diminished. It lasted longer than most with the end coming in 2009. The premises subsequently became a fast-food outlet.

* Not to be confused with Higher Swan Lane. Swan Lane used to run from Derby Street to Settle Street but when Bridgeman Street was extended from High Street to Adelaide Street at the end of the 19^th century Swan Lane was split in two. The section from Derby Street to Bridgeman Street kept the original name but the section from Bridgeman Street was re-named Higher Swan Lane. It was extended to Lever Edge Lane as houses were built along the section beyond Settle Street in the early years of the 20^th century.

Rushton Arms, 28 Wareing Street, Bolton

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This access road running off Deane Road between the STEM Centre on the right and the University Of Bolton's Motor Engineering Centre on the left is all that is left of Wareing Street. The original houses in the area were demolished in the 1960s and replaced by council housing. These were demolished in 2010 when plans were revealed for the conversion of the whole area into Bolton's education quarter.

The Rushton Arms was a typical back-street pub the likes of which have largely died out. It was situated at 28 Wareing Street (sometimes spelled Waring Street) off Deane Road.

Pubs were often named after prominent figures, whether they may be national or local, and it is likely that the Rushton Arms was named after Thomas Lever Rushton, a prominent town councillor. Rushton represented Exchange Ward from 1846 to 1852 and from 1868 to 1874. He was then an Alderman for the ward from 1874 to 1883. Rushton was a solicitor by profession but he also founded the firm of Rushton and Eckersley, an iron forging business whose works occupied land that was later the site of Moor Lane bus station. However, he is best remembered for instigating the construction of the Market Hall which opened in December 1855. That perhaps gives us a clue as to the age of the pub that bore his name.

The Rushton Arms opened in the middle of the 19^th century and the first reference we have is in 1857 when landlord John Smith was up in front of the court accused of having his pub open at twenty to eight on a Sunday morning. Police claimed they had seen six or eight men wait at a side window at the pub and after waiting a short while they were given entry. When the police officers went up to the window a woman shook her head at them but they were given entry anyway. However, no beer was noticed when they entered the pub. The court heard from Jane Askew, John Smith's sister, who had been staying with him for the past three weeks. She claimed to have been cleaning the pub and opened the door to let in some fresh air. Six or eight men walked in but she refused to serve them. They then asked for their wedding glasses (Smith had got married during the week). Smith came downstairs and told them to return at opening time. They then left. Jane Askew then claimed that when she saw the two policemen she shook her head as she did not know them. She also claimed that one of the policemen went round to the back of the pub, let himself in, then let in the other policemen by the front door. The magistrates admitted that there was some doubt in the case and dismissed the charges. [Bolton Chronicle, 18 July 1857].

Smith had left the Rushton Arms by the time of the 1861 census. The pub was occupied at that time by John Cooling along with his wife and a lodger. Later in the 1860s, Thomas Blackley moved in. A former iron moulder he was there until his death in 1879.

A notice appeared in the Bolton Evening News of 24 February 1902 offering the Rushton Arms for sale. At that time the owner of the building had an agreement with the Manchester brewery of J. G. Swales and Co Ltd who leased the pub and installed tenants*. However, the lease was due to expire the following month and the owner of the building decided to sell up. It was stated in the ad that the pub had been under the same ownership for almost half a century. Properties numbered 49, 51, 53, 55 and 57 Wellington Street were also included in the sale. Although all the properties were nominally in separate streets they were effectively one block of buildings. The Rushton Arms' front was in Wareing Street but it was actually the side of the block. The ad describes the pub as a substantial three-storey building that had obviously been built as licensed premises:

“The house has frontages of 41ft 6in and 28ft respectively, is of lofty elevation, good appearance and condition, well fixtured, prominently situated in favourable business position and contains centre lobby, Bar and Vault, Tap Room, Kitchen, Scullery, Assembly Room, six bedrooms, two Landings, five Cellars, Brewhouse, Yard and conveniences and is free from reproach. Apportioned chief rent £3 15s 0d, Contents of site 316 square yards.”

The pub was bought by the firm of J. Hamer who were based at the Volunteer Inn, Bromley Cross. Hamer's were in the process of expanding their tied estate and were always on the lookout for pubs. Their only other outlet in the area was an off-licence in nearby Ellesmere Street.

Hamer's ownership of the Rushton Arms was only brief. In 1913 the licensing justices referred six houses to the compensation authority on the grounds that the pubs were no longer needed and all six closed down later that year. The Rushton had the Corporation Tavern as a neighbour just a back street away along with a whole host of pubs along Deane Road.

The other pubs closed down at that time were the Harp Tavern on Moor Lane, the Foresters Arms on Blackburn Road, the Black Lion on Turton Street, the Phoenix Tavern on Phoenix Street, and the Mount Pleasant Inn on Mill Street.

* Swales supplied a small number of pubs in Bolton. Some of our senior drinkers may remember their products from the Prince William on Bradshawgate or the Lodge Bank Tavern on Bridgeman Street. The brewery and its 38 pubs was bought by Boddington's in 1970.

Town Hall Tavern, 46-48 Victoria Square, Bolton

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The Town Hall Tavern pictured shortly before it closed in 1925. At that time it was owned by the Bromley Cross brewery, Hamer's. After the pub closed licensee William Cole went on to run the Cheetham Arms at Dunscar. Pic: Bolton Library and Museum Service.

The Town Hall Tavern stood on Howell Croft on land that was to become part of Bolton's civic centre. The pub isn't to be confused with the Town Hall Hotel which stood not too far away on Old Hall Street. 

In 1861 George Cooper and his wife Sarah were living at the premises. George was described at that time as provision dealer so it is likely that at some stage during the 1860s he decided to sell beer as well as provisions. One reason could have been the construction of the new Bolton Town Hall just across the road from George's premises. Construction began in 1866 and the new building opened in 1873. In the meantime beer became George's main line of business and the beerhouse became known as the Town Hall Tavern.

In 1875 George Cooper decided to apply for a licence to sell foreign wines. Pubs tended to be either beerhouses or they had full licences which enabled them to sell wines and spirits, but a small number of pubs sold just wine as well as beer. By the 1870s it had become more and more difficult for beerhouses to sell anything other than beer and licences to sell spirits and/or wine had become difficult to get come by. Cooper applied at the annual licensing hearing, the Brewster Sessions – one of 13 beerhouses applying for licences to sell products other than beer. All were refused by the magistrates.

George Cooper died aged 51 later that year and his widow Sarah took over the Town Hall Tavern. Mrs Cooper applied once more for a licence to sell wine at the 1880 Brewster Sessions. She stated that people often came to her house after watching concerts at the Town Hall and they wanted something to drink other than beer. Once again all applications were rejected by the magistrates.

In January 1882 there was an outbreak of smallpox at a lodging house on Howell Croft a few doors away. The inspector in charge of the case, George Southern, visited the Town Hall Tavern and warned Mrs Cooper not to allow anyone from the lodging house to enter the pub. She pointed out one man from the lodging house and police told him to leave and go home. He was also warned not to go into the Town Hall Tavern again. He replied he would not as he had quarrelled with Mrs Cooper. The following day Inspector Southern met up with the man at Wood Street and walked him to the workhouse which was situated on land now occupied by the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The Town Hall Tavern was bought by local brewer Magee Marshall but was later sold by Magee's to another local firm, J Hamer, based at the Volunteer Inn, Bromley Cross.

The building of Bolton Town Hall was the beginning of the Town Hall Tavern as licenced premises in the 1860s. However, the need for more local government offices was to mark its end. Bolton Council earmarked land on Howell Croft and Victoria Square for the construction of a new civic centre. The Town Hall Tavern was bought by the council in 1925 and demolished soon afterwards.

Ploughboy, 97 Higher Bridge Street, Bolton

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The Higher Bridge Street branch of Aldi. The Ploughboy once stood at the edge of the car park.

The Ploughboy was situated at 97 Higher Bridge Street, close to the junction with Prince Street.

The building was only a pub for about 20 years until its closure in 1870. It was owned by George Holden who decided to move to the another beerhouse, the Old Cottage – more commonly known as the Quiet Woman  - on what is now Bradford Street in 1870. At a hearing, Holden found the transfer objected to by the town's chief constable, Thomas Beech, who claimed Holden was fined 2 shillings and 6 pence for a breach of his licence about 20 years previously. Holden stated that he had never been fined in his life. Chief Constable Beech referred to the court's fines book which stated that George Holden, the Letters, Higher Bridge Street had been fined. Holden replied that his house was known as the Ploughboy and never “the Letters”. The magistrates admitted that perhaps there was another George Holden and sanctioned the transfer. [Bolton Chronicle, 4 June 1870]

The court then turned to the transfer of the licence of the Ploughboy from George Holden to his son, George Holden junior. One of the magistrates, Councillor Richard Stockdale, pointed to George junior and asked his father if “that lad” would be taking charge of the pub. Holden senior replied that he would to which Councillor Stockdale responding by asking how old he was. “Twenty-one in January” replied George senior adding that his son would only be in charge for another four months. Chief Constable Beech stated that as the pub would virtually be under the control of the father he had no objections to the transfer.

So why four months? The Ploughboy was situated right next to Dobson and Barlow's mill. The firm wanted to expand the mill and wished to purchase properties on Higher Bridge Street to facilitate the expansion. The Ploughboy was bought and closed in the autumn of 1870 and it was subsequently demolished.

George Holden's time at the Old Cottage was brief. The 1871 census has him living on Waterloo Street describing him as “a beerseller out of business”.

Dobson and Barlow's later became Osman Textiles. That closed in the early-nineties, The mill was demolished and an Aldi store was built on the site in 1993.  

Standard Arms, 50-52 Hulme Street, Bolton

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What was once Hulme Street is now a continuation of Cross Street. The Standard Arms would have been situated on the  left of the photo. Photo taken 2014. Copyright Google.

There were two pubs in Bolton called the Standard. The Standard Hotel stood on Gray Street, just off Prince Street. We're interested in the Standard Arms which was situated on Hulme Street, close to its junction with Dean Street.

The area bounded by Folds Road, Prince Street and Kay Street was built up in the middle of the nineteenth century and with new housing developments came the beerhouses. Like many beerhouses at the time, the Standard Arms only became licensed when a householder paid 2 guineas (£2.10) to allow himself to sell beer.

The first record we have of the Standard Arms is in the 1869 Bolton Directory when David Hilton was the licensee. Hilton actually stepped down from the pub for a short while and the 1871 directory has a Solomon Hilton – presumably a relative – as the licensee. Local directories were often compiled the previous year and in January 1871 David Hilton was back as the licensee. The Bolton Beer And Wine Sellers Association held their quarterly meeting at the Standard Arms that month. [Bolton Evening News, 12 January 1871].

Solomon Hilton went off to be a clogger working from shop premises in Folds Road. By 1881 he was living in Chew Moor. David Hilton later moved to the Middleton Arms, not far away from the Standard Arms, on Charles Street. He died in 1882. 

By 1882 the pub was owned by the Spread Eagle Brewery based at the Spread Eagle pub on Hough Lane in Eagley.

In 1901, landlord John Murphy was brought up in front of the magistrates on the charge of serving alcohol to a drunk. Two police officers went into the pub one night and saw a man named John McCormick who was seated in the vault in a drunken condition. In those days not all vaults had tables and it was common for customers to sit on benches and leave their drinks on the bar counter. McCormick went to the counter and picked up a pint pot containing beer and when challenged by the landlord insisted he had paid for it. One of the police officers suggested to Murphy that McCormick was drunk, something Murphy denied. McCormick was then asked to go outside. He staggered out and created such a commotion with the two policemen that he had to be taken to the town hall to be locked up. He was later fined for being drunk and disorderly. Both Murphy and his wife denied serving McCormick claiming that neither of them had even seen him enter the pub. The magistrates were having none of it and fined Murphy 10 shillings although they decided not to endorse his licence. [Bolton Evening News, 18 April 1901]

In 1908, landlady Mary Ann Walsh was the victim of a scam involving a 54-year-old man named Thomas Harvey Williams who entered the pub one day and asked to cash a cheque. He claimed to be a local councillor and that as he wasn't well enough to go to a bank he would like to cash a cheque for £2 and 5 shillings (£2.25) – the equivalent now of about £270. When Mrs Walsh came to cash the cheque it in her bank account it bounced. Williams was also charged with carrying out a similar fraud against the landlord of the Waggon and Horses, Bury Old Road, Heywood and against shopkeepers Mr Alston of Bridge Street and Mr Hornby of Higher Bridge Street. Williams was sentenced to four months in prison with hard labour. Since the offences had been committed he had spent three months in jail for another matter. He had been in and out of jail for much of his life albeit on minor offences. [Bolton Evening News, 13 January 1909].

The Standard Arms closed in 1911.The area around Hulme Street was knocked down in the sixties and new housing built on the site of the Standard Arms in the nineties. The stretch of Hulme Street where the pub once stood still exists but is completely unrecognisable from the early part of the twentieth century. It is now a continuation of Cross Street.

Same Place Again, 9 Independent Street, Bolton

 

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Folds Road pictured in 2012 (copyright Google). Benchmark House in the foreground marks the site of the Folds Road Independent Methodist Church. To the rear is Regent House. The site of the Same Place Again beerhouse is at the back of Regent House.

The Folds Road Independent Methodist Church was opened in April 1823 on land once occupied by the bowling green of the Three Tuns  pub on Chapel Street. A small street ran down the side of the church in the direction of the River Croal and it was named Independent Street in honour of the church. By 1825 small cottages were being built along the street down to its junction with Green Street. Two of these cottages were later to become the Same Place Again beerhouse.

The first evidence we have of the pub is an entry in the 1869 Bolton Directory which shows Edwin Smethurst as the licensee. Born in 1839, Smethurst was working as a warehouseman on the other side of the River Croal in Great Bolton when he married Sarah Worthington in 1862. How he got into the pub business isn't known but his father-in-law Henry Worthington was a brewer and given that most pubs brewed their own beer that may have overcome one barrier to setting up in business. Edwin Smethurst left the Same Place Again in March 1870. He later moved to Noble Street, off Derby Street, and he died in Farnworth in 1921 at the age of 81.

The next licensee was John Horrobin but by November 1870 the pub was being run by Ellis Marshall. Ellis's brother was Daniel Marshall who ran the nearby Grapes Hotel pub and brewery as well as the Horse Shoe Brewery on Water Street, again not too far away. Marshall was a brewer – he was later a co-founder of Magee, Marshall's in 1885 – and it is likely that he bought the pub and put Ellis in charge. An 1883 licence transfer shows that Marshall had to install himself as licensee following the death of the incumbent Mr Valentine before it could be transferred to R.J. Brundett. It was common for breweries to install a manager or proprietor as a stop-gap licensee to enable a pub to continue trading.

In 1903 the licence of the Same Place Again changed twice. This was an indication of just how competitive the market was. The following year magistrates tried to close down the pub. At that time there was a purge of pubs where the rateable value was less than £15 a year. At the annual licensing session it was claimed that the Same Place Again ought to close because the rateable value was only £14 10 shillings (£14.50). There is a brief description of the pub in the Bolton Evening News' report of the hearing printed in their edition of 1 March 1904.

“The premises were formerly two cottages, and one doorway had been bricked up. The sanitary condition was moderate.” 

It seems the valuers were trying to reduce the rateable value on the grounds that one half of the premises had once been a house. The rateable value of a residential property was lower than that of a commercial property. Mr Byrne, who represented owners Magee, Marshall, argued the case for the pub claiming it wasn't fair to value a property on the basis of adjoining premises. The landlord had spent £60 on improvements. He also brought in two surveyors both of whom insisted that the rateable value was in excess of £17.

The Same Place Again survived on this occasion but its luck ran out when there was another objection two years later. At the annual licensing sessions of 1906 the chief constable of the borough objected to the renewal of 11 licences on the grounds that they were “undesirable in the public interest”. Magistrates heard that a manager was now in charge of the pub and that weekly sales were just three-and-a-half barrels of beer plus a quarter of a barrel of stout. An indication of the competition in this part of Bolton was that Detective Inspector Smith, representing the chief constable, claimed there were nine fully-licenced public houses, 11 beer houses and one off-licence all within 200 yards.[Bolton Evening News 7 February 1906]. Three months later the closure of the Same Place Again was confirmed along with eight of the other ten licenses objected to. [Bolton Evening News, 9 May 1906]. The two that escaped were the Old Cock on Green Street which lasted until 1935, and the Weavers Arms on Brunel Street which still exists today and is popularly known as 'The Mop'.

All that remained now was the level of compensation payable to Magee, Marshall as owners of the pub. They put in a claim for £1050 but the magistrates offered only £700. At a hearing of the Compensation Committee early the following year Magees indicated they would accept £800. [Bolton Evening News, 9 January 1907]. Some reports have suggested that the level of compensation was £700 [Manchester Courier, 10 January 1907].

The Same Place Again became a boarding house and was run by Patrick Gorman according to the 1924 directory.

Much of the area between Folds Road and the River Croal was cleared in the late-sixties for the construction of St Peters Way. For many years the area that was once occupied by Independent Street formed part of the Folds Road car park. However, in 2005 the Vinden Partnership was given planning permission to build two office buildings on the site of the car park. The site of the Same Place Again is now occupied by Regent House. 

Nelson Hotel, 30 Chorley Old Road, Bolton

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The Nelson photographed in 1972.

One night around April 2019, the doors of the Nelson Hotel on Chorley Old Road were quietly closed for the final time. Opening times over the previous year or so had been sporadic, especially during the week but this was the end of almost 160 years of history. The demise of the Nelson means that all the traditional pubs on that stretch of Chorley Old Road – the Stanley Arms ('Sally Up Steps')  the Victory and the Kings Arms - have now closed. Only a more recent addition, the Bunbury's micropub, remains along with one club, the Victory Reform Club.

The Nelson was built in 1861 on the corner of Chorley Old Road and Gaskell Street by a man named Philip Howarth. A joiner by trade Howarth was for many years the licensee of the Elephant and Castle  on Kay Street.

The premises were a beerhouse but Howarth applied for a full licence at the first opportunity. His chance came at the annual licensing session held in August 1862. A successful application would mean he was able to sell wine and spirits as well as beer, but Howarth was one of 17 applicants. At the hearing he stated the Nelson had been built with the intention of it becoming a public house rather than just a beerhouse. He pointed out that many mills had opened in that part of Chorley Old Road and a large number of houses had been constructed in the area. However, the magistrates rejected Howarth's application along with the other 16. (Bolton Chronicle, 30 August 1862). The Nelson would have to wait another 99 years before obtaining a full licence.

Philip Howarth died in October 1862 aged 56 and the pub passed to his wife Charlotte whom he had married in 1858, but by 1875 the pub was being run by John Leather.

Matters at those new mills didn't always run smoothly. In September 1877 there was a strike amongst the cotton workers of Bolton. A number of trade unions used pubs to pay strike money to people out of work. The Nelson Hotel was one of those used by the Self-Actor Minders Association. Other pubs used by the association to pay out strike money in the dispute were the Cross Guns at Deane, the Cotton Tree  on Lever Street, the Park at Moses Gate, the Derby Arms on Churchgate and the Pack Horse at Astley Bridge. Strike pay was 10 shillings a week plus an extra shilling per child.

In the early days of the Nelson, before the construction of houses around Gaskell Street, there was a cricket ground attached to the pub. The Bolton Chronicle of 22 August 1863 reported that players used to meet in the Nelson before matches and that the pub was used as an unofficial clubhouse. It was common for players to turn up at the pub before the game for a drink and then leave their belongings inside before going off to play. However, the paper reported that two young men, Joseph Bradley of Halliwell and Alfred Stones of Chorley Street, were charged with stealing a waistcoat, a return railway ticket, an ancient coin and a silver pencil case, the property of Mr Frederick Topp, a cotton spinner from Farnworth. The pub's landlady, Mrs Charlotte Howarth, challenged the men about the waistcoat when Mr Topp returned to the pub at the end of the game. Bradley produced it from beneath his coat claiming it had been taken for “a lark”. Both he and Stones were apprehended by the police on the Monday following the match and they were kept in custody until the hearing three days later. The Mayor, who was presiding over the bench, discharged the men stating that the degradation they had suffered from being locked up before the hearing ought to be enough punishment.

Cricket wasn't the only sport featured at the Nelson. In the 1890s Bolton Harriers frequently began their cross-country runs from the pub.

By 1880 the Nelson was owned by a local brewer, Joseph Sharman. A native of Derbyshire, Sharman began brewing at the Crompton's Monument  at Mill Hill, a pub owned by his aunt, before building the Mere Hall Brewery, a few hundred yards away from the Nelson, in 1874. In 1880, Sharman converted his business from that of a sole trader into a limited company and the Nelson was one of the original 10 pubs. As part of the transition Sharman received £25,000 in cash – the equivalent of over £3 million in 2019. He lived at the Hollies, just a few yards away from the Nelson on Chorley Old Road on the site of what is now Gaskells Nursery, so the Nelson was effectively his local pub. Sharman lived at The Hollies until his death in 1916.

Sharman's grew to become a sizeable enterprise with 58 pubs and 25 off-licences but the business was bought out by the Leigh brewery of George Shaw & Son in 1927.  Sharman's brewery was closed and the Nelson was a Shaw's pub for three years until 1930 when the brewery was taken over by Peter Walker and Robert Cain Ltd of Liverpool and Warrington. Walker Cain, as it became in 1946, merged with Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd of Leeds in 1960 to become Tetley Walker. It was as a Tetley pub that many older readers will remember the Nelson. Finally, in 1961, it was granted a spirits licence when a raft of Bolton pubs successfully applied for full licences.

The Bolton branch of the Campaign For Real Ale published a list of all the town's pubs in 1982. At that time the Nelson was a keg-beer Tetley pub. Indeed, it was never one for the real ale purist. However, the pub's interior was a classic design of lounge on the right of the front entrance and a vault to the left that could be reached by a separate entrance in Gaskell Street. That vault later became a pool room.

Tetley's gradually got out of the pub trade during the nineties. The Nelson was one of a small number of pubs that ended up in the hands of an individual rather than a pub group. It became notable for distinctive bright blue shutters both upstairs as well as downstairs which suggested that the licensee didn't live on the premises. However, opening times became sporadic and WhatPub's suggestion that the Nelson closed in April 2019 appears to be an estimate albeit a fairly accurate one. 

In August 2020 planning permission was granted to convert the pub into flats.