The lost pubs of Chorlton, No 3 three beer shops

Beer shops were simple affairs, and in most cases were nothing more than someone’s front room where they sold beer.

They took off after the 1830 Beer Act which allowed anyone who was a rate payer and could afford the yearly license of two guineas [£2.10p], to brew and sell beer from their own homes.

Many of these businesses were combined with other occupations and in some cases were a short term strategy to overcome a temporary loss of earnings.

Here in the township we had our own fair share; some like the Travellers Rest last for over 70 years, others for just a few years and some may have come and gone within a year.

Now the Royal Oak may have started life as a beer shop but survived into the 20th century and was demolished in the 1920s to make way for the present pub.

It was a popular enough place and attracted passing agricultural labourers as well as  the “Sunday trade” out from Manchester for a walk along the country lanes and a day’s drinking. It was a detached, two storied building and it had a commanding position.  Not only was it on the route to and from the city but it was the only pub here about.  To the north was Red Gates Farm and surrounding the pub were a cluster of cottages while just next door there was the large block known locally as Renshaws or New Buildings.

Away from the village was the Black Horse at Lane End.  By all accounts this was a rowdy place and had a reputation for after hours drinking on a Sunday under its landlord Thomas Chorlton.  It attracted a “rough and low company”  who delighted in watching the nasty contest of badger fighting and eventually was closed down.

Much the same happened to the beer shop of William Brownhill who was a wheelwright and rented out houses on what is now Sandy Lane.  His license was refused after there had been seven convictions in eleven years.

There were plenty of others in the township, many of whom opened one year and closed the next.  Mrs Leach’s beer house was slightly different.  It was described at the time as “a most superior” premise, and had the two front rooms given over to the trade.

It was somewhere close to the junction between Manchester Road and Wilbraham Road, possibly on the site of Cromar.

Now in many cases the capital needed to set up was not very large.  You used your own home, brewed the beer and may even relied on the locals bringing their own containers to take the stuff away.  So apart from the license that was pretty much it.

But we know that in the case of Mrs Leach there had been more investment which had been put up by one of her farming relatives, who to ensure that the business was protected also took out the license  in her name.

This may also have been designed to protect Mrs Leach from her own husband who was not the most reliable of chaps and who eventually murdered young Francis Deakin in the beer shop in 1847 in a drunken rage.

Just how long Mrs Leach’s beer shop existed for is unclear.  It was operating in the spring of 1847 but had vanished soon after.

And in the way of these things no pictures have survived of these beer shops, except a partial picture of the Travellers Rest and one of the Royal Oak.  We do however have a line drawing of Mrs Leach’s place taken from one of the newspaper reports of the murder.

Now there is plenty more but for that you will have to go to the book, THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY which was published earlier this month.*

* http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton

Pictures; The Royal Oak from the collection of Tony Walker, plan of Mrs Leach’s beer shop, the Manchester Guardian, May 8 1847