Every Chorlton pub should have its own book ……..

It’s a given that all our pubs have a rich history with heaps of stories and so the new book on the Horse & Jockey* is the first in the series which will feature all eight Chorlton pubs and the lost ones.

The Horse & Jockey, 2023

The Horse & Jockey looks the part of a rural pub, with its stone floors, low ceilings, interesting spaces, and distinctive Tudor frontage.

It occupies a building which was already into its second decade when Henry V111 walked up the aisle with Anne Boleyn, but appearances can be deceptive.

It didn’t become a pub until 1793, consisted of just four small rooms either side of the main door and didn’t acquire its black and white timber “look” until sometime in the early 20th century.

Various suggestions have been offered up for exactly when the building was constructed but it would have been some time at the start of the 1500s.

Back then it consisted of four individual cottages and may originally have been made with wattle and daub walls which were later replaced with brick.  

The Horse & Jockey, circa 1900

Our book tells the story of the building from its construction, through to its growth into the pub we know today, and along the way will pick out the arrest of a celebrated prize fighter, the inquest into an awful murder and those "gentlemen" who played bowls on the green behind the pub.

To these we have added Samuel Wilton’s dastardly theft of the village green, traditional rural pastimes, some popular myths and that almost winning Jockey football team from the 1970s.

Along with the stories from Andrew Simpson there are seven original paintings by Peter Topping and a large selection of maps and photographs spanning the last two centuries.

All for the price of a pint.

The book is available from Chorlton Bookshop, Iain Cartwright at the Horse and Jockey and from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk

Location; The Horse & Jockey, the Inn on Green, Chorlton

Pictures; cover of Chorlton Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors The Horse & Jockey, designed by Peter Topping, The Horse & Jockey, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1900 courtesy of Carolyn Willitts

*Chorlton Pubs The Stories Behind the Doors The Horse & Jockey, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2024