Ringers Pulling The Ropes, Churchgate

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A printed of Churchgate from 1822

Ringers Pulling The Ropes was apparently a public house on Churchgate, close to the Parish church.

The only record we have of the pub is a very tenuous one. It comes in an article called The Gates Of Bolton written by W.J. Redford, a series of which appeared in the Bolton Evening News in 1905.

On 18 February 1905, the paper published an article by Redford on the Churchgate area and he takes a look back a hundred years to the early part of the nineteenth century.

“Before leaving the parish church of St Peter's I wish to make a few remarks on the yard and surroundings. In the early part of the nineteenth century there were old houses nearly to the steeple and a public-house with the sign “Ringers pulling the ropes”. No huge wall existed in Churchbank as we see now, but a sloping bank adorned with trees.”

The earliest licensing records we have seen go back to 1778 and there is no mention of any pub whose sign could possibly be the “Ringers Pulling The Ropes”. There was a pub in 1778 called the Rising Sun and a pub by that name certainly existed later in Churchbank. Other than that there is nothing.

Mr Redford also makes comment on the Swan Hotel claiming there is a stone or sill inside the hotel dated 1637 which would make it just one year younger than the rebuilt Man and Scythe next door. However, he goes on to add an interesting suggestion about a former name.

“It has been suggested this old hostelry (formerly with its three-pointed roof) which can be entered from two gates, be the one referred to as Boltane by a Cistercian monk of Deane named Albertus, it is very interesting as once being known by the sign of the 'Jolly Cistercian' hanging from the corner of a strong wooden lintel swinging to and fro and creaking in the windy weather. There was a sundial upon a stone pillar, casement and steps and inscribed upon a plate 'Time flees, improve each fleetyng hour' with a horse-mount stone water trough and cross-stone.”

So was there a pub called Ringer Pulling The Ropes and was the Swan Hotel once known as the Jolly Cistercian?

Park View, (Dug Un Kennel), Tonge Fold Road

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The Park View around 1905 with Allen Clarke (Teddy Ashton) at the door.

The Park View, situated on Tonge Fold Road, existed as a pub for at least a hundred years. We don't have an exact start date for when it was licensed although the building is thought to date back to the early-eighteenth century.

In the nineteenth century, the Park View was the centre of celebrations in Tonge Fold for Oak Apple Day. This national holiday, first instituted in 1664 and celebrated on 29 May each year, commemorated the restoration of the monarchy four years earlier. The name comes from King Charles II hiding in an apple tree for a full day in 1651 following his defeat by Cromwell's forces at the Battle of Worcester. (Pubs are named the Royal Oak in honour of the event). He later offered sanctuary to French Huegenots and a number of them settled in the Tonge Fold area. The local celebrations are thought to have been instigated buy Huegenots as a mark of loyalty to the king. For many years a week-long fair took place but by the early part of the nineteenth century the fairs had ended and the day was celebrated at the Park View. The Tonge Trail website  tells us that a statue of the king would be hidden in a nearby oak tree. When found it would then be taken inside the pub to be kissed by locals. Those who had come from further afield could buy the right to kiss the statue with a gallon of beer and the oldest participant would then keep the statue until the following year. Oak Apple Day was abolished by Parliament in 1859 in attempt to get rid of national holidays associated with drinking. However, celebrations continued at the Park View. The statue is now in Bolton Museum having been found in the attic of the former pub in 1959,

The Park View was also known for the connection with the Lancashire dialect writer Allen Clarke (1863-1935). Using the pen name Teddy Ashton, Clarke composed his Tum Fowt Sketches – 'Tum Fowt' being the dialect word for Tonge Fold – in 1922. However, there is a photograph of Clarke – or Ashton as per the caption – from 1905 standing outside the pub. Clarke was born a mile-and-a-half away from Tonge Fold in Parrott Street, off Derby Street. He was a teacher before joining the Bolton Evening News but he became a left-wing writer and activist. Clarke was better known under the Teddy Ashton pseudonym for his newspapers the Bolton Trotter (1891-1893) and Teddy Ashton's Journal which he edited for 14 years from 1896 to 1910 and which at one time claimed a readership of over 50,000. One of Ashton's fictional characters was Bill Spriggs. Along with his wife Bet and supporting characters Joe Lung, Patsy Filligan, Ben Roke and other characters from ‘The Dug an’ Kennel’, Bill would poke fun at authority and affirm a strong sense of pride in being part of the Lancashire working class. A postcard of the pub from that time gave the Park View another nickname: "the Bill Spriggs committee rooms". By the time Tum Fowt Sketches were written Clarke had been living in Blackpool for 16 years. Paul Salveson's article on Clarke for The Big Issue is here and gives more details about Clarke's life. 

In January 1866, the Park View's landlord Samuel Royle was charged with allowing gaming in his pub. The Bolton Chronicle of the 13^th of that month said that at 10.15pm on Saturday 30^th December 1865, Police Constable Kay visited the house. On passing the tap room window he heard gaming going on and a voice say “play for another quart.” The door was shut and the officer was unable to open it. A woman opened the door and tried to close it in his face again when she saw that it was a policeman, but he managed to force his way in. Four men were in the tap room along with the woman and the landlord. One of the men said: “put Jack down” but before PC Kay could get to the table the landlord picked up the cards and Kay could hear the jingling of coins. However, the case swung on the evidence of two people: Henry Nuttall and Betty Leach. They said that although the men had been talking about playing cards there had been no card playing and the case was dismissed. Gambling in pubs was a serious offence and could cost the landlord his licence.

A few years later, in 1873, Royle's licence was again under threat. This time, magistrates argued that the pub did not meet the minimum rateable value of £15 per year. Beerhouses had to meet this level in order to gain a licence. Too low a rateable value meant the house wasn't large enough to be open to the general public. Royle appeared at the annual licensing hearing, known as the Brewster Sessions, but he could not speak as to the rateable value. Magistrates were trying to de-licence pubs by any means they could in order to reduce the number of licenced premises in the town. On this occasion they failed as Royle's rateable value was found to have reached the £15 threshold.

Samuel Royle died in 1877 and the Park View was run by his widow Mary for a short time before she left and John Bromley took over.

In February 1880, Richard Chadburn succeeded John Bromley as licensee of the Park View. Plans were passed the following year for additions to the pub. (Bolton Evening News, 23 August 1881).

The Chadburns and the Royles were shortly to become related through marriage as Richard Chadburn's daughter Margaret married Samuel Royle's son William around 1882.

Members of the Chadburn family were to run the Park View until it closed in 1949. Richard Chadburn died in 1895 and he was initially succeeded as licensee by his widow Ann. However, she soon passed it to their eldest son, John Richard Chadburn (1869-1952). He had married Betsy Davies in 1904 and when their daughter Ann (1905-79) was baptised the following year he was a farmer living at 61 Tonge Fold Road – next door to the pub. John Richard Chadburn also had an eye for the high-brow. In December 1907 he organised an exhibition of fine art at the pub.

The Park View had a bowling green situated across the road from the front of the pub. This may have been the 'park' the 'view' of which gave it its name. The bowling green remained in use until the pub closed. Maps from the sixties and seventies show allotments where the green used to stand although the site is now overgrown.

The green meant the pub was attractive to visitors from all over town who would organise days out for a game of bowls. An example is this report from the Bolton Evening News of 8 May 1906:

“The members of Lodges 6 and 253 of the Ancient Noble Order of United Oddfellows, Bolton Unity, Bolton District, met to have a friendly game of bowls on the Park View Bowling Green, Tonge Fold, on Saturday. A capital game ended in Lodge 6 beating Lodge 253. Afterwards, the teams settled down to an excellent repast to which full justice was done. Owing to the weather being unfavourable for further outdoor sport, a concert was arranged. Bro. Jos. Greenhalgh D.C.P presided, and the following brothers contributed towards the evening's entertainment: - Bros. Kershaw, Cubbage, Cooper, Watson, Frangleton, Hurst, Entwistle and Yates. The usual votes of thanks brought a very pleasant evening to a close.”

The end for the Park View came rather suddenly in 1949. Police announced they would object to the licence's annual renewal on the grounds of “redundancy” - that it was no longer needed. At the Brewster Sessions hearing that February, Superintendent Hodgson said that the inn stood in a derelict area. He claimed the building was damp, the woodwork was decayed and there was nothing to recommend it other than sentimental arguments. Although the immediate area is now built up those housing developments didn't commence until the 1970s and Tonge Fold was quite rural in 1949. The pub was being run by John Richard Chadbond's daughter, Mrs Annie Riley. She stated that repairs were schedule to take place later in the year and she presented a 500-name petition in a bid to try and keep the Park View open. Press reports before the hearing claimed the Park View was 250 years old. (See Manchester Evening News 8 February 1949 and 10 February 1949). But the pleas were all in vain. The pub was referred to the compensation board which was set up in the late-19^th century and which oversaw the closure of many a Bolton pub.

The Park View became a private residence and remains so to this day. John Richard Chadburn was living there when he died in March 1952. Annie Riley remained at the house until her death in April 1969.

Quiet Woman, Bury New Road (Bradford Street), The Haulgh

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The site of the Quiet Woman/Bradford Hotel in 2014

The Quiet Woman existed as a beerhouse from 1836 to 1871. It was the predecessor to the Bradford Hotel. 

Little is known of the pub's early days although Richard Fogg (1783-1858) appears to have been a pivotal figure. Fogg was a bleacher living at Top O'Th Haulgh according to the 1841 census. However, the Bolton directory for 1843 has him down as a beerseller at The Haulgh and it seems likely that it was at the Quiet Woman.

By 1851, Fogg was still a beerseller but his address was given as Fogg's Houses in The Haulgh. The appendix of 'Houses' to a name suggested the whole of a row was owned by the same person. That was perhaps stretching the point a little as there appears to have been just the pub and an adjoining cottage that made up Fogg's Buildings.

Fogg died in 1851. The Bolton Chronicle of 3 July 1858 reported that on the day of his death the 75-year-old Fogg had brewed as usual at the brewery attached to the pub. At around eight o'clock that night he began to complain of a pain in his bowels. He went to bed at ten o'clock and died at midnight.

Fogg's wife Betty remained at the pub until 1868 when she decided to sell up. The premises were sold along with an adjoining cottage for £270 to a farmer at The Haulgh named John Marsh. The transaction was the subject of a court case in 1869 when Marsh was successfully sued by an estate agent named George Ferguson for outstanding legal fees worth £12 2 shillings. [1]

It seems that Marsh didn't run the pub himself. Rather he installed Robert Bowcock as licensee. In April 1870, Boocock was accused of permitting drunkenness at his house. PC Mosely claims to have seen six men in the front room of the Quiet Woman. All were drunk, some more than others. Three women were in the kitchen and a man named Brennan had blood flowing from his mouth. Brennan claimed that the men had come in to the house already drunk but that the three women were powerless to throw them out. However, evidence was also given that there was not enough drink in the house for the men to be drunk and that Brennan had entered the house with the intention of fighting its occupants. Even so, the court, presided over by Mayor Joseph Musgrave found that the case was proven and he fined Bowcock 20 shillings (£1) plus costs. [2]

Bowcock left soon afterwards and George Holden took over. But in January 1871 the pub was up for sale once again. It closed down shortly after it was was sold and was soon demolished. The Bradford Hotel was erected in its place and opened later that year.

[1] Bolton Evening News, 8 May 1869.

[2] Bolton Evening News, 21 April 1870.

Black Cow, Fernhill Gate, Bolton

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The Fernhill Gate area of Wigan Road looking towards the former Rumworth Hotel. The Black Cow is believed to have been situated in one of the houses immediately before the Rumworth. 

Fernhill Gate is the area of Deane that slopes down Wigan Road towards the junction with Beaumont Road. The name hasn't completely fallen out of use but any reference to the area is usually indicated by the Sutton Estate which was constructed in the area in the late fifties and early sixties.

A number of pubs came and went in this area of Deane and one of those was the Black Cow. The pub was run for the whole of its existence by a spinster, Ann Helme. 

Miss Helme was born around 1807 in the village of Longworth situated some five miles north of Bolton. The village was purchased by Bolton Council in 1907 and Delph Reservoir was constructed on its site. 

Little is known of Ann Helme's early life. However, by 1841 she was working as a servant at Grundy Fold, a small collection of buidlings situated not far from Fernhill Gate at the end of what is now Greenhill Lane (known at that time as Green Lane). 

By 1861, Ann Helme was living with a servant at the Black Cow beerhouse on the Bolton to Westhoughton road. This was sometimes referred to as the 'Old Road' and is now known as Wigan Road. Given that the beerhouse doesn't appear in the 1855 local directory we can only assume that it was set up in the late-1850s. 

 In 1863, Miss Helme was prosecuted for allowing her pub to be open before midday on a Sunday. Opening hours in those days were quite liberal the exception being on a Sunday morning when people were expected to be at church and pubs were forced to close. The 1830 Beerhouse Act enabled people to set up pubs on payment of 2 guineas (£2.10). Many pubs began in this fashion and were initially just a person's sitting room. There was no bar and because only beer was served there were no optics or bottles of spirits. Quite often there would be a beer barrel on a stillage. As a result, the cost of setting up a pub was minimal. 

This arrangement also made it easy to close down a pub and convert the premises back to a home residence. That's what appears to have happened in the case of the Black Cow. By 1881 Ann Helme was a retired beerseller living at 506 Fernhill Gate, which was how Wigan Road was known in those days. 

Number 506 still exists. It's one of a small row of houses near what used to be the Rumworth Hotel. 

The Black Cow was one of a number of pubs and beerhouses that have come and gone in the Fernhill Gate area over the years. James Heyes was running a beerhouse next door to the Black Cow in 1871. This was named the Wellington in 1881 but subsequently disappeared. There was also pubs in the area named the Colliers Arms that appears on maps from the 1890s. The most permanent pub in the area was the Rumworth Hotel which opened in 1893 and closed in 2011.

Bradford Arms, 23 Bridgeman Place, Bolton

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The Bradford Arms pictured around 1930 just a few years before it closed

The Earl of Bradford owned land around Great Lever, Farnworth and part of the area to the south-western part of Bolton town centre, so it’s no surprise that the name ‘Bradford’ features prominently in the town. The earldom itself refers not to the conurbation in West Yorkshire as one might assume, but to the area of Bradford in Shropshire. That’s where the Bridgeman family, who hold the earldom, originated. A baronetcy was created for the Bridgemans of Great Lever in 1660. The fourth baronet was named Sir Orlando Bridgeman while the fifth baronet, Sir Henry Bridgeman became Baron Bridgeman in 1794.

A number of street and pub names make reference to the Earls of Bradford: Bradford Street, Bradford Road, Bridgeman Street, Bridgeman Place and no fewer than four pubs in the area named the Bradford: three pubs in Bolton while a fourth, in Farnworth, is the only one to survive.

The Bradford Hotel (later the Bradford Arms) was situated on Bradford Street; there was a Bradford Arms on Foundry Street, off Thynne Street, and somewhere between the two, on Bridgeman Place, was another Bradford Arms which was possibly the earliest of the four.

The pub began in the late-1850s when it was opened by a man named James Seddon Hulme. James was born in Little Lever in 1819 to a single mother, Alice Hulme. He was brought up by his grandparents but he appears to have had at least one child – and perhaps as many as six - with a woman named Margaret Barlow although the couple weren't married until much later. Certainly, the eldest child, Harriet Barlow was living with James Hulme and his grandparents at Grundy Fold in Little Lever by 1851. By then, Margaret Barlow was living in lodgings at Taylors Lane, Ainsworth.

James Hulme married in June 1854 – not Margaret Barlow but a widow named Mary Seddon (nee Henry). Oddly, he took her previous married name as part of his own name and became known as James Seddon Hulme.

Mary had previously run a pub on Churchgate and shortly after they married the couple moved to premises at 23 Bridgeman Place and opened it up as a beerhouse. The Bradford Arms, as it became known, would be run by members of James Seddon Hulme's family for the next 80 years.

Mary Hulme died in January 1876. James remarried in December of that year. He turned to his old flame and married Margaret Barlow at Holy Trinity church.

James and Margaret Hulme died within weeks of each other in 1892. James died on 24 May and Margaret on 13 July. The pub business had been good to him and he left an estate worth £871 – around £105,000 in today's money.

The Bradford Arms was taken over by the family of James and Margaret's daughter Hannah. She had moved to Radcliffe with her mother in the 1860s and in 1881 she married a neighbour, Philip Eastwood. The couple moved in to the Bradford Arms on their marriage and they took over the running of the pub after Hannah's parents died.

The Eastwoods were to remain at the Bradford for the rest of its time as a pub with Philip taking over as landlord.

Hannah died at the Bradford Arms in November 1918. Philip Eastwood died in December 1935 at the age of 83. By then the Bradford was owned by Walker Cain's having previously been sold by the Eastwoods to a Bolton brewer Joseph Sharman's. Sharman's was taken over by the Leigh firm of George Shaw in 1926 and they were in turn taken over by Walker Cain Ltd of Liverpool and Warrington in 1930.

The Bradford closed in 1936 although it is likely to have shut on Philip Eastwood's death with the licence formally rescinded weeks later. On closure, the pub was converted to a private residence but it was to remain standing for over 20 years after it ceased to be a pub. It was demolished in the early-1960s and a service station and bus lay-by was built on the site.

An intriguing set of photographs from the Bolton Museum collection shows the building in 1957 just a few years before the building and the rest of the row were demolished. The pub signs have been removed but it's unmistakably the former Bradford Arms.

Two of the photos are reproduced here with permission of Bolton Library and Museum Services (copyright Bolton Council).

Note Carlton Street - which still exists - where the car is standing

Philip Eastwood (seated left) pictured in 1910 along with the rest of his family. Mr Eastwood ran the Bradford Arms from 1892 until his death in 1936. The pub was opened by the father of his wife Hannah (seated right). 

Railway / Quill and Pen / Donaghy's, 63-65 Great Moor Street, Bolton

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The Railway pictured around 1932. The  image was part of a set taken by Walker Cain  Ltd after the took over the Leigh company of George Shaw's. The splendid stone-carved name sign in the middle of the pub was visible until 1985.

The Railway was situated on Great Moor Street and took its name from the nearby railways station that was the terminus for the Bolton and Leigh line. The station stood less than a hundred yards away from the pub on the site of what is now Morrisons petrol station. It opened in 1831 less than three years after the opening of the Bolton-Leigh line itself and was in regular passenger use until March 1954. Tracks were lifted in 1964 and the station building was demolished in 1966.

The Railway pub dated back to the late-1840s with John Tong shown as the licensee on the 1849 listing of Great Bolton beerhouses. It appears to have been either a shop or residential accomodation prior to that. However, it doesn't appear as a pub on the Bolton Directory for 1848. John Tong was a little piecer living in Blackburn Street (now the bottom end of Deane Road) at the time of the 1841 census. He remained at the pub until the 1860s.

The Railway appears to have been sold by Mr Tong to a local shoemaker, Richard Hall, and he was to remain a part of the pub's history for over a decade. But while Mr Hall owned the pub he wasn't always the licensee. In 1869 he applied for the pub's license to be transferred from James Chadbond to a widow, Mrs Betsy Whitworth. Mrs Whitworth didn't last long and Richard Hall is listed as the licensee on the 1871 Census. By 1881 he had gone back to being a shoemaker and was living in Ashburner Street. However, he was soon back in the area and by 1891 he was at 67 Great Moor Street, right next door to the pub.

For a number of years towards the end of the 19^th century the Railway was run by James Heyes. He had been at the Clifton Arms as far back as 1881 but by 1891 he had moved round the corner to Great Moor Street to run the Railway. He was still at the pub in 1901 when he is described as a retired beerseller.

By 1905 the Railway was in the hands of John Grime. John Nuttall and his wife were there according to the 1911 census.

Local brewer Magee, Marshall took over the Railway in the early part of the twentieth century. They subsequently sold the pub to another local firm, Joseph Sharman. Following Sharman's sale in 1927 it became a George Shaw pub until the Leigh-based brewery was taken over by Walker Cain Ltd of Liverpool and Warrington in 1931. Walker's merged with Tetley's to form Tetley Walker in 1960.

The Railway had a reputation as a gay pub in the seventies and eighties. It closed down in May 1985 and was bought by a local pub retail company Regal Knight Hotels Ltd. [1] It underwent a refurbishment and re-opened as the Quill And Pen in December 1985. No longer a gay pub it was aimed at a more upmarket clientele. [2] Regal Knight later owned the Gypsy'sTent on Deansgate and the White Hart in Farnworth. They went out of business in the 1990s.

The Quill and Pen was sold by Regal Knight in 1990. [3] It was taken over by local councillor Martin Donaghy and its name changed to Donaghy's. The pub closed in 1999 and was demolished in December of that year. The skateboard park on Great Moor Street now stands on the site.

[1] What's Doing, the Greater Manchester beer drinkers' magazine, June 1985.

[2] Bolton Beer Break, February 1986.

[3] What's Doing, the Greater Manchester beer drinkers' magazine, June 1990.

Bow Street Tavern, 52 Bow Street, Bolton

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The Bow Street Tavern was situated at the bottom end Bow Street not far from Manor Street. It actually stood on the corner of Bow Street, Crown Street and one of Bolton's long-forgotten thoroughfares, Anvil Street, which was a challenger for the title of one of the town's shortest streets. 

Anvil Street ran from the junction of Crown Street to Manor Street opposite its junction with Brown Street – a distance of some 30 yards. There was a small row of retail premises that ran along Bow Street from the corner of Anvil Street down to Manor Street and the Bow Street Tavern was one of those.

The first mention we have of the Bow Street Tavern was in 1871 when Joseph Bromley was the owner and licensee. By the mid-seventies he had moved on and James Jameson was in charge. Mr Jameson was previously an iron moulder living in nearby Independent Street, just off Folds Road, though he had left the pub and moved back to his former profession by 1891.

James Jameson was succeeded by John Reddy by the mid-1890s and Robert Challinor who was at the Bow Street Tavern in 1901. Thomas and Annie Blackledge were at the pub by 1906. [1]

Magee Marshall bought the Bow Street Tavern  in the early part of the 20^th century. The pub closed in 1920 and became a barber's shop. James Hart was cutting hair at the premises by 1924.

The row of properties at that end of Bow Street was demolished in the 1950s and the land remained empty for a number of years. The site is now part of the Euro car park at the bottom of Crown Street.

[1] Marjorie Wilkinson on the I Belong To Bolton Facebook group states that her mother, Cissie Blackledge was born at the pub in 1906.

A number 45 bus from Tonge Moor heads along Bow Street into town having just passed the junction with Manor Street (which runs off to the left). The bus is just passing the empty patch of land that marked the spot where the Bow Street Tavern used to stand.