I understand that there has been a planning application made to demolish the ³Old Hare and Hounds² pub in Breightmet, Bolton. Local residents have been campaigning to save it but it has been empty since 2008 so it does not seem to have much of a chance for survival. The ³Old H & H² has been a key focal point in Breightmet since the 1700s and two generations of my family were landlords from about 1770. It is strange in this day and age to see that the sale of spirits was of course expressly forbidden : ³ Twelfth Day of September; in the Year of our Lord, one Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty six. We His Majesty²s Justices of the Peace for the said county acting in and for the said Division (whereof one is of the Quorum) do at this General Meeting, under our Hands and Seals, allow and licence Josiah Phethean at the Hare and Hounds, Brightmet, in the said Division or Hundred, and County, to keep a common Ale-house ..... ... to utter and sell Bread and other Victuals, Beer, Ale, and other excisable Liquors, by Retail; except Brandy, Rum, Arrack, Usquebaugh, Geneva, Aqua-Vitae, and all other Distill²d Spirituous Liquors, and Strong Waters, unmixed or mixed with themselves or any other Ingredients, and by whatsoever name or names they are or may be called. ³ In addition to being an ³ale house² proprietor and licensed victualler , Josiah Phethean was also a papermaker; local magistrate/JP; Overseer of the Poor and and reputedly proprietor of the Toothill Bridge bleachworks - which is enterprising to say the least ! Some of these duties were also carried out by Josiah¹s eldest son Joseph. Joseph succeeded, on the death of his mother, Alice Phethean (1806), as tenant of the Old Hare and Hounds: ³To the Worshipful the magistrates of Bolton.- We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, being respectable and substantial House Holders in the Township of Brightmet, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby certify unto his Majesty¹s Justices of the Peace, acting in and for the Division of Bolton, in the said county, that Joseph Phethean, at the Hare and Hounds, in Brightmet aforesaid, is a person of good fame, sober life and conversation, and very fit to keep a Public House.- Brightmet, Sep. 12th, 1807.² This seemed to start a tradition of publicans in my family at The Old H & H; The Blue Boar in Deansgate; The Church Hotel, Crook St; The Boat House (Little Lever); The Fleece, Bradshawgate; The Boar¹s Head, Churchgate (by marriage) and an unknown establishment in Ainsworth to name but a few. Sadly the tradition in my direct line of the family died out in 1907! If the ³Old H & H² does get demolished, as seems likely, it will be a sad day. From those early times Joseph and his brother John Phethean became involved in the counterpane weaving business. Subsequently the family became cotton millers and spinners first in Bolton and then later in the 19thC at Moses Gate, managing to keep John Phethean & Co Ltd running until 1932 against all odds. BTW - I have 29 Josiah Phethean and 37 Joseph Phethean names in my tree. A genealogical nightmare! Stuart --------------------------------------- Stuart Phethean Hampshire, UK http://www.phethean.org.uk ----------------------------------------
I have fond memories of "The Hare & Hounds". As a schoolboy I sometimes got off the Breightmet bus there, thereby saving the odd penny or two which I immediately spent (and then some) up the steps at the corner sweet shop just across the road. They must have been magic sweets because by the time I had walked the extra mile or so home they had all disappeared. Later on when I was "courting" I often missed the last Breightmet bus home (I'm sure she made me do that on purpose just to excersise her control over me). Sometimes I was lucky enough to be able to run round from the terminus in Gt Moor St and catch the slightly later No. 9 Ainsworth bus either on Bradshawgate or in Bridgeman Place. I would then jump off that bus at the "The Hare & Hounds" as it turned the corner of Bury Rd & Stephens St. I was always thankful to arrive there and to have saved a mile and a half or so off my walk home - especially on a cold and wet winter evening. I must say that, having seen the "The Hare & Hounds" in Google Street View it looks far better there than the last time I saw it in the 1960s. Allan Halstead