It began life as a row of cottages. In 1854 Christopher Fairbrother bought one of the dwellings and in 1857 bought the one next door. He then acquired a beersellers licence. By 1868 he had added a dorma roof which had a quaint stone set into it with the words "Poets Corner" etched into it. It was made as a mirror image but no-one knows why. It also had a small mans face carved into it. It became known as the Bricklayers circa 1917. By 1963 the dorma roof was deemed unsafe and was removed. The stone is said to still be in the possession of Mr James Taylor who was landlord there from 1959-77.
The Bricklayers complete with dorma roof.
When Hyde Market was developed in the late 1960's it lead to various streets in the vicinity being demolished. A lot went through slum clearance too.This took a lot of trade away from the Bricklayers which went into a steady decline throughout the 80's and 90's.
Two photos showing the terrible neglect it suffered before being bought and brought back into use as flats.
The Bricklayers circa 2010. Now a nicely finished off building that has been turned into flats.
5 comments:
In 1982 I lived in John Grundy flats, so this was my local. It was run by a guy who was obviously not too interested in the place, as I often went in there and he served beer from a Fine Fare home brand bottle as he didnt have any draft beer! (Why I bought the stuff I do not know). Then a bloke called Danny took over and really transformed the place, it used to be a good pub when he had it. I suppose it was a bit off the beaten track for the Friday night Market Street pub crawl, hence it's sad demise.
Fine Fare home brand bottle
Yellow labels - forgot all about Fine Fares own stuff :>)
I went in one afternoon - prob '91/92 and remember being greeted by two huge great danes kept by the owners.
I'm so glad you got hold of the first picture Nancy... it reall was a nice building back then...
I think I recall the landlord that Graham recalls... while he was the landlord his wife left him and he went down hill fast.... I can't remember his name though.. he moved up Newton after he left the pub trade.. Another Landlord who did well here was Ste Ashton... it was just a shame the pub was where it was.... once the market changed and the the local housing and of course the Ritz pictures house shut downm trade was hit badly.
In the early 50s my grandma used to play the piano at the Brickies, the doors used to be open and we could here the noise and we were on Thomas Street. What always fascinated me was the fact that they had two dalmations which were spotted brown something I had not seen before.
Hi Jean
Thank you for sharing your memories of the Brickies....
I think the karaoke as now replaced the piano, folk still like a good sing-song. If a pub's music was heard up the street now Tameside Council would slap an injunction on the landlord for noise pollution... well they would if I was singing Jean.. ha!
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