White Hart Hotel Old Road Flowery Field
The 'White Hart' was built around 1833 to slake the thirsts of of the cotton workers in the newly opened mills in the area. The first licensee was Mary Woodruffe.
The inquest into the deaths of 17 miners killed in the explosion at the nearby Flowery Field coal pit was held in the White Hart on Monday 11th April 1842. The landlord was John Sowerbutts.
When John Hadfield moved into the pub in 1960 he found a small old wooden box in the kitchen. It was not until a couple of years later that curiosity got the better of him and he opened the mystery box. To his dismay he found a mummified cat, swathed in bandages. He tried to discover the origen of the cat, but no-one could throw any light on the mystery, it seems it had always been there and it remains a mystery still. Around the same time, one of the pub's regulars, Arnold Jacklin started a football league.. 'The Hyde & District Sunday League' which is still going strong today.
Alas the Whit Hart is another of our lost pubs, it closed its doors in 2002 and was demolished a few years later.
Thanks to Grant for the picture which was taken in the 1990s and also thanks to Paul for the use of his information which was taken from his book The Histoy Of The Pubs Of Hyde And District.
The above two pictures are from Dave and he says that he took these last January. It seems that these outbuilding were a bit bigger at one time...
The ancient Egyptians used to revere cats as a symbol of the cat-headed goddess Bastet, who represented protection, fertility, and motherhood. Cats were often mummified after death. I've found various references on Google to mummified cats being found in roof-spaces and chimney-breasts of old houses and the general consensus seems to be that they were put there to ward off evil spirits (as well as the hearts of pigs or bullocks pierced with pins, and also old shoes). Cats were also well known as the 'familiar' of witches, of course.
ReplyDeleteOn another tack, I've got a couple of photos of what appears to be an old outbuilding which seems to have belonged to the pub, behind the building where the White Hart used to be, and I'll send them to you.
Great bit of info there Dave.. I think the out buildings are still there... but I'm not 100% on that.
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