Now you might be forgiven for wondering why our new book on the pubs and bars of Didsbury should have a chapter on Withington but it does.
And I am quite happy to say that we have included the four which will still serve you a pint, a packet of scratchings and a warm welcome, along with another four which exist only in the memories of some pub goers.
Of the four which still do the business, I could have chosen the Red Lion, but that would be to do what everyone would do, so instead I have chosen the Orion.
It is one of those pubs, and I say this in a nice way, where time has pretty much left it alone.
So, while there may be the requisite television screens and a range of bright tiles along the side of the bar it is still, a “down-to-earth, no-nonsense drinking shop”. *
On our last visit, which just happened to be a Thursday afternoon, the place was full of men of a certain age, most of whom were already past their 21st birthday when England won the World Cup back in 1966.
Their preferred drink was Holt’s Best Bitter, and the talk turned on the favourite to win at Doncaster the following day, and in what round had Henry Cooper felled Muhammad Ali in their 1963 fight.
And I don’t doubt that these bar room conversations wouldn’t have changed over much in the 150 years since the Orion had been opened by John Hamnet Norbury, who built two houses on a plot he had bought in 1867.
One of these he converted into a beer shop, installing his parents as the proprietors who worked the beer shop alongside a grocery business, and he settled into the other.
According to one source Mr. Norbury sold the beer shop on to the brewer Broadbent in 1875. **
This I suspect will have been Clowes and Broadbent who in 1863 were based at 109 York Street in Chorlton-on Medlock and later moved to 136 York Street proudly advertising themselves as the Clowes and Broadbent Steam Brewery. ***
They chose not to change the name Orion, which may have been in deference to Mr. Norbury who named the beer shop after the ship he had served on during the 1850s.
This was the second Royal Naval ship to carry the name Orion and there would be another three. ****
And as you do, I became fascinated by Mr. Norbury who was born in 1837 in Withington.
In 1855 he joined the Royal Navy and was posted to HMS Orion. His service record shows that he signed on for ten years and the start of his engagement was April 10th. *****
Now that date is significant because HMS Orion had only been completed the month before and set sail for trials in the February of 1856.
She was at the cutting edge of naval technology having been planned as a sailing ship, she was redesigned to take steam.
She took part in the Crimean War, being posted to the Baltic, later sailed across the Atlantic visiting Havana and Canada, was present at the Fleet Review at Spithead in 1856 and completed her final posting in the Mediterranean in 1860 before going out of service the following year.
The romantic in me likes to think that years later, sitting in the bar of his beer shop John entertained his friends and customers with stories of his time at sea and it is quite remarkable that we can follow the naval career of an Ordinary Seaman across the world in the mid-19th century.
But that is not quite all. We know his first child was born in Cornwall in 1859 and that his second was born in Withington eight years later, which fits with the end of his naval career which looks to have been 1861, when HMS Orion was decommissioned. By the April of that year John and his family were settled in Withington on Burton Lane.
And he seems to have prospered, because in 1861 he described himself as a labourer, but within a few years is listed as a stone mason and builder. So, it is just possible that he built the two houses, one of which became the beer house.
By 1881 he had replaced his father behind the bar of the Orion but had left by the following year, and I rather think the brewery also gave up the beer shop at the same time. They, like John appear in the rate books for Withington in 1882 but there after are missing.
Now there is much more …………. But for that you will have to buy the book, which is available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk
*WhatPub, https://whatpub.com/pubs/MAS/4351/orion-withington
**A walk through the history of Withington, Withington Civic Society, 2014
***Slater’s Street Directory 1863, and 1876
****HMS Orion, 1787-1814, fought at Trafalgar, 1805, HMS Orion, 1854-61, HMS Orion, 1879-1913, HMS Orion1912-1922, fought at the Battle of Jutland, 1916, HMS Orion 1934-49
*****Royal Navy Register of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939
Of the four which still do the business, I could have chosen the Red Lion, but that would be to do what everyone would do, so instead I have chosen the Orion.
It is one of those pubs, and I say this in a nice way, where time has pretty much left it alone.
On our last visit, which just happened to be a Thursday afternoon, the place was full of men of a certain age, most of whom were already past their 21st birthday when England won the World Cup back in 1966.
Their preferred drink was Holt’s Best Bitter, and the talk turned on the favourite to win at Doncaster the following day, and in what round had Henry Cooper felled Muhammad Ali in their 1963 fight.
One of these he converted into a beer shop, installing his parents as the proprietors who worked the beer shop alongside a grocery business, and he settled into the other.
According to one source Mr. Norbury sold the beer shop on to the brewer Broadbent in 1875. **
This I suspect will have been Clowes and Broadbent who in 1863 were based at 109 York Street in Chorlton-on Medlock and later moved to 136 York Street proudly advertising themselves as the Clowes and Broadbent Steam Brewery. ***
They chose not to change the name Orion, which may have been in deference to Mr. Norbury who named the beer shop after the ship he had served on during the 1850s.
This was the second Royal Naval ship to carry the name Orion and there would be another three. ****
And as you do, I became fascinated by Mr. Norbury who was born in 1837 in Withington.
In 1855 he joined the Royal Navy and was posted to HMS Orion. His service record shows that he signed on for ten years and the start of his engagement was April 10th. *****
She was at the cutting edge of naval technology having been planned as a sailing ship, she was redesigned to take steam.
She took part in the Crimean War, being posted to the Baltic, later sailed across the Atlantic visiting Havana and Canada, was present at the Fleet Review at Spithead in 1856 and completed her final posting in the Mediterranean in 1860 before going out of service the following year.
The romantic in me likes to think that years later, sitting in the bar of his beer shop John entertained his friends and customers with stories of his time at sea and it is quite remarkable that we can follow the naval career of an Ordinary Seaman across the world in the mid-19th century.
But that is not quite all. We know his first child was born in Cornwall in 1859 and that his second was born in Withington eight years later, which fits with the end of his naval career which looks to have been 1861, when HMS Orion was decommissioned. By the April of that year John and his family were settled in Withington on Burton Lane.
By 1881 he had replaced his father behind the bar of the Orion but had left by the following year, and I rather think the brewery also gave up the beer shop at the same time. They, like John appear in the rate books for Withington in 1882 but there after are missing.
Now there is much more …………. But for that you will have to buy the book, which is available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk
*WhatPub, https://whatpub.com/pubs/MAS/4351/orion-withington
**A walk through the history of Withington, Withington Civic Society, 2014
***Slater’s Street Directory 1863, and 1876
****HMS Orion, 1787-1814, fought at Trafalgar, 1805, HMS Orion, 1854-61, HMS Orion, 1879-1913, HMS Orion1912-1922, fought at the Battle of Jutland, 1916, HMS Orion 1934-49
*****Royal Navy Register of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939
I too am fascinated by Mr John Norbury. He happens to be my 3x great grandfather. Very interested to see what your book says.
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