Do it yourself history …………….. the Old Man & Scythe

Never let it be said that the blog always has all the answers.

In the interests of promoting research and offering ownership up to a topic today in Bolton the story of the Old Man & Scythe is up for investigation.

Andy Robertson passed it yesterday, recorded it and sending it over with the comment,

“In Churchgate, Bolton.  Possibly one of the ten oldest pubs in the UK.  Mentioned in 1251 Charter, rebuilt in 1636. One source says it pulled its first pint in the eleventh century?”

It stands on that street that runs down to the parish church, has as its neigbour the Swan pub and faces the Churchgate.  Moreover its other neigbour is the upstart bar called the Venue which only dates back to around 2012, was formally the Kiss and occupies what I suspect was once a show room.

But without wanting to seem biased, the Old Man & Scythe does stand out from the rest.

It has its own Wikipedia entry* and appears as a picture in another Wiki story devoted to Bolton.**

So that is it.  

Feel free to fill in the historic spaces adding memories of happy nights with friends, along with your own Instamatic snaps, but leave out any reference to ghosts.  

From my experience if the pub is old, someone will have a ghost story, whether it’s the headless figure of a previous landlord murdered for selling bad beer or the tragic tale of the jilted bride whose wedding reception went on without her. 

Almost a decade ago during the writing of a book on the 94 most iconic Manchester City centre pubs, a fair share it was claimed had their own ghostly occupant.

That said if any one also wants to demonstrate their skills of imaginative writing Andy has thrown in his picture of the passageway which I guess allowed access to coaches.

But that is your story to write.

And Mark Fletcher has replied with,  "A lot of unsubstantiated myth about this pub. 

It wasn't mentioned in 1251, it doesn't have a medieval cellar, and there is no firm evidence that James Stanley had a drink here before his beheading...it has generated a 'cottage industry' of it's own, central to which are a chair and a cup, both claimed as having been used by Stanley. 

The landlord arranges a mock execution outside every year, himself playing the 'headless man'...the Pack Horse at Affetside contains a skull, claimed to be that of Stanley's executioner (which I also doubt)...all most confusing, the sort of stuff which bedevils any serious 'local history'!"

And concluded ruefully, "I've spent time in both pubs, and the stories don't seem to add up!"

Location; Bolton

Pictures; The Old Man & Scythe, 2023, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* The Old Man & Scythe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Man_%26_Scythe

**Bolton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolton

The Chorlton house and the Bolton suffragette .... unfinished stories

I am never surprised at how a story appears apparently out of nowhere.

Last week I was on Reynard Road, in  the house of Jaime writing about her cellar and the copper which was used to wash clothes.

It produced to a heap of pictures and comments from people who also had items in their cellars which were used to wash clothes.

And as you do I began looking for some of the residents of Jaime’s house and have been able to track quite a few.

But the one that caught my interest was Edward Blincoe and his wife Mary Ann, who may well have been the first to live there in 1903.

Two years earlier they were in Flixton and a decade later in Tabley Superior, just outside Knutsford.

Mr. Blincoe described himself as an artist and designer, but what drew me in was Mary Ann’s description of herself in the section under occupation, where she wrote “Suffragette”.

This was tactic employed by women engaged in the struggle for the vote and she was not alone.

But to make the connection between Reynard Road and Chorlton was exciting.

Just when they moved out to Knutsford, is unclear.  They were still here in 1909 but had gone by 1911, and some time after the death of Edward in 1914 Mary Ann settled in Bolton.

And here she was involved with the Bolton Women Citizen's Association, which was part of a national movement which aimed “to stimulate women's interest in social and political issues in order to prepare them for active citizenship”.*

I know that from 1912 she had been the organizing secretary of the  Bolton Women Citizen's Association, so it is possible that she was already in the town before the death of her husband, who died of a “paralysis of the brain” while an inmate of The Cheshire Lunatic Asylum.

As yet I haven’t found out any more about her activities, but in 2018 she was one of the eight Bolton women included on the list of 100 people chosen nationally to be celebrated for the work they did for the Suffrage movement. They were, “Mary Elizabeth Barnes (1864-1942), Sarah Reddish (1849-1928), Florence Blincoe (1874-1932), Alice Collinge (1873-1957), Bertha Lizzie Agnew (1869-1930), Mary Haslam (1851 -1922), Hannah Mitchell; Elizabeth Ann Anderson (1890-1983)”**

All of which means there will be a lot more about Mary Ann.  I have contacted the Bolton Archives, and await a reply.  In the meantime I know she was born in Cheshire in 1874 and died in 1932.

The rest as they say is just waiting to be uncovered.

Location; Chorlton and Bolton

Picture; Women marching with police escort. It is not known for definite but it is assumed these are suffragettes, undated, m08238, and "Suffragtettes, Manchester", 1905, m48441, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

* National Women Citizen's Association, National Archives, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/9fb57391-f86b-482d-be37-1e31fcfe0d48

** Parliament Square suffragette statue: Women of Bolton honoured, By Saiqa Chaudhari  @saiqa2 Education Reporter The Bolton News, April 27th, 2018, https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/16188398.parliament-square-suffragette-statue-women-bolton-honoured/

When you collect stuff ……….. always go for the big items ..... Temperance Halls

 Now many and varied are the things I collect.

And a long time ago, I put aside cigarette cards, old Eagle comics and period picture postcards for the really big things.

The things you would class as street furniture, ranging from coal hole covers, to roadside gas lamps and  ghost signs.

Even larger are temperance snooker halls of which there are still a fair few in Greater Manchester.

As far as I am aware most are no longer used for their original purpose, but long ago were converted into workshops, restaurants and in the case of the one in Chorlton transformed into a Weatherspoons.

They were built by The Temperance Billiard Hall Co Ltd which had been founded in 1906 and was based at 3 Ford Lane in Pendleton.

In 1911 the temperance empire, included sites on Moss Lane East, Stockport Road, Rochdale Road, Ashton Old Road, Bury New Road, Broad Street, Eccles New Road, Liverpool Road, Station Road, Altrincham, Cross Street Sale, Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Wilmlsow Road, Rusholme, Hyde Road in Gorton, Stretford Road, Old Trafford and Cheetham Hill Road. 

And into the collectors box today goes this one collected by Alan Jennings.

It is on Bolton Street in Bury, and as yet I am not sure if it was built by The Temperance Billiard Hall Company, but it looks like the others.

So thank you to Alan.

Location; Bolton

Picture; former Temperance snooker hall, Bolton Street in Bury, 2020, from the collection of Alan Jennings

*Temperance, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Temperance

          &

Snooker Halls, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=snooker+halls