Wednesday 13 June 2018

At the Theatre Tavern In Ashton-Under-Lyne

Now I am a great fan of Andy Robertson’s photographs and here is a story from 2014.

He has been recording the buildings and streets of Manchester many of which will soon be gone swept away by a combination of neglect and redevelopment.

And this week he took the tram out to Ashton-Under-Lyne and a whole new series of pictures and stories will be making their appearance on the blog over the next few weeks.

The Theatre Tavern is the first, a choice made partly because I like these glazed tiled pubs and because in all my days in Ashton it was one of the few I never visited.

I must have passed it countless times back in the 70s and only recently decided to find out a little more about it.

It “began life in 1840 as a combined corner shop and beer house. In 1869 it was named 

The Robin Hood and Little John, eventually becoming known as the Robin Hood. In recent years it changed its name to the Theatre Tavern, being adjacent to Tameside Hippodrome theatre.”*

I have yet to find out about the Gartsides which brewed “Ales and Stouts” other than it was taken over by Bass and was local.

In the meantime I do have this label which comes from a fascinating site, The Labologist's Society.**

I am hoping they may be able to tell me.

And no sooner had this story gone live, than Vanessa Lyn Dixon told me that "Gartsides Brewery was in the West End of Ashton".


Pictures; of the Theatre Tavern from the collection of Andy Robertson, August 2014 and the Gartside Label, courtesy Peter Dickinson/Labologist's Society, http://labology.org.uk/?p=3669


*Ashton Under-Lyne, http://ashton-under-lyne.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/theatre-tavern.html

**The Labologist's Society, http://labology.org.uk/?p=3669

2 comments:

  1. John Gartside. Premises were off Pottinger St Ashton. Sided onto the canal. He built a mansion in Denshaw Oldham but didn't live to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wellington Mill, Ashton and Pin Mill Ancoats. Also John Gartside.

    ReplyDelete