The Drum on Chester Road, soon to be a distant memory along with the Angel Hotel which stood on the same spot from 1780

The Drum, 2014

I went looking for the Drum on Chester Road this week.

It’s not hard to find, its shape gives it away and it has been a bit of a landmark for a long time.

That said I had never been inside and I have yet to meet any one who did.

But there will be many who do have memories of drinking in the place and I hope they come forward.

This is especially important given that I doubt the Drum will be with us for much  longer.

It has been closed for sometime, was subject to a planning application in 2013 to demolish the building and replace it with a fast food drive in restaurant and currently the plans have resurfaced in the local media so I guess I  will soon be a done deal.

The Angel Hotel, 1894

And with its passing will go a tiny bit of drinking history because there has been a pub here on this spot since 1780.

Back then it was known as the Angel Hotel and “was much used by stage coaches and by buses passing through the district for the picking up and setting down of passengers, [and like many inns] ale was brewed on the premises.”*

The first licensee was William Moss who in the fullness of time I will try and bring out of the shadows.

The original was an L shape and shows up on Greenwood’s map of 1818 and the 1853 OS for Lancashire.

This was demolished by 1890 for a large brick building with an arch leading to the Bowling Green directly behind the pub.

By 1951 the arch had gone and just twenty year later so had the pub replaced by the Bass Drum which became the Drum.

Forlorn and empty, the Drum, 2014

Now there are six fine images of the Angel spanning the 19th century through 1971 when all that is left is to the hole.

But all six images are the property of Trafford Council and are held in their Local Studies Centre in Sale, and alas they are very particular about who is allowed to reproduce them.

Suffice to say without paying a fee I cannot so I won’t.

Instead you will have to be content with my picture of the Drum which will soon pass into history.

Now I hear someone mutter will my picture be available to the Local Studies Centre and of course the answer is yes, but I suspect they already have more than a few of the Drum.

So there it is, catch it now before it goes for good.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, detail of the Angel Hotel, from the OS for South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

* Trafford Lifetimes,  http://legacy.trafford.gov.uk/content/tca/display_image.asp?ImageID=1393