The changing face of Leyland Pubs

[Guest]

Roebuck pub on Worden Lane, near the Leyland Cross, has been completely refurbished and is opening under a new name this Thursday.

The place has been shut since July, but is set to open in time for Christmas as The Withy Arms.

It has been snapped up by Lee Forshaw and Alan Burdett, who own both the Withy Arms and School Lane Club in Bamber Bridge, and they will operate the Leyland pub as a free house.

Leyland Guardian

The view to revert back to a traditional pub culture is one shared by Danny Hindle, who is opening the micro-pub on Hough Lane on Monday, December 16.

Thought to be the first of its kind in Lancashire, The Market Ale House will serve ales, ciders, wines and soft drinks, and will not have any music or entertainment.

[anacortesdamp]

Surely the Roebuck/Withy Arms has a Towngate address. I'm thinking it's the one just north of the Parish Church hall. I didn't think Worden Lane started until immediately south of the top of Fox Lane.

Frank

[Jerryt]

My thoughts too, Frank! Threlfall's Stationery (etc) was No 3 Towngate and my recollection is that the Roebuck was slightly North (on t'other side!). I think Occleshaw House (also occupied at times by Threlfalls) would have to be No 1 (or maybe 2??) Worden Lane?

[anacortesdamp]

Jerry:

As I remember, the doctors' surgery was the first building to the south of Fox Lane that had a Worden Lane address. The Catholic Church residential buildings (nunnery and priest's housing) were next. On the opposite (east) side north of the Roebuck was Theresa Darwen's toffee shop, then the archway into the stable yard belonging to the pub. After that, the buildings curved round into Church Road and probably had Church Road addresses.

South of the Roebuck, there was the church hall, then a parking lot followed by a half-timbered building that housed a hair salon. The gravel road to what was the vicarage and is now Chestnut Court was a bit further along.

I think the newspaper shop (your uncle's?), subsequently Dobson's (for whom I was a paper-boy) was also a Towngate address. The other pub on the north corner of Fox Lane was probably number 1, the newsagent's number 3 and your other family (Harry, the printer's) might have been number 5. Your cousin(?) Prudence had the toffee shop next and then Edna Noon's double frontage, followed by the bank and then the lane into the carrier's stable yard.

I'm going back a while, since we moved to the Midlands in 1964, so memory may be a bit flaky on street addresses, but not on the sequence of the premises.

Frank

[Martin]

The Roebuck (Withy Arms) is here

google maps

[noel]

The Roebuck (Withy Arms) is here

google maps

or here https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?output=classic

[Jerryt]

Jerry:

As I remember, the doctors' surgery was the first building to the south of Fox Lane that had a Worden Lane address. The Catholic Church residential buildings (nunnery and priest's housing) were next. On the opposite (east) side north of the Roebuck was Theresa Darwen's toffee shop, then the archway into the stable yard belonging to the pub. After that, the buildings curved round into Church Road and probably had Church Road addresses.

South of the Roebuck, there was the church hall, then a parking lot followed by a half-timbered building that housed a hair salon. The gravel road to what was the vicarage and is now Chestnut Court was a bit further along.

I think the newspaper shop (your uncle's?), subsequently Dobson's (for whom I was a paper-boy) was also a Towngate address. The other pub on the north corner of Fox Lane was probably number 1, the newsagent's number 3 and your other family (Harry, the printer's) might have been number 5. Your cousin(?) Prudence had the toffee shop next and then Edna Noon's double frontage, followed by the bank and then the lane into the carrier's stable yard.

I'm going back a while, since we moved to the Midlands in 1964, so memory may be a bit flaky on street addresses, but not on the sequence of the premises.

Frank

Frank, you have the sequence perfectly right. Threlfall's stationery/newsagents/tobacconist was my Dad's, Bruce; before that his dad, Alfred Ernest whose brother Harry had the printing works, Caxton House (where my dad served a printing apprenticeship, also studying at Manchester to become a Master Printer).
On Google it shows Occleshaw (where another uncle of Dad's lived - Tom Threlfall, who had a horse and cart and posted posters among other things) as No 2 Worden Lane, and the Roebuck as No 3 Worden; so southern Towngate seems to exist only on the West side?! The north end of Towngate resumes at or about Lancastergate near a Travelshop, the George IV and a Ladbrokes outlet.

[anacortesdamp]

Well, that was a surprise, Jerry. Before Tesco, Towngate did run all the way through, though it got remodelled when the Co-Op supermarket went in. On the west side there was the saleroom, behind the bus-stop, then a detached house on the south corner of Cow Lane. There was a bank on the other corner then Singleton's grocery, the dry cleaners, the Conservative Club and then the row of shops leading to the old Public Hall.

Before the first re-model, Heatons shop was on the corner of Towngate and Church Road on the east side, then a row of houses, Brindle's bike shop, Baker's chemist and Holmes's greengrocery. They were all demolished, along with the north side of Church Road from the Cross to the War Memorial. Our old house (number 7), which became a doctors' surgery after we sold it, was part of that demolition.


Frank

[Jerryt]

Well, that was a surprise, Jerry. Before Tesco, Towngate did run all the way through, though it got remodelled when the Co-Op supermarket went in. On the west side there was the saleroom, behind the bus-stop, then a detached house on the south corner of Cow Lane. There was a bank on the other corner then Singleton's grocery, the dry cleaners, the Conservative Club and then the row of shops leading to the old Public Hall.

Before the first re-model, Heatons shop was on the corner of Towngate and Church Road on the east side, then a row of houses, Brindle's bike shop, Baker's chemist and Holmes's greengrocery. They were all demolished, along with the north side of Church Road from the Cross to the War Memorial. Our old house (number 7), which became a doctors' surgery after we sold it, was part of that demolition.


Frank

I just saw another reference, not on Google, that gives No 1 Worden to the Roebuck! So I wonder if Theresa's old shop is still Towngate???

[frank h]

Having looked at google maps and walked the little man from the Cross to Worden Lane it shows a Towngate sign on the side wall of St Andrews church hall facing the top of Fox Lane, and it gives the Roebuck as aprox number 6 Towngate. I have always thought Towngate went as far as the top of Fox Lane as others have said it started with the Fox and Goose as number 1. Some new comers probably think the adress is Church Road because of the way the road sweeps around the Cross now the Tesco has been built.

frank h.