Blue Bell, 145 Kay Street, Bolton

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Kay Street pictured in 2020 (copyright Google Street View). The Blue Bell was situated approximately where the car park is.

The Blue Bell was situated at 145 Kay Street close to the junction with China Lane.

The pub dated back to the 1840s. James Graham is listed as the licensee in the Bolton Directory of 1848.

Landlady Jane Mason was in court in 1864 over the serving of beer on a Sunday morning. Undercover police were in the habit of entering pubs on Sundays at a time when the sale of beer was prohibited until after church services had taken place. When police entered the Blue Bell at a quarter to eleven one Sunday morning there were three men in the kitchen, two of them with half-pints of ale. While the police were there a woman walked into the pub placed twopence on the table and asked for a pint. Mrs Mason was fined 10 shillings plus costs. [Bolton Chroncle, 18 June 1864].

Four years later an infant death was recorded at the Blue Bell. John William McNalley, the illegitimate son of Margaret McNalley, a domestic servant at the pub, was found dead on the premises despite having been well when Miss McNalley took him to bed at midnight the previous night. At 4am he was well enough to feed but when the landlady called his mother at 20 minutes past six the infant was dead on her arm. The borough corner's inquest verdict was “found dead”. [Bolton Chronicle, 22 August 1868]

By 1869 the owner of the Blue Bell was a local brewer, William Young. He was sued by tenant Robert Haslam for £30. Haslam had signed an agreement to take beer from Young but he broke the agreement claiming the beer was inferior in quality and short in measure. Young in turn sued Haslam for £19 4 shillings (£19.20) for beer but in court he accepted £15. [Bolton Evening News, 10 July 1869]

Haslam left the Blue Bell in September. He was succeeded by Reuben Bennett whose family were to remain at the pub for the next 56 years. Bennett was a 27-year-old former wheelwright when he took over as licensee. He was landlord for 24 years until his death of a suspected heart attack during a bowls match at the Royal Oak in Bradshaw in 1893. His widow Mary took over the running of the pub and she was still there when she died in 1925.

The Blue Bell was owned for a number of years by Halliwell's Brewery which was situated next to the Alexandra beerhouse on Stewart Street. Founder John Halliwell slowly built up a small tied estate but he died in 1885 and his son Edward took over the running of the company. However, the executors of John Halliwell's estate decided to auction off the brewery along with its 12 tied pubs including the Blue Bell. Edward Halliwell managed to fend off interest from three of Bolton's bigger breweries: Tong's, Magee Marshall and Sharman's but it was to cost him £30,500. The deal included off-licences on Halliwell Road, Morris Green Lane, John Brown Street, Hill Lane, Back Turton Street, George Street and Balshaw Street. [Bolton Evening News, 4 December 1890]

In 1910 the Alexandra Brewery, along with its pubs and off-licences was bought by Magee Marshall.

The Blue Bell closed in 1933. The stretch of Kay Street that included the pub still stands although the building was demolished in the sixties.

China Lane ran from Higher Bridge Street, down the side of Holdsworth's Mill to Kay Sreet.

Royal Oak, 117 Kay Street, Bolton

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Site of the Royal Oak, Kay Street in June 2018. Photo from Google Street View.

The Royal Oak was situated on Kay Street at the junction with Haigh Street not far from the site of what was later the Britannia Service Station.

The pub opened around the middle of the nineteenth century and in November 1869 the licence was taken on by Isaac Halliwell, a man who was later to gain notoriety for his part in the so-called Dilke Riot.

Born in 1836, Halliwell was the son of Ellen Halliwell and her husband Henry, a labourer in an iron foundry, probably Benjamin Hick's on Crook Street. The family lived nearby in Horrocks Court, roughly behind what is now the Achari restaurant (formerly the Painters Arms). Isaac followed his father into employment as a foundryman and by 1861 he was living on Croasdale Street which linked Kay Street with Waterloo Street. He was most likely employed at the nearby Globe Iron Works. In 1869, Halliwell succeeded James Clough at the Royal Oak, but it was the events of 1871 and 1872 that saw him make his name.

Sir Charles Dilke was a charismatic Liberal politician who was very much on the left of his party. In 1868, at the age of 25, he won the Chelsea seat at the general election but his views were somewhat at odds with his party's leadership. In 1870 he made a speech in Newcastle calling for the abolition of the Monarchy and for Britain to become a republic. There was a public outcry leading to Dilke recanting his remarks and over the next few years his views slowly began to reflect those of the rest of the Liberal Party.

In November 1871, Dilke was due to make a speech at the 900-capacity Bolton Temperance Hall situated on the corner of St George's Street and Higher Bridge Street. Days before the speech a poster appeared on Bolton's streets that announced the intention to de-platform Dilke. It read:

“To the Loyal People of Bolton – Sir Charles Dilke, the Republican, is coming to address you on Thursday night. Let it be seen that you are true born Englishmen and refuse a hearing to any man who preaches sedition and treason.”

The poster went on to accuse Dilke of attacking Queen Victoria “in an unmanly and odious way” and it called for the people of Bolton to put aside their political differences and to rally in support of the throne.

On the night of the meeting, 30 November 1871, a crowd estimated at 1500 people congregated outside the Temperance Hall and before long the mood turned ugly. One agitator, a local chemist named Thomas Teal, was seen picking up stones on Bridge Street. A prominent Liberal from Halliwell, John Atkins, who was also the landlord of the Swiss Hotel, later claimed in court to have taken two large stones from Teal's pocket. The rocks were distributed by Teal among the demonstrators who then proceeded to pelt the Temperance Hall. An estimated 158 windows were broken in the hall, which had only been rebuilt in 1869.

Inside the hall, Dilke – who was there to speak not about the Monarchy but on another of his interests, the reform of the House of Commons – was unable to take to the stage. As stones were thrown from outside, glass shattered all around and when there was no glass left to be broken, stones were flung through the empty window frames. One hit a 56-year-old labourer named William Schofield on the head and he died a week later having suffered a fractured skull.

Although the Liberals called for assistance from the police only half a dozen members of the local constabulary were on hand. Seventeen people were arrested, including Isaac Halliwell who had been seen entering the hall along with the rest of a mob of around 200 demonstrators.

Two months later, on 1 February 1872, the defendants appeared in court accused of rioting, damage to property and the manslaughter of William Schofield. The pro-Liberal Bolton Evening News pulled no punches in its reporting of the case. “Prosecution Of The Tory Rioters” was the headline in its edition of 1 February 1872. 

One of the defendants, Major Thomas Hesketh, was a Justice of the Peace. He was excused from sitting in court with the rest of the accused and was given a place on the bench. The prosecution then pointed out that one of magistrates at the hearing, W.H Wright, had also been present at the demonstration and had stormed the building with the protestors. He was alleged to have shouted to those present at the meeting: “You brought it upon yourselves; you deserve all you are getting.” The chairman of the bench, the Mayor Of Bolton, William Cannon – a muslin manufacturer whose firm Cannon Brothers built Stanley Mill on Cannon Street – stated that Mr Wright had denied making the remarks but despite what appeared to be a clear conflict of interest he was allowed to remain on the bench for the hearing. 

The magistrates decided that the case would have to be heard at Manchester Assizes which met every few months to deal with offences too serious for the local courts.

By the time the case was heard, in March 1872, charges had been dropped against nine of the 17 defendants but Isaac Halliwell was amongst the eight who stood trial. One of the nine let off was Major Thomas Hesketh. This was despite witnesses telling magistrates that he was one of the 200 people who broke down the east door to the Temperance Hall. He is alleged to have shouted: “Follow me lads, break this door. We have a right to be in and we will get in!” and he was given three cheers by the crowd for his efforts. The Heskeths came from humble stock – his father was a mere grocer when Thomas was born in 1838 – but the family had become textile manufacturers in the town and were now very well connected. The major was the eldest son of Thomas Manley Hesketh, the founder of T.M. Hesketh & Sons Ltd whose mill was a large employer at Astley Bridge. Major Hesketh was later chairman of the Astley Bridge Local Board and one of his brothers, George Hesketh, was Conservative Mayor Of Bolton for 1905-06.

Almost 40 witnesses were called over the two-day trial all of whom stated that there had been a riot. After the evidence had been heard the judge then addressed the jury and told them to put aside any political feelings they had over the issue. He then sent them to consider their verdict. At 3.40pm on 19 March 1872 the jury retired; however, after little over an hour they sent a note to the judge saying they could not agree and asked to be discharged. The judge refused and insisted they continue their deliberations. When they returned again at just after eight o'clock the foreman of the jury said that 11 of the 12 jurors were agreed on a guilty verdict but there was one juror who was flatly refusing to convict any of the defendants. The judge sent the jury out again but at 9.50pm they returned with the foreman saying once again that they could not reach a unanimous verdict. As the judge would not accept a majority verdict he discharged the jury and said the trial would have to be heard again when the assizes next visited Manchester in July.

With that the tide turned very much in favour of Isaac Halliwell and his co-accused. The judge made a remarkable statement in which he said he would have been sorry to have had to pass sentence on the defendants had they been found guilty, although he added that would have been his duty. He went on to say that he hoped the feeling in Bolton would improve in the meantime and that the prosecution would offer no evidence at the re-trial – which is exactly what happened. This was a remarkable statement for the judge to make and it completely failed to take into account the fact that William Schofield had lost his life as a result of the actions of the rioters. But Schofield was a simple labourer and in nineteenth-century England the life of a member of the lower classes wasn't given much value. When a demonstration was held in the town following Schofield's death local Conservatives met at the Gibraltar Rock  on Pikes Lane and said that while no one was more sorry about his death than they were they wouldn't be shedding what they described as “crocodile tears.”

After discharging the jury the judge warned against the prisoners returning to Bolton as heroes but his call fell on deaf ears. Isaac Halliwell and the rest of the accused left the court and returned to the town by train. The Evening News reported on their reception:

“The discharged men and their friends returned to Bolton at about twenty minutes past eleven at night. They were met at the station by a large number of people, who cheered and sang most lustily, and were escorted down Newport Street, by Great Moor Street to the Junior Conservative Club in Mawdesly-Street, where the cheering was continued for some time.”

Bolton Evening News, 20 March 1872.

No doubt the trial did wonders for Isaac Halliwell's reputation and the rest of the 1870s were a prosperous period for him. In 1875 it was reported he had bought the Three Crowns on Deansgate for £1200. This wasn't the Old Three Crowns, which still stands today, but another pub on the other side of the road on the corner of Mealhouse Lane.

The following year the Three Crowns was pulled down for improvements to the road junction and Isaac Halliwell applied to have the its full licence transferred to a new pub he had just built on the corner of Great Moor Street and Deansgate to be called the Balmoral Hotel.  Halliwell claimed to have spent £5000 on the new building. At the licensing hearing in May 1876 he said the Balmoral was several storeys high and contained an extensive billiard room. Some land had been bought nearby and the intention was to build stables there. He added that this was not a new location for a fully-licenced pub. Two long-established public houses, the Horse and Jockey and the Horse and Groom, had stood on or near the site until their recent demolition. Another old pub, the Shakespeare on the other side of Deansgate near the junction with Bolling's Yard, was also about to close. So the granting of a full licence for the Balmoral would see “a fine hotel put in place of three fourth-rate houses.” The magistrates granted the licence and the Balmoral opened shortly afterwards in the summer of 1876.

Perhaps spending £5000 on the Balmoral stretched Isaac Halliwell financially because within a few months he was on the move again. He moved to Blackpool in early 1880 where he and his wife Janet took over the Prince Of Wales Hotel in York Street. Adverts for the pub and its accommodation were a regular feature in the Bolton press that year.

Halliwell died at the Prince Of Wales in January 1881 at the age of just 44. His estate was valued at less than £400. Janet Halliwell continued running the Prince Of Wales until her death in 1898. The pub was demolished in the late-1960s. The Gauntlet (later the Jaggy Thistle) was built on the site but that closed in 2010 and was demolished the following year. A car park is now on the site.

Back at the Royal Oak, Isaac Halliwell was succeeded by John Farrar; however, the owner of the building decided to sell the pub and it was bought by the Alexandra Brewery of Stewart Street, Brownlow Fold.

During the 1880s James Grundy took over as landlord and the Royal Oak was run by members of his family for around the next 20 years. Grundy died in 1893. He was a keen bowler and on the occasion of his death the Bolton Bowling Association passed a motion of condolence to his family. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, William Shipperbottom. The 1891 census shows that Shipperbottom was living at the pub along with his wife, Elizabeth – James Grundy's daughter – and their four children. By 1910 they were at the Union Arms, Eskrick Street. 

Shipperbottom was succeeded by Joshua S Porritt who died at the Royal Oak in 1920. Porritt had previously run the Founders Arms on St George's Street and the Swiss Hotel, Southern Street, Brownlow Fold.

By 1924 the landlady was Emma Bolan. Born Emma Mayoh in 1865 she married an American, Frank Bolan, in 1900 and the couple were at the Nelson's Monument on Blackburn Road from 1902 onwards. She succeeded Joshua Porritt at the Royal Oak and was living at the pub when she died in 1937. By then she had handed over control to her daughter Grace Davies (later Grace Banks).

The Royal Oak was owned by Halliwell's Alexandra Brewery until that firm was bought by Magee, Marshall and Company in 1910. It isn't known whether the Halliwell family were directly related to Isaac Halliwell.

Magee's was taken over by the Warrington firm of Greenall Whitley in 1958 but the Royal Oak continued to be supplied from Magee's brewery on Cricket Street, off Derby Street, until the pub's closure in 1968. It was demolished although the site remained empty for many years. The extension to St Peter's Way, which was begun in 1987, now runs through the pub's former site.

Jolly Sailor, 5 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Jolly Sailor lasted for about a decade in the middle of the 18^th century. It was a beerhouse situated at number 5 Kay Street, just two doors away from the fully-licensed Roebuck Hotel.

The Jolly Sailor was run by Richard Cashmore. Born in Warwickshire in 1766, Mr Cashmore was running a pub in Great Moor Street in 1836. By 1841 he was at the Jolly Sailor along with his wife Ann. However, despite being some twenty years younger than Richard, Ann died in 1846.

Richard was described as a Chelsea pensioner on the 1851 census which suggests he may have had a previous career in the armed forces. He died later that year and the Jolly Sailor was certainly closed by the time the 1853 Bolton Directory was compiled.

In the early part of the 20^th century number 5 Kay Street was part of Mrs Anne Bentley’s bakery which was certainly up and running by 1905 and was still in business almost twenty years later.

All Saints Street car park now occupies the site.

The bottom end of Kay Street on this August 2015 image (copyright Google Street View). The Jolly Sailor was on the left-hand side.

Rope and Anchor, 198-200 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Rope and Anchor was situated at 198-200 Kay Street, at the junction with Higher Bridge Street. The pub dates back to the 1860s when George Warburton bought a beerhouse licence and opened up his house at 200 Kay Street to sell beer. In 1851, Warburton – not directly related to the baking dynasty - was living in Back Lever Street. By 1861 he was at 200 Kay Street but was employed as a factory operative. By the time of the 1869 Bolton directory he was a beerhouse operator. He died in 1876 aged 53. His wife Ann took over until she died in 1879.

In the early part of the 20^th century the pub was bought by Booth’s brewery who operated from the Rose and Crown on nearby Dean Street. By 1924 the pub was being run by Daniel Booth. He was the brother of William Settle who ran the brewery. An argument with another brother, Albert, who ran the Red Lion on Crook Street over the company’s name resulted in it being changed to WT Settle.

On William T Settle’s death in 1951 the brewery and its pubs were sold to Duttons of Blackburn. The Rope and Anchor became a fully-licensed public house in 1962. Duttons sold out to Whitbread in 1964.

The Rope and Anchor closed down in 1971. The pub and surrounding properties were subsequently demolished. 

The top end of Kay Street near the junction of Higher Bridge Street. The Rope and Anchor stood on the right-hand side of the street as we look on the site of the car park. The Smart car dealership is in the distance. When the area was redeveloped in the early seventies the Trutex factory was built on the site.

Kay Street Arms (Golden Lion), 159 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Kay Street Arms began life as the Golden Lion in the 1850s. It was situated at the north end of Kay Street near the junction with Higher Bridge Street and Blackburn Road. The beerhouse appears to have been founded by Robert Atherton who ran it for over two decades from around 1853 until the mid-1870s. Robert became a widow in 1872 when his wife Jane died aged 70. He married again the following year though eyebrows were no doubt raised when his new bride was the 27-year-old Sarah Haslam. Robert died in 1878 by which time he had left the pub. Sarah married again the following the year, this time to Charles Septimus Fryer, but she died in 1888 at the age of 42.

By 1890 the pub was known as the Kay Street Arms and the landlord was Cornelius Maine. In 1894 it was one of three pubs raided by police looking for evidence of betting. The other pubs were Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Egyptian Street and the Milk Street Tavern. All three were raided the night before a big race meeting at Kempton Park. Inspector Rhodes found a grand total of 309 betting slips at the Kay Street Arms. There was a book containing 113 betting slips inside Maine’s coat; a cigar box contained 93 slips of paper relating to 212 bets; a teapot in the kitchen contained 53 slips relating to 119 bets and a satchel in the dresser contained 43 slips relating to 106 bets. Maine and his customers were frog-marched to the town hall where they were given bail. At his trial he was found guilty of allowing betting on licensed premises and fined £25 – the equivalent of almost £3000 today. The guilty verdict marked the end of Cornelius Maine’s stint in the licensed trade. He became a tobacconist 131 Higher Bridge Street (the building still stands and housed a tattoo studio until around 2010) and he later moved to Little Lever where he worked as a carter. He died there in 1904 at the age of 44.

By 1905 Samuel Unsworth was at the pub. He was a foreman lamplighter living in Ellesmere Street in 1901 but he moved to the Kay Street Arms a few years later and staying for over 20 years.

In the 1890s the pub was bought by Atkinson’s brewery before being sold to the J Halliwell and Co after the betting scandal. Halliwell’s were taken over by Magee, Marshall in 1910 and it remained a Magees pub until it closed in 1966. It was demolished soon afterwards. The St Peters Way extension runs through the site of the pub. An August 2015 image is below (copyright Google Street View).

Cross Keys, 1 Cross Street, Bolton

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The Cross Keys was one of Bolton’s oldest pubs. It stood at the junction of Cross Street and Kay Street for over 130 years. It was certainly in existence by 1800 and by 1818 it was owned by the Wallwork family. Joseph Wallwork was the licensee. 

Much later, in 1850, while Joseph was at the Rope and Anchor on Kay Street, his daughter Ellen married a bookkeeper named Evan Dixon. The couple ran the Cross Keys for a while and were certainly there by 1855.

The Cross Keys was also owned by the Entwisle family. Abraham Entwisle was there in 1828, but he was at the Lord Nelson on Derby Street by 1836 and his son John was running the Cross Keys.

The Entwisles were succeeded by Henry Lea who was at the pub in 1848. He had gone by the following year and according to the 1851 Census he was a journeyman brewer living in Howell Croft with his wife Elizabeth, who was a greengrocer. Henry died in 1853.

By 1909 the Cross Keys was owned by Tong’s Brewery and was run by Joseph Walkden. He died in 1909 and his widow, Sarah Ann married a local mill manager named James Pickering in 1912. She continued to run the pub for some years after at least until 1924.

The Bromley Cross brewer Hamers bought the pub from Tong’s. In 1935 the area around the Cross Street junction with Kay Street was earmarked for council housing and the Cross Keys was to be demolished. Hamers transferred the pub’s full licence to the Railway at the corner of Newport Street and Trinity Street. 

The St Peters Way extension onto Kay Street runs through the site of the pub.

Peacock Inn, 72 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Peacock Inn on Kay Street dated back to the 1840s. William Fletcher is listed as the licensee on the 1849 listing of Little Bolton beerhouses. Fletcher was a blacksmith according to the 1841 census and was already living on Kay Street. It may well have been that, like so many beerhouses that sprang up at the time, he converted one room of his dwelling into licensed premises.

William Fletcher ran the Peacock until around 1870 when the pub was taken over by his son James. However, James lasted only a few years and by 1876 the Peacock was being run by Samuel Davenport, formerly a cooper in nearby Charles Street.

By 1891 the pub was in the hands of Thomas Witter, formerly the landlord of the Nightingale on Lever Street. When he died in 1891 the pub was bought by the Bolton brewery of J Atkinson and Sons in the 1890s. Atkinson’s were bought out by Boardman’s United Breweries in 1895 and it became a Cornbrook pub when they took over Boardman’s in 1898.

The Peacock closed in 1911. By 1924 it was a common lodging house run by Mrs Annie King. The building was demolished when Kay Street was widened in 1959. The St Peters Way extension (built 1987) now occupies the site.

British Oak, 37 Union Street, Bolton

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The British Oak was situated at 37 Union Street, Bolton, a street that ran parallel with Kay Street. The pub was founded in the late-1860s by Sophia Nicholson. The area around Little Bolton was a tough area of slums and beerhouses. Licensees came and went but the fact Sophia survived for over a decade as an unmarried pub landlady in one of the roughest parts of the town points to a formidable woman.

Sophia Nicholson was born in 1829. Her mother died when she was a small child and the 1841 census has her living in Bold Street in the Mill Hill area of town (not to be confused with the Bold Street that still exists just off Newport Street). She lived with her father, John Nicholson,  and six siblings. John, along with three of Sophia’s elder brothers and one of her sisters, worked in the textile trade. The men worked as weavers, the women in the area were spinners. By 1851, Sophia lived with her brother Thomas and sister Nancy in Back Bare Street where all three worked as cotton weavers.

But by 1861 Sophia, now aged 32, was in the pub trade. She ran a beerhouse in Lark Street and by the end of that decade she had an interest in at least two other pubs. The 1869 licensing round renewed the licences of two un-named beerhouses where Sophia was the landlady: a pub in Lark Street along with one in Union Street. Neither were named though this wasn't unusual.The 1869 Directory had her down as the landlady of the Middleton Arms on Charles Street. 

The 1869 round was the first where beerhouses had to re-apply for their licences. The police were looking for any excuse to reduce the number of drinking establishments and it was a testament to Sophia Nicholson’s running of her two pubs that both applications were nodded through without objection.

The un-named beerhouse on Union Street became the British Oak. The 1871 Census has Sophia Nicholson at 37 Union Street – the address of the British Oak – along with her sister Nancy and two of her brothers.

But a few years later Sophia’s life was to change and she was able to give up the licensed trade. In August 1874, at the age of 45, she married John Knowles, a man whose profession was given as a ‘gentleman’. Although his wedding certificate gave the British Oak as his address he sounded as though he was a man of means. It signified the end of life as a landlady of two beerhouses for Sophia. She handed over the running of the two pubs to her sister Nancy. By 1881 Sophia and John Knowles was running a farm at Dry Hill, Breightmet. By 1891 she was a widow living alone at Montserrat Cottage on Chorley Old Road.

Nancy had given way to John Greenhalgh at the British Oak by 1895 and in 1905 the pub’s final landlord was Joseph Sheard. By then it was owned by local brewer Joseph Sharman’s.

The British Oak closed in 1905 and the building was demolished in the 1930s. Nothing remains of Union Street which ran from Folds Road to Turton Street. Some readers may recall the row of houses that ran from the junction of Turton Street down the side of Kay Street. The British Oak was on the opposite side of the road to these houses.They were demolished in 1987 for the St Peters Way extension. The August 2015 view (copyright Google Street View) of that site is below.

Buck and Vine, 142 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Buck and Vine dated back to the middle of the 19^th century. It was a beer house when James Mangnall took it over, but he decided to put in an application in August 1854 to convert it into a public house which would have enabled him to sell wine and spirits as well as beer. While Kay Street had numerous beerhouse, only the Falcon and the Roebuck were public houses along with the Four Factories on nearby Turton Street and the Three Tuns on Chapel Street. But the nearby Elephant and Castle had also applied for a licence – and so had 21 other beerhouses in Bolton. Unfortunately, the applications were heard by famous teetotaller Robert Walsh. Not only was he less than keen on converting beerhouses into fully-licensed public houses he was in favour of closing 90 percent of Bolton’s beerhouses. He had calculated on the way into the hearing that Bolton had one beerhouse for every 106 people. In his view, one for every thousand people would suffice. All 23 applications were thrown out.

James Mangnall didn’t hang around. He left the Buck and Vine and by 1861 it was being run by William Clegg. Clegg was formerly a roller cover at Claremont, off Bridgeman Street, and when he left the Buck and Vine it was to take over a pub in his former locality, the Coe Street Tavern. 

By 1870, the Buck and Vine was under the control of the Kennerdell family. Edward Kennerdell had worked as an iron turner in Howell Croft before getting into the pub business. He died in 1872 and the pub was taken over by his widow Ann. She ran it until she died in 1903 at the age of 72.

The Buck and Vine was owned by Wilson’s when it closed in 1960. With such a large number of pubs on Kay Street - even at that time – pubs needed an immediate catchment area. For some years the Buck and Vine had been virtually alone. The Globe Iron Works and Dobson and Barlows had gone. Chemist Street (formerly Chymist Street), which linked Kay Street with Waterloo Street never had many residential properties on it, while nearby streets such as Britain Street and Green Street had been demolished.

A 1928 aerial view of the area can be seen here.  Although the pub isn’t marked it is actually positioned behind the blue marker denoting Kay Street.

Kay Street is now a dual-carriageway and has been so since the early-nineties. The original Kay Street is the north-bound carriageway. The south-bound carriageway is the newer construction and at around this spot, next to the service station, it passes through the site of the Buck and Vine.

Shepherds Arms, 44 Kay Street, Bolton

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The Shepherd Arms pictured in the late-1920s.

The Shepherds Arms was situated at 44 Kay Street at its junction with Charles Street. The pub dated back to at least the 1860s.The first mention we have is when Bernard Brand – sometimes given as Barnard Brand or even Barnard Band – is listed in the 1869 Bolton Directory. That same year he was one of the first licensees to be awarded a licence under the new system of annual renewals. Mr Brand died on 27 October 1870 and he was succeeded by William Henry who had previously run a number of pubs in the town.

In the early-1900s the landlord was Joseph Burtonwood who moved along with his wife Hannah from her family’s grocery store on nearby Union Street.

The Shepherd’s was bought by local brewer Joseph Sharman whose Mere Hall brewery was situated about half a mile away from Kay Street. Sharman’s and its 58 pubs were taken over by Shaw’s of Leigh. When they were in turn taken over by Walker Cain Ltd in 1931 a trading review took place as a result of which the Shepherd’s Arms closed in 1933. [1]

The pub was situated next door to the Kay Street Congregational Mission and the mission expanded into the Shepherds on its closure. The mission closed in 1958 and was demolished in 1959 for the widening of Kay Street. Construction of the St Peters Way extension in the early-1990s meant the landscaping of Kay Street. The lower end, which once contained the Shepherds Arms and the Kay Street Mission, barely exists apart from a footpath where the street used to run. This can be seen below. Note the statue of Atlas from Walmsleys Forge which now stands on the site of the former BankOf England pub. The Bank Of England was just three doors down from the Shepherds Arms. Note that this isn't the same view as in the image at the top of the page. Charles Street runs along the side of the pub in the 1920s image; this view is up Kay Street (as was).

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

Black Horse, 91 Kay Street

A Methodist preacher on Kay Street in the early years of the twentieth century. The Falcon is on the right, but the Black Horse can be seen on the other side of the street. It is the second of the two buildings on the left-hand side of the road as we look. This small ‘row’ stood between Falcon Street and Dale Street. The pub’s name board is empty which suggests the photo was taken after 1901 which was when the Black Horse closed.

The Black Horse was situated at 91 Kay Street, across the road from the Falcon Hotel. 

The pub’s first mention is in the 1848 Bolton Directory when John Bates is the licensee. By 1851 John Bates had moved up in the world and was running a fully licensed pub on Churchgate along with his wife, Sarah. He later became a wheelwright. In 1861 the licensee of the Black Horse was Joseph Stockton, who had moved to the nearby Foresters Arms by 1869.

The difficult nature of the licensed trade is illustrated by Henry Brownlow who was at the Black Horse by 1871. He was an iron planer on Todd Street in 1861, by 1881 he was back working in an iron foundry.

Samuel Scowcroft, who was the licensee in 1881, is described as a ‘publican and out-of-work mechanic’ but he and his relatives ran the pub until its close. He presumably found work back in his chosen trade and transferred the Black Horse’s licence to his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Brindle. She ran the pub until she died in 1893. Samuel had died in 1892 and so after Elizabeth died the pub was run by Samuel’s widow, Mary Anne Scowcroft and their daughter, Mary.

The Black Horse closed in 1901 when it was a Sharman’s pub. It subsequently became retail premises and was occupied by Mrs Helen Ainscow, a wardrobe dealer,in 1905. It was demolished in the fifties and the Britannia Service Station was initially built on its site.

 The same view of Kay Street taken in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View). The dual carriageway runs roughly where the Black Horse once stood. The Falcon has given way to a filter from the by-pass into Turton Street.

Elephant and Castle, 103 Kay Street

Kay Street pictured in September 2014 (copyright Google Street View). The Britannia Service Station in the distance was built in the late sixties on the site of what was once the Elephant and Castle.

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Not to be confused with the pub of the same name in town - about the fourth pub to hold the name - the Elephant and Castle on Kay Street was another example of retail premises that became a beerhouse. Philip Howarth appears on the 1836 directory as a shopkeeper on Kay Street. By the time of the 1841 census he was a joiner, but by 1843 he was a beer retailer at the Elephant and Castle. He left in 1861 having built the Nelson Hotel on Chorley Old Road. He died in 1862.

The Elephant and Castle was situated on the west side of Falcon Street with the Royal Oak just a few doors away, the Falcon on the other side of Kay Street and the Golden Cup around the corner on Haigh Street. It was a competitive environment.

The pub continued under numerous licensees after Philip Howarth left. William Sidlow succeeded him but in the late-1860s, but he lasted only a few years before leaving and there were no long-serving landlords at the pub after Philip Howarth.

The Elephant and Castle was eventually bought by local brewer Sharman’s and they threw in the towel in 1921. The pub closed down and the building was converted into a residential property. It was demolished in the sixties, along with a large number of other buildings in the area. The Britannia Service station was subsequently built on the site.

Bank Of England, 36 Kay Street

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Kay Street stood right in the middle of a heavily built-up working class area. Worrall’s 1871 Bolton Directory shows no fewer than ten beerhouses on the street alone, along with two fully-licensed pubs the Falcon and the Roebuck. The former was the last pub on the road to close, in 1987 and what was onnce Kay Street is now just an extension of St Peters Way.

One of the ten beerhouses in the 1871 directory was the Bank Of England, which dated back to around 1860.  It was a sizeable pub standing opposite the Co-op Dairy at the junction with St George’s Street and Lark Street. The Kay Street Congregational Mission stood right next door to the pub.

An often-told saying about the pub was that you could stand with your back to it and say “I’ll never go broke – I’ve got the Bank Of England behind me.” [1] How often that was actually said before the locals grew tired of it – who can say.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t something you could say after 1956. That was when this Magee’s pub finally closed. The council had a plan to widen Kay Street from Turton Street down to the junction with St George’s Street. The row of properties fronting Kay Street and those to the rear forming one side of Union Street were all demolished in 1958 and Kay Street was widened.

Some years later, in 1971, Kay Street's junction with St George’s Street formed part of the entry on to St Peters’s Way, which opened that year. But Kay Street was later widened again. It took its current form in the late-eighties when St Peters Way was extended up to the junction with Higher Bridge Street and Blackburn Road. The junction with Kay Street was re-modelled so that Kay Street itself was effectively truncated to run from Manor Street as far as St George’s Street. The original commencement of St Peters Way became a small slip road enabling motorists to exit the by-pass into town. A subway was built under the motorway extension which was some 20 feet above Kay Street.

In 1989, Thomas Walmsley’s Atlas Forge on Bridgeman Street was demolished (the site is now the Mill View nursing home). A large statue of Atlas with the world on his shoulders was rescued from the old forge and was placed on Kay Street at its junction with St George’s Street on the corner formerly occupied by the Bank Of England.  

Kay Street - or what's left of it - in this Google Street View image from September 2014.

St George's Street runs off to the left. Offices occupy what was once the Co-Op Dairy. Opposite the offices, the statue of Atlas rescued from Walmsley's forge on Bridgeman Street had been in place on the site of the Bank Of England for 25 years by the time this photograph was taken.

The image is copyright Google Street View. The 1989 photo is copyright Bolton Council. 

Roebuck, Kay Street

The bottom of Manor Street with Bow Street going off to the left, Folds Road to the right and, in the distance and beyond the traffic lights, what’s left of Kay Street. The Roebuck stood at the bottom of Kay Street with its junction with Bow Street, where the trees are in the middle of the photo. Here’s the same shot some 60 or 70 years earlier in an undated picture from the Bolton News archives. Then, as now, the Dog & Partridge is on the right of the shot with the Co-op Bakery premises, which later became the head office and warehouse of Edwin P Lees on the other side of Kay Street from the Roebuck.

The Roebuck Hotel was situated at number 1 Kay Street, on the corner of Bow Street. The now empty site of the pub can still be seen diagonally opposite the Dog & Partridge at the bottom of Manor Street.

The Roebuck dates back to the first decade of the nineteenth century. Kay Street ran from the junction with Bow Street, Manor Street and Folds Road up to the junction with Higher Bridge Street some three-quarters of a mile away. 

A number of maps still show Kay Street as the continuation of the dual carriageway at the end of St Peters Way up to its end at Higher Bridge Street. Confusingly, the branch of B&Q gives its address as Roundhill Way, while the Britannia Garage insists its address is still Kay Street. The truncated old street runs for little more than 100 yards from Bow Street up to St George’s Street.

One of the Roebuck’s former landlords was a motor pioneer in the town. 

There is a curious connection between pub landlords in Bolton and the early days of the motor industry. In the early-twentieth century John Bromilow was the landlord of the Boar’s Head on Churchgate. He went on to become part of the Bromilow & Edwards partnership that exists today as Edbro. Ross Isherwood ran one of the town’s early motor repair garages as well as running the Prince William on Bradshawgate. Meanwhile,  Stanley Parker, the landlord of the  Roebuck in the early years of the twentieth century, also went into the motor trade. In 1911 he was listed as the proprietor of the Stanley Garage on Westbrook Street, off Lower Bridgeman Street. He later moved to 71 Bradshawgate, next to Silverwell Yard and by 1922 he was at 157-159 Bradshawgate trading as as Parkers. The firm was later known as Parkers of Bolton and was a motor dealership for many years until the early-nineties. Stanley Parker died in 1948. [1]

The Roebuck was taken over by Tong’s and it became a Walker’s house when Tong’s were bought out in 1923. In 1960, Walker’s built a new estate pub, the Prince Rupert on the Orlit Estate just off Lever Edge Lane. With a number of pubs already in the town centre they saw that a licence transfer was more desirable than attempting to secure a new licence. Plus the Roebuck was licensed to sell wines and spirits rather than beer. [2]

Walkers successfully applied to transfer the Roebuck’s licence to the Prince Rupert on  Holmeswood Road, off Lever Edge Lane. The Roebuck closed in March 1960 and the building was demolished in February 1961.

[1] Bolton Town Centre, A Modern History. Part One: Deansgate, Victoria Square, Churchgate and Surrounding Areas, 1900-1998, by Gordon Readyhough.

[2] Bolton Pubs, 1800-2000, by Gordon Readyhough.

Falcon, Kay Street

The Falcon in the late-1920s when it was owned by William Tong & Sons Ltd of Blackshaw Lane, Deane. Tong's was taken over in 1923 by the Warrington brewery of  Walker Cain Ltd who commissioned photographs of their recently-acquired pubs.

The Falcon was situated on the corner of Kay Street and Turton Street but was a casualty of road improvements when Topp Way and St Peter’s Way were extended in the eighties.

The pub dated back to 1803 [1] and was one of 21 pubs owned by William Tong & Sons Ltd, whose Diamond Brewery stood on the corner of Blackshaw Lane and Deane Road.

It was a rounded corner pub although the room on the left next to the entrance to the pub had less of a curve than the vault to the right of the entrance where the bar was also rounded in parallel with the curvature of the outer wall of the building.

There were also two back rooms one of which was regularly as a meeting room by a number of local societies.

It was a good local’s pub in a working-class area and in its final years it served cask Tetley Mild and Bitter that was kept well enough to merit inclusion in a number of editions of the Good Beer Guides during the eighties.

The pub closed in early 1987 when, along with the Peel on Higher Bridge Street, it was demolished to make way for the extension to Topp Way. There was some scepticism about the scheme – a correspondent to the Greater Manchester beer drinker’s magazine, What’s Doing, pointed out that similar plans over the previous 15 years “had come to nought” [2]. However, within a few months of the plans being made public a closing date was set. [3] Licensees Keith and Helene Partington, who had been in charge of the nearby Spread Eagle, when it closed its doors for final time some six years earlier, moved to the  Bowling Green on Blackburn Road.

Nothing remains of the site of the Falcon. It was demolished soon after closure along with neighbouring properties. The top end of Turton Street was subsequently widened so anyone driving along Topp Way and then down Turton Street towards Tonge Moor probably drives through the space once occupied by the Falcon. The area to the rear of what was the pub is now occupied by the Bolton Gate retail park.

[1] Bolton Pubs 1800-2000, Gordon Readyhough, published by Neil Richardson.

[2] What’s Doing, the Greater Manchester beer drinker’s monthly magazine. July 1986 issue.

[3] Bolton Beer Break, published by the Bolton branch of Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale. November 1986 issue.

The site of the Falcon Inn. The pub was situated on the corner of Kay Street and Turton Street roughly where the traffic lights are in the centre-left of the photograph. Copyright Google Street View. Image dated April 2012.