Page 13 - MANCHESTER PUBS Chorlton
P. 13

Sample Chapter.
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    The year is 1845 and, having walked the short distance from
Chorlton Green to the junction with Edge Lane and High Lane,
we would be at Pitts Brow, which was a slightly elevated bit of
land giving a commanding view back towards the village. It was
regarded by many as, “one of the most lovely spots in the
village” and was variously known as "Pit Brow Cottages” or the
"Glass Houses”.*

    Close by, ran the Rough Leech Gutter, a water course that
rises by Sandy Lane and meanders through Chorlton past Pitts
Brow to run out on Turn Moss.

    In 1845 it was still open to the sky with just a small section
under Edge Lane which had been culverted.

    It may well be that the failure of this old culvert is the
reason for the Edge Lane Lake which every winter spans across
most of the road.

    From here on to where The Lloyds is now, we would have
encountered a set of fields and orchards. The site of The
Lauriston Club was known as Moor Field and was farmed by
Thomas Holland who lived just a little further up on the
opposite side of the road and was known as Ash Tree because
there had been a, "fine ash tree which stood in the centre of
Manchester road at the foot of which a man used to engage in
prayer at a certain hour every day".**

    Having circumnavigated the tree, there would have been
little else to do but continue past a few more cottages and on to
that finger post which stood roughly where the Sedge Lynn is
today.

    But that has taken us out of our way if the intention was a
visit to the Royal Oak which stood a little to the south on
Barlow Moor Lane.

    We will retrace our steps back along Manchester Road where
we will encounter the story of a dreadful bar brawl which ended
in the death of young Francis Deakin at what was the "superior
beer shop” of Mrs Leech, but in 1845 that was two years into
the future and is a story best told elsewhere in the book.

    So continuing on that return journey, we will arrive at Moor
Field, which I suppose is a good point to start the story of our
clubs and pubs.

*Ibid Elwood, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy – 1V Ancient Wood and Plaster
Buildings, November 28 1885
**Ibid Elwood

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