Name: The Millstone Inn
Address: Chorley Road, Anderton
The Millstone has been open since the early 1800's, the first record I can find being the 1824 directory (shown below) when Daniel Pilkington was the landlord.
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| Standish Directory of 1824 |
Daniel Pilkington came to the attention of the local courts the same year when he is alleged to have fathered a bastard in Heath Charnock.
The christening took place at Rivington and is recorded on the parish record below: -
Name Robert Jolly
Gender Male
Christening Date 20 Jun 1824
Christening Place Rivington, Lancashire, England
Mother's Name Nancy Jolly
Daniel was still at the Millstone in 1841 but there was no sign of his son Robert or him having made an honest woman of Nancy.
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| 1841 Census |
Listed landlords thereafter were William Heap(e)s (1851-61), Thomas Worsley (-1869), Thomas Jones (1871), Richard Howarth (1881), Thomas Green (1891) and William Mayor (1901-16).
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| Bolton Chronicle 14 September 1844 |
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| 1851 Census |
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| 1861 Census |
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| Bolton Evening News 01 September 1869 |
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| 1871 Census |
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| 1849 Map |
The Headless Cross, just North of the Millstone is allegedly haunted as the following excerpt from Haunted Bolton by Stuart Hilton and Michelle Cardno recounts: -
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| 1881 Census |
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| 1891 Census |
Prior to his marriage landlord William MAYOR worked in the castle and rode with Lord Balcarres on Balcarres's estate in and around Haigh in England where he was born to Thomas and Elizabeth MAYOR. He married Eliza GENT, daughter of a successful tradesman from Adlington, on February 8, 1888 and had four children.
William Mayor purchased the Millstone Hotel and Pub on Bolton Road in Anderton near Chorley...a few years later he started breeding his famous dogs at the Millstone. His specialty was Bull Terriers but he occasionally bred others.
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| William Mayor |
From archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com
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| 1901 Census |
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| 1911 Census |
William Mayor died in 1916 leaving his wife Eliza to run the Millstone.
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| Eliza Mayor nee Gent |
My 3 times Grest Uncle was William Heaps, who was publican around 1851-61. I am just putting together information about his neice, Sarah Anne Smith who came to live with him in the mid 1850s, and went on to found The Catholic Rescue Society, becoming Mother General of the organisation for 26 years.
ReplyDeleteDaniel was one of my great grandmothers great Uncles, he leased the land from the Stoner family and a large portion of that is now under the water of the lower reservoir, his son Robert went on to marry Ratchell Critchley, daughter of Thomas Critchley and Ann Heaps, they settled in Horwich, they have a long history in the area, https://archive.org/details/thomas_201605/jolly-daniel_pilkington/mode/2up
ReplyDeleteThanks for contributing Paul. Looks a fascinating family history. It was a good job the Millstone wasn't built on lower ground otherwise that too would have disappeared with the building of the reservoirs like the Clog Inn at Anglezarke and original Black-a-Moors Head.
ReplyDeleteAnother nice little story that I connect with! Daniel Pilkington was my Great-Great-Great Grandfather! His "Bastard" son, Robert Jolly, was in turn my Great-Great Grandfather. In 1844 Robert married Rachel Critchley, as Paul Lacey says above, but there seems to be a little confusion here: Robert and Rachel moved to Chorley by the 1851 Census, and ended up in Friday Street. It was Robert's mother, Nancy Jolly, who settled in Horwich after marrying Edward Farnworth in 1827. Daniel's nephew Ralph Pilkington married Rachel's sister Sarah Critchley a couple of months before Robert and Rachel were married. Note that at the bottom of that Court filiation document about Daniel fathering Robert, it says the Order was delivered by Edward Farnworth - I wonder if that's how Nancy and Edward met? I suspect that Robert may have lived some of the time with his Mum (and Edward) and some with his Dad, though I haven't been able to trace that. Part of my reasoning is that in 1848 he had a son and named him Daniel. In the 1841 Census I found Robert at Haddock Fold in Back, Lane Heath Charnock with a William Jolly, but I'm not sure what that relationship was - perhaps an Uncle? The Critchleys were virtually across the road, and I was born, and lived, on the opposite side of the valley!
ReplyDeleteThanks again for another enjoyable story about my "Home Turf"!