Now there are better examples of this postcard, and better images of the Seven Stars in the collection, but it does have a battered charm.
And it does allow me to return to the story of the newly digitalized list of Manchester beer shops and pubs.
The original list was compiled by Bob Potts between 1980 and 1984 and involved a close scrutiny of the City’s licensing records, along with another collection housed in the Lancashire Archives and cross checked against the census returns.
They have been passed over to me for “a long stay”, allowing me to trawl the handwritten lists and over the last week build them into an excel spreadsheet.
That task has been done and just requites me to edit out the duplications leaving me a wonderful insight into the history of our pubs in the city centre.
It isn’t a complete list, partly because the records for the period from 1830 to 1875 are lost but there is much left to give a comprehensive record of the provision of public houses and the relationship between their opening and the development of key areas of the city.
And of course, the database reveals a fascinating mix of pub names, drawn from historical events and figures, to occupations and the whim of some landlords to personalize the name with a variation of their own name or place of birth.
Which brings us back to the Severn Stars, which the sign makes the claim to be “the oldest licensed House in Great Britain”, and the database shows that that license was first granted in 1327.
Leaving me just to use the census returns and directories to identify the landlord and other occupants from the mid-19th century to its demise in 1912, and along the way search the newspapers for stories.
Location; Manchester
Picture; Seven Stars, Withy Grove, 1907, from the collection of David Harrop
The original list was compiled by Bob Potts between 1980 and 1984 and involved a close scrutiny of the City’s licensing records, along with another collection housed in the Lancashire Archives and cross checked against the census returns.
They have been passed over to me for “a long stay”, allowing me to trawl the handwritten lists and over the last week build them into an excel spreadsheet.
That task has been done and just requites me to edit out the duplications leaving me a wonderful insight into the history of our pubs in the city centre.
And of course, the database reveals a fascinating mix of pub names, drawn from historical events and figures, to occupations and the whim of some landlords to personalize the name with a variation of their own name or place of birth.
Which brings us back to the Severn Stars, which the sign makes the claim to be “the oldest licensed House in Great Britain”, and the database shows that that license was first granted in 1327.
Leaving me just to use the census returns and directories to identify the landlord and other occupants from the mid-19th century to its demise in 1912, and along the way search the newspapers for stories.
Location; Manchester
Picture; Seven Stars, Withy Grove, 1907, from the collection of David Harrop
No comments:
Post a Comment