HYDE CHESHIRE

Harry Rutherford's
Festival of Britain Mural




Thursday 14 November 2013

Help Needed.

  
The following email from Claire Hufnagel was received by us recently. I do hope someone can help her.
 Over to Claire...
 I wonder if you could please help me.

I was given this information (see below) about The Bridge Inn as it could refer to either Samuel Smith my gggrandfather who died in 1854, and who appears in the previous censuses as a beer seller in Hoviley Brow, Hoviley Lane & Hoviley Bridge, or his son Samuel Smith who figues in the 1861 Census and his widow Martha Ann Smith (née Turner) in 1881 as running a pub at 14 Cheapside. No name of the place appears at 14 Cheapside in 1861, 1871 or 1881.


But in the 1891 and 1901 Censuses, with different owners,  this address, 14 Cheapside, has the name "Hatters Arms". In 1911, it is still a pub but no name.

Do you know anything about this change of names. Do you know if The Bridge Inn and the Hatters Arms are the same place?
"The Bridge Inn, 14 Cheapside, Godley. Owners: *Walker and Homfrays, was Watson, Woodhead and Wagstaffe. The Bridge Inn was a beerhouse near the bottom of Cheapside, so named because of its proximity to the bridge crossing Hoviley Brook." (There was once a ford at this point known as Hoviley Ford.)
"The Bridge Inn was established around 1856 by Samuel Smith and in 1916 the renewal of the licence was refused because there were too many licenced houses in the area; within two hundred yards there were two fully licenced and two off licences. The owners of the Bridge Inn, Watson, Woodhead and Wagstaffe, a Salford brewery, stated in their defence that over the past five years they had spent over £22 pounds on alterations, and the landlord, Frederick Scott, protested that he had just purchased three dozen new beer glasses."

Information taken from "A History of the Pubs of Hyde and District" , by Paul Taylor

* Walker & Homfrays of Salford was registered as a brewery in 1896 (though appears to have been in existence earlier than that) and was bought out by Wilsons of Newton Heath in 1949.  In 1929 Walker & Homfrays themselves had bought up the Creeses Brewery in Hyde.


3 comments:

Hyde Lad said...

Hi Claire
According to my information the Bridge Inn was always called that, although old directories etc which I got most of my information were sometimes wrong. The earliest date I have for the Inn was around 1856/7, but could be earlier. The landlord at the time was Samuel Smith (son later) who were at the Inn until around 1876/7 when possibly his wife took over.
The only record I have for an "Hatters Arms" is an old name for the Werneth Hotel in Gee Cross, the address at the time being Acorn Lane.
As stated in the post the Bridge Inn closed around 1917.

Anonymous said...

It may not be significant,but in the
1940,s there was a shop on Cheapside ,just higher up than Creese,s brewery and on the same side ,run "I think" by Tom Smith.We used to buy "pop" there

Anonymous said...

yes in the 1940- 1950 Tom's shop was just higher up than the old creese's brewery site which then became Barlova. Tom sold all basic grocery items (typical corner shop) and directly opposite was Nellie's, a lovely dear old lady who sold sweets and all the things that kids loved.
Both were great people and tolerated us cheeky kids with our light fingers with patience beyond belief.