Bay Horse (Scotch Vaults), 37 Deansgate

The Bay Horse, Deansgate, pictured in 1937. The photograph was taken by Humphrey Spender for the Mass Observation project and is one of a number of images from that period at the Bolton Worktown website.

The history of the public house holds many examples of licensed premises that kept the name of a significant figure in its history as a name or a nickname. The Old Original British Queen on Blackburn Road was a known as ‘Pomps’ after the family that owned the pub in the nineteenth century. The Joiners Arms on Deansgate was always known as Bathe’s Vaults even after Henry Bathe left, and a hundreds yards or so up Deansgate, the Bay Horse was always known as ‘The Scotch Vaults’. [1]

The Scot in question was George Munro. Born in 1832 Sutherland, Munro arrived in Manchester at the age of 19 when his uncle, James Hall, who made a fortune in the sugar plantations of Jamaica, got him a job with the Manchester branch of the wine and spirit merchant business of Findlater and Mackie.

By 1860, Munro was confident enough to go into business on his own account. He founded the drinks wholesaling business of George Munro & Co on Deansgate and branches were added in Blackburn, Wigan and Hanley near Stoke-on-Trent. The latter was founded in partnership with John Munro, who is believed to have been George’s brother.

George Munro &  Co bought the Bay Horse in 1865. This was one of Bolton’s oldest pubs. It appears on the Great Bolton Alehouses in 1778 and was in existence for some time prior to that.

According to the 1778 list the landlord was one Thomas Middleton.The Sankey family were in control for a number of years at the start of the 19^th century. Enoch Sankey was licensee until his death at the age of 45 in 1823. His wife Mary succeeded him until she died in 1830.  John Eglin was in charge, according to the 1836 Bolton Directory. Eglin also ran the Flag on Great Moor Street.  The 1843 directory lists William Green as licensee and in 1853 it was Henry Dobson.

Given that the tied house system of pub ownership was some years away it was obvious that licensees, much like today, were leasing the pub and leaving after just a few years. Munro’s effectively tied the Bay Horse to their wholesale drinks business giving them an outlet for the brands they dealt in. As it was a public house with a full licence they could wines and spirits as well as beer.

By 1871 Munro’s Bolton branch, based at the Bay Horse, employed 10 men, two boys and one woman.

A fire in June 1879 at the back of the Bay Horse, where Munro kept his goods, caused damage estimated at hundreds of pounds. Otherwise, business was good. By 1881 the Munro family were living at Greenbank on Chorley New Road, Heaton.

Munro also bottled their own brand of beers. A Nut Brown Ale proudly proclaimed that Munro’s had been established “in 1747” – a little disingenuous given that Munro was the first of his family to have been involved in the drinks trade.

Like a number of prominent publicans Munro got involved in politics and represented the Exchange ward for the Liberal Party on Bolton Council from 1886 to 1889. A keen Presbyterian he was a member and generous supporter of St Andrew’s Presbyterian church on Bowker’s Row. [3]

Munro married a Scottish lady, Isabella Waugh of Lochmaben, Dumfries-shire and they had three sons and four daughters. He died in Bolton on 30 April 1894. Isabella died in Staffordshire in 1919 at the age of 81.

The Bay Horse continued until 1960. But right up to the end of its life the premises always gave the impression that it was a bonded warehouse rather than a pub as the 1937 photograph from the Humphrey Spender collection shows.

In the end the pub was sold to Marks and Spencer in 1959 and after around 200 years of history last orders were called for the final time in April 1960.

The site of the Bay Horse would form part of M&S’s new Bolton store which was fully open by the summer of 1968.

Incidentally, another of Munro's pubs, the Freemason's on Market Street in Farnworth, is still known by the nickname 'Munro's'.

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

[2] Waugh family archive. 

[3] The church can be still be seen and was remodelled in the seventies as a small shopping arcade known as St Andrew’s Court.

Crown and Cushion, Empress, Spencer's, Bar Retro, Mealhouse Lane

The Crown and Cushion pictured around 1996. The original pub was on the ground floor, where the Yorkshire Building Society is situated in this image.

The Crown and Cushion was one of the oldest pubs in Bolton. However, the building that housed the pub on Mealhouse Lane only dates from the early part of the 20^th century.

The Crown and Cushion appears on the list of Great Bolton Alehouses for 1779 when the licensee was John Mawdsley [1]. In those days it was just two dwelling houses at 6 and 7 the Acres – as Mealhouse Lane was then known - joined together “now occupied and used as a public house known by the sign of the Crown and Cushion”.

Mawdsley appears to have left the Crown and Cushion when it was sold in 1781. Landlords came and went according to directories of the early nineteenth century: Richard Critchley in 1818, James Crompton in 1821, James Nicholson in 1824, Robert Crompton in 1836, Ellis Howarth in 1843 and John Thompson in 1853. [2].

The original Crown and Cushion building can be seen on the right-hand side of this picture of Bennett's boarding house. The image was taken in September 1900 shortly before the row was pulled down.

Skip a few years to 1888 and the landlord was one Bethel Robinson. Born in Wheelton in 1862 he had something else to occupy himself with – he was a professional footballer. On 8 September 1888 Robinson made a little history of his own when he was part of the Bolton Wanderers team that played Derby County on the opening day of fixtures in the new Football League. As a defender he appears to have had a busy afternoon as the Wanderers were beaten 6-3. He went on to play 18 league games for Bolton that season and was the subject of a curious loan agreement with West Bromwich Albion for whom he spent three seasons playing only in FA Cup games.

Tong's brewery crest

The original Crown and Cushion was demolished in 1900 and was replaced by owners William Tong's by the imposing building that still stands today. This new Crown and Cushion was much bigger than the original pub and overhead was the Empress Hall which hosted balls and dinner dances as well as music concerts until it became a club in the sixties. [1]

Another professional footballer who ran the Crown and Cushion was Albert Shepherd. Born in Great Lever in 1885, Shepherd scored 90 goals in 120 games for Bolton before being transferred to Newcastle United for a fee of £800 in 1908. He was the first player in Newcastle’s history to score more than 30 goals in a season and won the league title and the FA Cup with the team. He later joined Bradford City and became a pub landlord when his career ended. He was landlord of the Crown and Cushion for a number of years and died at the pub on 8 November 1929 at the age of just 44.

The Crown and Cushion was a Tong’s pub until they were taken over by Walker’s in 1923. Indeed, Tong’s had an office in the building for many years and their logo can still be seen. 

The Crown and Cushion closed for the first time in 1971. The ground floor pub was converted into shops. Tracks record shop was there for a number of years in the seventies and eighties.

The Empress Ballroom eventually became the Club Empress but was destroyed by fire in February 1976 amidst of rumours of unpaid protection money by the club’s owners. An image of the charred remains of the club’s interior can be seen here.  

The Bolton News website shows photographs of the Empress in happier times:  in the 1930s , at the Miss Bolton contest in 1966.  plus this undated picture of Hal Bentham and his Scarlet Syncopations preparing for a Tango number. 

In 1978 the Empress reopened as Spencer’s Club and Bar opened by former World Snooker champion John Spencer, a native of Radcliffe. Spencer’s was quite popular, particularly at the weekend. It was trendy and it did well – at least for a while. But Spencer sold out and in 1988 the bar was renamed the Crown and Cushion.

If this final reincarnation of the Crown and Cushion is to be remembered it is for two things. First of all it became a thriving live music venue and a number of bands from the alternative end of the musical spectrum played there, either while their careers were on the way up or when they were on the way back down.

The Charlatans played there in February 1990 as shown by this page from their fanzine at the time. The Verve were there in November 1991, Mike Peters, formerly of The Alarm played in October 1994 and there were also appearances by Primal Scream, Frank Sidebottom, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, UK Subs, The Damned, Planet Gong and Hugh Cornwell, amongst many others.

Unfortunately, the other aspect the Crown and Cushion will be remembered for is just how rough it was at weekends when alternative bands were replaced by more mainstream punters. The pub’s nickname of 'the Crown and Flicknife' wasn’t entirely unwarranted and many a brawl ended with its participants tumbling down the stairs.

Local beer drinkers also noted that real ale had made an appearance for the first time since the old Crown and Cushion closed. [2] However, that didn’t last long. [3]

A name change to Bar Retro failed to drag in the punters. Spencers and the Crown and Cushion were good stopping off points from Deansgate and Bradshawgate to Ritzy or Ikon. But as more and more town centre pubs got late licences the punters stopped making the detour and the pub was finished. It closed around 2002. It was for sale for a number of years and is currently empty.

[1] Pubs Of Bolton Town Centre 1900-1986, by Gordon Readyhough. Published by Neil Richardson (1986).

[2] Crown and Cushion sells Marstons Pedigree. What's Doing, the Greater Manchester beer drinker's monthly magazine. March 1989 issue.

[3] Crown and Cushion dispenses with real ale. What's Doing. November 1990 issue. 

This image shows the Crown and Cushion in 2012. The pub is signed Bar Retro under which it operated in its final days. This image, along with the images of the Tong’s brewery window and the William Tong crest are copyright Alan Murray-Rust and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. 

Rose and Crown, 55 Cross Street

Cross Street pictured in April 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The Rose and Crown was  near the top of the street on the left-hand side. 

The Rose and Crown was situated on Cross Street just off Turton Street on the outskirts of Bolton.

The pub was owned for many years by the Settle family, who also went under the name of Booth. Robert Booth came from a pub-owning background as his father, Richard Booth, was the landlord of the Little John on Lever Street in the 1860s and 1870s.

William Settle was born towards the end of 1868 to Robert Booth and Rachel Settle. The couple weren’t married, but in January 1869, just a matter of weeks after William’s birth, Robert did get married – to Martha Clough.

In a letter to the Bolton Evening News in 2003, Robert’s great-granddaughter says that according to the story passed down the family, Martha had £100 and that she and Robert used the money to buy the Rose and Crown. [1] The beer-house was an established business dating back to at least 1836.

Sadly, Martha Booth died in the summer of 1878 at the age of just 43. But just six months later, in January 1879, Robert Booth married again - this time to Rachel Settle, the father of his son. They went on to have two more sons: Daniel Booth born in October 1879, and Albert Booth born in October 1881.

William Settle’s entry into the family business came suddenly. When he was just 13 years old his mother sacked the Rose and Crown’s brewer after an argument. On arriving home from school later that day William was told he would have to leave school and assist with the brewing. It was the start of an association with the Rose and Crown that was to last almost 70 years.

Rachel Booth died in 1891, aged 54. Before she died she made her husband Robert sign an agreement enabling William to take over the Rose and Crown pub and brewery, buying out the stakes of his brothers, which he subsequently did. Eight years later, in 1899, Robert Booth died and William had control of the pub and its brewery

The business had already expanded beyond the Rose and Crown with the purchase from Joseph Atkinson of the British Oak on Derby Street and the Alfred The Great on Noble Street. Further pubs were bought and William’s brothers were installed as the landlords of two of them: Daniel at the Rope and Anchor on Kay Street and Albert at the Red Lion on Crook Street.

Meanwhile, the brewery had outgrown the Rose and Crown and new premises were found at the former Bradshaw Field Mill owned by Thomas Pearson. This was in Dean Street, which ran parallel to Cross Street and was just a hundred yards or so away from the pub.

At that time all the pubs advertised themselves as selling Booth’s beers. During an argument between William Settle and Albert Booth at the Red Lion one day Albert asked William why he advertised Booth’s beers when his name wasn’t Booth. William took a stool from the pub, smashed the window with the brewery name on it and said “It will have Settle’s Ales on it tomorrow”. All the pubs were subsequently changed to Settle’s.

The 39-year-old William Settle married 22-year-old Alice Crompton in 1909. The following year their son William was born with a daughter, Alice, born in 1912.

William Settle junior joined the family business, even though he remained teetotal all his life.  Each summer, Settle’s organised an outing for each of their pubs in a Daimler brewer’s dray. The body was taken off the dray and replaced by a coach body. The younger William would stand at the door of the coach and hand each man a shilling to buy his beer for the day.

William Settle senior died in Newland Nursing Home on Chorley New Road on 26 January 1949, aged 80. He left an estate valued at £37376 -  or £1.2million in today's money. But the decision was taken to sell the Rose and Crown, its brewery and a tied estate of six other pubs. [2] The business was bought by Dutton’s of Blackburn and the brewery was closed and converted into a paper works.

The Rose and Crown closed in 1960. Cross Street still exists, just off Cable Street at the back of Turton Street. Some of the original buildings from the pub’s time still stand. A council estate was built in the 1930s but much of the area was cleared again some years ago.

[1] Bolton Evening News: “When Brewing Was A Family Affair” – 24 April 2003. Retrieved from the Bolton News website [link here] 12 September 2014.

[2] For the record the other pubs were: the British Oak on Derby Street, the Alfred The Great on Noble Street, the Rope and Anchor on Kay Street, the Red Lion on Crook Street, the SchoolHill Hotel (T’Skennin’ Door) on School Hill and the Britannia, which is taken to be the one on King Street in Farnworth as the Britannia on Derby Street was a Cornbrook pub. If so, the Britannia is the only Settle’s pub to survive.

Alfred The Great, 44 Noble Street

The remains of Noble Street, now a fraction of its former size, pictured in April 2012 (copyright  Google Street View). At one time there were three beer houses on this street, which linked Derby Street with Noble Road. Now it is a hotbed of religious activity with the Noble Street Independent Methodist Church clearly visible on the right and the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall at the bottom of the street.

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Updated 12 June 2019 with details of the pub's early history.

The area around Derby Street became industrialised in the middle of the 19^th century and with it came housing and then the beer houses.

Noble Street was built in the early part of the nineteenth century and an 1849 map of Bolton shows the street in much the same shape as it would be until the 1960s. Looking down from Derby Street, there was a long row of terraced houses down the left-hand side of the street. The right-hand side was also developed, though some of those buildings were later demolished to facilitate the development of a number of side streets such as Bristol Street and Claughton Street.

The Derby Ironworks backed on to the houses on the west side of Noble Street. It was built in 1854 under the name Brown, Altham and Co. later becoming Hiton and Brown. It later became a more substantial concern after it was bought by a former employee, William Crumblehulme,  but even by the 1860s it still only employed 12 men and eight boys. But the iron works was one of a number of thriving small businesses that began in the area as the nineteenth century progressed.

Although the 1855 Bolton Directory shows no beerhouses on Noble Street it is believed that the Alfred The Great was in existence from around 1851 or 1852. Certainly, by 1871 there were three licensed premises with the Alfred The Great situated at number 44 and owned by Joseph Atkinson.

Born in Sharples in 1826 Atkinson was a collier by trade and only moved into the pub business when he took over the Alfred The Great. Although Noble Street was only four miles or so from Sharples it is likely that he moved to the south side of Bolton to look for work. Atkinson’s father, also named Joseph, was a ‘banksman’ – he operated the tipping gear at the top of the pit. Atkinson’s brother, Richard, was also a collier and the family were living in the Rumworth area when Richard was married at Deane Church in 1857.

Joseph Atkinson applied for a spirits licence at the annual Brewster sessions in 1865. One of 45 applicants he was among the 43 that were refused licences. To make matters worse, the Albert on Derby Street was awarded a licence at the sessions. That made at least three pubs in the vicinity to have full licences as the Lord Nelson and Pilkington Arms were long-established inns. Having pubs nearby licensed to sell wine and spirits had a bearing on other applications. Atkinson applied once again in 1874 when it was claimed the pub had been in existence for 22 or 23 years and Atkinson had occupied it for the past 19 years. At the hearing, he claimed the house was extensive in nature and certainly his description backed that up. Along with the brewery and malting room it consisted of a vault, bar parlour, club room, sitting room, scullery and stable. There were four bedrooms. A petition in support of the application was presented and Atkinson applied to sell wine only if the magistrates declined to allow the pub to sell wines and spirits. But having the Pilkington just 300 yards away didn't help matters. The application failed once again and it was to be almost 90 years before the Alfred The Great finally received a full licence.

By the late-1860s, Joseph Atkinson added two more pubs. The Masons Arms was in Emblem Street, the next street along from Noble Street. The British Oak  was on Derby Street just a few hundred yards away. Both took their beer from the Alfred The Great. He was also the joint-owner, along with James Lees, of the Farmers Arms on Derby Street although the house had its own brewery and was never supplied. By 1880 he had added the Craven Heifer on Derby Street followed by the Nelson Hotel on Nelson Street. It wasn't bad going for a man whose illiteracy prevented him from signing his own marriage certificates with anything other than an ‘X’.

But Atkinson suffered tragedy. His first wife, Mary, died in 1858 at the tragically early age of 33. He married a widow, Alice Slater, the following year. Their son James was born in 1860 and later took over the running of the British Oak. Mary died in 1874. Finally, in 1881 and at the age of 55, Joseph married another widow, Jane Boardman.

Lost on Saturday afternoon in Emmanuel Street, a leather purse containing gold. Finder will be handsomely rewarded on restoring it to Joseph Atkinson, Alfred The Great, Noble Street, Bolton. - Bolton Evening News, 17 November 1873.

Not only were there two other beerhouses on Noble Street, as well as a whole host of hostelries on nearby Derby Street, Atkinson would have had the Methodists to deal with. In 1872, the Noble Street Independent Methodist church was built just yards away from the Alfred The Great. It was a time when there was a war on drinkers. Pub hours were curbed in 1872 – though they were still able to open for 17 hours a day - and teetotal candidates were put up for election in some council wards, though not with much success. The Independent Methodist Church, an imposing edifice compared to the tiny dwelling houses of Noble Street, made their message clear from the outset. In a move that suggested they at least had some clout within the council’s highways department, they managed to get the street running alongside the church to be named Temperance Street. That Atkinson also brewed his own beer under their noses would have further irked the teetotal Methodists.

But the Alfred The Great was involved in more wholesome pursuits. Joseph Atkinson formed a bowls club and although there was no green attached to the pub the team were members of the Bolton Bowling Association and played at greens throughout the town. Pubs that did have greens included the Bee Hive on Chorley New Road, the Gibraltar Rock on Deane Road, the Hulton Arms at Four Lane Ends and the Robin Hood on Lever Street.

Joseph Atkinson spent 44 years at the Alfred The Great. He left early in 1899 by which time he would have been around 73 years old. He moved to his son's house at the bottom of Cannon Street and he died there in January 1901.

The beer-house trade had been good to Joseph Atkinson. However, he was a very astute businessman. Shortly after his death the auction took place of the effects of one of his other businesses: a horse, two ponies and various gigs and traps which he ran from stables off Cannon Street. There was also an auction of his personal effects including four heavy Gold Albert chains. Finally, in November 1901 there was an auction of Atkinson's other interests. He had built up a portfolio of almost 50 properties. Most were situated in the area between Deane Road and Derby Street: in Defence Street, Royle Street, Cannon Street, Every Street, Punch Street and Noble Street. A little further afield there were houses on Rupert Street and Beechwood Street in Great Lever and on Wigan Road. There was also a portfolio of ground rents along with shares in local drinks companies. When the estate was liquidated it realised over £24,000 – just under £3million in today's money. The illiterate former coal miner from Sharples was one of Bolton's richest men when he died.

Both the Alfred The Great and the British Oak ended up in the hands of WT Settle, a small brewery based at the Rose and Crown,  just off Turton Street. Settle’s remained in control of the Alfred The Great until 1951 when the brewery and its seven pubs were sold to Dutton’s of Blackburn and it was as a Dutton’s house that the pub ended its days. Although the Alfred The Great was one of a number of Bolton pubs to receive full drinks licences in 1961, it was closed in 1964. Its neighbours on Noble Street, the Noble Street Tavern  and the Royal Tiger, were both long gone having closed in 1906 and 1911 respectively.

The pub building was later demolished along with much of the rest of Noble Street. The street, which at one time ran all the way down to Deane Road, was truncated to less than a quarter its size though it is still there, near the bottom end of Derby Street.

But while the pubs and brewery of Noble Street have all bitten the dust, the Independent Methodist survives after 140 years. So, too, does Temperance Street.

A recent picture of Noble Street Independent Methodist Church can be seen  here.

Gasworks Tavern, 91 Mill Hill Street

Mill Hill Street looking towards the town centre with the bridge carrying the former Astley Bridge railway line in the distance. The Gasworks Tavern was situated on the right-hand side. The area has been clear of residential use for many years.

The Gasworks Tavern took its name from the nearby Lum Street gas works that was built by the Bolton Gas Light and Coke Company in 1851. The gasworks, along with a site at Gas Street, off Moor Lane, was purchased by Bolton Council in 1872. At that time it stood on the corner of  Lum Street and Mill Hill Street.

The Gasworks Tavern was situated just a few yards away on the other side of the viaduct carrying the goods railway line to Astley Bridge. It was built not long after the  Lum Street works opened and Worrall’s Directory of 1871 had John Entwistle as landlord.

The pub was an early tied house of Joseph Sharman. Between 1868 and 1874 Sharman brewed at  Crompton’sMonument, a beer-house less than 200 yards away from the Gasworks Tavern. In Pubs Of Bolton 1800-2000, Gordon Readyhough states that the Gasworks was at least tied to Sharman. [1]

The pub was later owned by Wingfield’s Silverwell Brewery, which sold out to the Manchester Brewery Company in 1899.  Walker & Homfray’s of Salford bought the Manchester Brewery Company in 1912 and it was as a Walker & Homfray’s pub that the Gasworks Tavern ended its days in 1935.

The former beerhouse premises were converted to residential use. The whole of the Mill Hill area was redeveloped for industrial use in the sixties and early seventies.

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

Painters Arms, Scandals, Mr D's, The Academy

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The Painters Arms pictured in 1978. Although the pub’s address was Crook Street, for many years the main entrance was on Thynne Street.

The Painters Arms was at 148-150 Crook Street.  It is possible that the building was in use as a dwelling before it became a pub but it was certainly in use as licensed premises by 1871. In that year Worrall’s Directory named the licensee as Joseph Young.

The Painters occupied the corner of Crook Street and Thynne Street and while the layout of the streets around the pub changed over the years the building can be seen on old maps from the middle of the nineteenth century.

In those days Crook Street was still pretty much where it is today, though it went on for much longer beyond the Sweet Green. Burns Street, which was largely covered by the rebuilt Thistlethwaites Tyres in 2004-5, was already in existence, but the street that now forms the end of Thynne Street in front of Holy Trinity church and running past the Painters, was known as Bleakley Street and only ran as far as the junction with Bridgeman Street.

Behind the pub, just off Bleakley Street, was Horrocks Court, the entrance to which can still be seen today. Horrocks Court was a short thoroughfare just a few yards long. On the left-hand side were the rear of the Painters Arms and other buildings on that part of Crook Street; on the right-hand side were four small houses. Those houses were demolished after the first world war.

Thynne Street came into existence around the 1860s and was extended to run past the Painters in the 1930s. At that time a small bus station was built on the site of what is now Thistlethwaite's garage and was used by buses to Salford and Manchester (the number 8 service) up to the late-sixties.

Thynne Street, along with Matthew Street North, Matthew Street South, Bleakley Street, Burns Street, North Street and Moncrieffe Street, formed the catchment for custom at the Painters. But Thynne Street was re-developed in the early sixties. Houses standing on one side of the street were demolished to form the short dual carriageway that still exists today. Properties in Matthew Street North and South and also North Street were demolished and those streets were erased from the map.

The Painters was a Magee's pub in the early part of the twentieth century but was sold to Hamer’s Volunteer Brewery of Bromley Cross. Hamer’s were bought out by Dutton’s Brewery of Blackburn in 1951, while Dutton’s merged with Whitbread’s in 1954. [1] [2]

On 9 January 1941 the area close to the Painters Arms was hit by a bomb during a German air raid with a cafe on the corner of Burns Street taking a direct hit. The reminiscences of that night by Trev Barker, a night watchman, can be read here.  

In the Painters Arms became Scandal’s, a kind of disco-fun pub. Four years later it was renamed Mr D’s, a late-night gay disco aimed at clientele of the nearby Church Inn, which closed at 11pm . By 1994 it was known as The Academy as its owners chased the student population that had moved into the nearby Orlando Village development.

The Academy closed in 1999 and the building was boarded up for a while before becoming the Achari Indian restaurant.

In September 2014 a plan to convert the upper floor of the building into four flats was withdrawn by the applicant.

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

[2] Turton Local History group did some research into Hamer’s pubs in 2003 and 2004. Their work remained incomplete and appeals were made in the Bolton Evening News. However, the pubs they were able to identify makes for interesting reading. Click here for the list.

Below are two more recent views of the former Painters Arms. First is Crook Street pictured in March 2011 with the premises in use as the Achari Restaurant. The original entrance to the rear of the pub has been restored. At the bottom is a view from April 2009 (copyright Google Street View) similar to the view at the top of the page.

Farmers Arms, 86-88 Chorley Street

The Farmers Arms pictured in August 2008 (copyright Google Street View).

The Farmers Arms was situated at 86 and 88 Chorley Street. The address suggests that at some stage two properties were knocked into one, though in such cases it was common for an existing pub to be extended into the property next door.

Exactly when that happened at the Farmers Arms is difficult to ascertain, though we do know that by 1871 – at the latest - it was a beer-house rather than a fully-licensed public house.

The 1849 list of beer-houses in Little Bolton shows just two named beer-houses (not all of them had names) on Chorley Street: the Brinks Brow Tavern, run by Robert Crawford, and the John O’Gaunt, run by John Johnson. Gordon Readyhough suggests this latter pub may have become the Derby Hotel situated at 2-4 Chorley Street opposite the Bridge Foot. But given that Mr Johnson was running a beer house at 74 Chorley Street, according to the 1853 Whellan & Co Directory, that sounds unlikely - though it cannot be ruled out for definite. The Brinks Brow Tavern possibly changed its name to the Farmers Arms, but again there’s no saying for definite.

The 1853 Directory also shows beer-houses owned by Richard Carlisle, Richard Parker (neither of which were numbered) and William Heaton (number 80), as well as John Johnson. Worrall’s Directory for 1871 shows a beer-house at 86 and 88 Chorley Street with James Beddows as the proprietor - what became the Farmers Arms. The only other licensed premises on Chorley Street were at number 2 and owned by Jonathan Waddington. This became the Derby Arms.

The Farmer’s eventually became a Magee’s pub. By the time it received a full drinks licence in 1962 that enabled it to serve wine and spirits as well as beer, it was owned by Greenall Whitley.

Farmers Arms pictured in 1910.

When Greenall’s got out of pubs and brewing during the nineties the Farmer's was bought by Punch Taverns. By the end of that decade it had a reputation as a live music venue. Despite being two houses knocked into one the Farmers wasn’t a large pub and bands played close to the entrance at the lower end of the pub – it was set on two levels. A crowd of about 40 or 50 people meant something of a crush for the more popular combos. 

The licensees constructed a shelter at the side of the pub for smokers after the 2007 ban. But the Farmers stumbled on for just a few more years. The live music stopped and Punch Taverns closed the pub in 2010. It was sold towards the end of that year. 

The estate agent's entry for the Farmers can still be seen here and although the images have been shaded out they clearly show the pub’s interior after closure. One of the images is reproduced here:

In a sense the Farmer’s has turned full circle. The building was most likely two houses that were converted into a pub some time around the middle of the 19^th-century. Planning permission was granted in 2011 to convert the pub into three dwellings: two with two bedrooms and a smaller home with just one bedroom.

The pub can be seen here after closure and before it was closed.

Terry Whalebone took this picture of the Farmers Arms pub sign in October 2006.

The site of the Farmers Arms in April 2012 (copyright Google Street View). The pub has been converted into three dwellings. Two can be seen at the front of the pub with an entrance to the third in the side street.