Looking at Heywood’s lost pubs

“An early Saturday morning trip to Heywood, Rochdale, a town which once reputedly had the most pubs per head of population”.

The Summitt, 2023

And with that opening comment Andy Robertson sent over a collection of some of the lost pubs of Heywood.

I am sure there will be plenty who have fond memories of the ones he featured and others who will be queuing up to send their own pictures of their favourite place where beer and cheer were dispended.

And that is it.

Location; Heywood

The Heywood, 2023

The Brick House, 2023

Pictures; lost pubs of Heywood, 2023,  from the collection of Andy Robertson

The Brunswick, 2023

The Three Terries, 202

 

The lost pubs of Adlington

Now some will say that Adlington in Lancashire is on the move. 

The Wagon and Horses as was, 2018

In just a decade its population has increased by over 2000, it still has a railway station and it can boast the largest marina on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

And while it lost its traditional textile and coal industry it now attracts residents from Manchester, Bolton, Wigan and Chorley.

But none of that helped the survival of two of its pubs.  These were the Wagon and Horses and the Railway Inn.

Andy was there in Adlington on Friday and couldn’t resist photographing the two former pubs.

He told me that "they are within about 100 yards of each other. I suspect even an amateur might guess the first was once a pub, but not so the bottom one....I only knew because I checked on google maps."

The Railway Inn as was, 2018

Knowing Andy, now that he has identified them as pubs, and photographed them, he will wander off and do the research.

I hope so, because that will settle the debate on which railway line the Railway Inn was named after.

The present railway line links Manchester to Preston and was opened as far as Bolton in 1838 by the Manchester and Bolton Railway, then extended in 1841 by the Bolton and Preston Railway. These were amalgamated, via the East Lancashire Railway, as part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

"Its rival line, dated from the 1860s and was run by the Lancashire Union Railway.  It closed in 1960, although the line remained in use for goods until 1974, with the ticket office remaining as a local café".*

So as they say watch this spot.

Location; Adlington

Pictures;, the lost pubs of Adlington, the Wagon and horses and the Railway Inn, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Adlington, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlington,_Lancashire

Remembering a night in the Mauldeth Hotel

Now there has to be something very eerie about the inside of an abandoned pub, especially when it is one you remember drinking in.

That said it will be more than a few decades ago and I can’t remember much except that I was there with Keith and Tom and in the pleasure was in the company.

In time I will go looking for the planning portal to discover if there is an application in or whether the Mauldeth Hotel has a future or after a period of neglect it will vanish to be replaced by a block of flats.

Pictures; the Mauldeth Hotel, 2105 from the collection of Andy Robertson

The space that was once the Pomona on Reddish Lane

A space and a bus top, 2015

Now I feel for Andy Robertson that photographic cataloguer of the bits of our heritage fast disappearing.

He had long wanted to get a picture of the Pomona at Cornbrook but having been beaten by Derek the demolition man set off today to record its names sake on Reddish Lane.

The Pomona was a solid 19th century looking place which in its time had become part of the pub circuit.*

It closed back in 2004 and like so many other pubs it stood empty and forlorn beside the bus stop.

Looking across the rubble, 2015

Eventually in 2011 it was bought by a developer but still nothing happened which I suppose was why Andy thought there was time to record the pub.

Sadly it went this August and nothing now remains except that bus stop from which the curious and bored have a sort of view across the rubble to the trees and houses beyond.

Now I didn’t know the pub so I went looking for pictures and found a few along with some more accounts of its sad history since it closed and one ghost site which still offered up its times of opening which was a tad eerie.

Gerald England

So given that Andy is always so generous with his pictures and because he missed the Pomona after closing time, here is one for him.

And just as I posted the story Stephen Marland offered one of the place from his own collection.

It perfectly captures that time after the customers had gone as the wall paper slowly peeled from the walls and all that was left was that view across the rubble.

Stephen Marland

Pictures, the space that was the Pomona, 2015, Andy Robertson, and back before it was demolished, from Stepnen Marland and © Copyright Gerald England and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3380550

* manchester beat, http://www.manchesterbeat.com/venues/reddish/pomona/pomona.php

Two ghost signs for one story ............ out in Dove Holes with a bit of brewing history

Now here’s a ghost sign I once knew.

We are just past Buxton heading back towards the city and this is or rather was the Railway Inn at Dove Holes.

It was a place I passed regularly during the late 1980s and early ‘90s but never called in and now as Andy Robertson’s pictures show I will never be able to, well not for a pint anyway.

The painted roof sign always intrigued me but I have to admit I never noticed the advert for Kimberley Ales which also appears on the roof.

And that makes this a double ghost sign story, for Kimberley Ales has also vanished into history.

It was the oldest independent brewery in Nottinghamshire formed in 1930 from two much earlier breweries, the oldest of which was Samuel Robinson’s which was opened in 1832, in what is now called Hardy Street in Kimberley.

It competed with the Hanson brewery established fifteen years later and both breweries shared the same well.

In 2006 the Hardys and Hansons Kimberley Brewery and all it pubs were sold to Greene King who closed the Kimberley brewery.*

By which time I no longer took the route out from Manchester through Dove Holes to Buxton and so missed the closure of the Railway Inn, but I am sure someone will have memories of drinking there and will share them.

Pictures; the Railway Inn, Dove Holes, 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Kimberley Brewery, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Brewery