Coppull - Waggon & Horses Inn

Name: The Waggon and Horses Inn

Address: 2, Coppull Moor Lane, Coppull, Chorley

The Waggon & Horses like many rural beer houses started life as a working farm and only started selling beer sometime in the early 1800s. The first reference to the pubs as the Waggon & Horses dates back to the 1824 Pigots Directory, when a J Hatton was listed as the landlord.

Thanks to Andrew Phillips and a keen focus on historical maps, I now know the pub at this time was not on the corner Chapel Lane and Coppull Moor Lane, but on Church Brow, further up the road towards Coppull village.

1845 Map showing the Horse & Waggon Inn next to Chapel House Farm

The 1841 Census record below records William Hart living there with his wife and nine children - his occupation is shown simply as a farmer.

1841 Census

We know that the next landlord after William Hart, from looking at the press release below, was a William Marsden, being there in 1847.

Liverpool Mercury 26 March 1847 

Listed landlords at the Waggon & Horses Inn were J Hatton (1824), William Hart (1841), William Marsden (1847), James Pilkington (1851-1875), George Pilkington (1875-1881), Samuel Robert Johnson (1891), Elizabeth Smith (1897), James Lilley (1901-1911) and William Kenyon (1930).

By the time of the 1851 Census William Marsden had moved on, and James Pilkington and his family were the tenants; James is shown as a "Farmer & Inn Keeper". As you can see from the 1851 census below the pub is referred to as the 'Chapel House Inn', so was clearly still on Church Brow.

1851 Census

Preston Chronicle 10 August 1861

1861 Census

Lancaster Gazette 25 April 1863

Sometime in the 1860s the new Waggon & Horses Inn was built on the corner of Coppull Moor Lane and Chapel Lane, close to the Railway Cottages, from which time the original Inn was used as a residential property, being referred to thereafter as one of two Chapel House Cottages until sometime in the second half of the 20th century when the two cottages were finally converted into one property, which is now called Chapel House Farm.

Chapel House Farm 2025

Preston Chronicle 24 August 1867

1871 Census

Preston Chronicle 27 April 1872

The Pilkington family continued running the Inn well into the 1880s so in total were there is excess of 30 years.  James died in 1875 at the age of 65 yrs. and his son George then took over.

Picture source: Richard Richmond

1881 Census

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 17 December 1881

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 08 January 1884

1891 Census

1892 Map

Lancashire Evening Post 29 April 1891

Lancashire Evening Post 05 October 1892

Lancashire Evening Post 15 January 1897

1901 James Lilley

1911 Census

The 1911 census, which recorded William Lilley as the publican was the first record for 60 years that didn't show the premises as a farm as well as an Inn.

Bowlers on the Waggon & Horses Green c.1914

Lancashire Evening Post 06 February 1930

Lancashire Evening Post 15 July 1930

Lancashire Telegraph 30th Aug 2010 

Affordable homes on site of former Coppull pub

PEOPLE keen to get a foot on the property ladder now have the chance thanks to a new development with low cost homes. Eleven affordable homes have been built as part of a new housing estate called The Meadows on the site of the former Waggon and Horses pub in Chapel Lane, Coppull.

The two-bedroom houses are available for people to either rent or to buy, thanks to a partnership between Chorley Council and its social housing partners Chorley Community Housing (CCH) and Adactus Housing Group, and developer Arley Homes. Councillor Peter Malpas, who oversees housing at Chorley said: “It’s important that families and young people who want to live in their own home can afford to do so and we do everything we can to help them to get on the property ladder.” Seven of the new properties to rent have already been allocated to people from the Council’s housing waiting list.

The remaining four are being offered for sale by Adactus either through shared ownership or a new scheme called Rent to Homebuy.

Under demolition 2010

Now a small housing estate