Chorley's Inns and Taverns: Cuerden

Name: The Parker's Arms Inn

Address: Wigan Road, Cuerden

Towneley Coat of Arms

The Parker's Arms Inn was located on Wigan Road at the most northerly point of the Cuerden Hall estate, the home of the Towneley Parker family from the early 1700s and from whom the Inn took its name. The earliest reference I can find to the Inn was in the 1824 Baines Directory, which records a Jas. Holden as the landlord, but I suspect it dated back to the 1700s. It no longer stands today, having been demolished in the 1890s and is now the location of a visitor car park for accessing the Cuerden Valley park.

1844 OS Map

It was located at the northern access gates to the estate and was originally the Toll Gate, and was referred to as such on the 1841 census (see below).

A bit of background history...the current hall was built in 1717 by Banastre Parker, son of Robert Parker, High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1710, who relocated the Parker family from Extwistle Hall near Burnley. Following Banastre’s death in 1738, the estate passed to his son Robert Parker (1727–1779), then to his grandchildren Banastre Parker (1758–1788) and Thomas Towneley Parker (1760–1794). Between 1816 and 1819, Robert Townley Parker (1793–1879) inherited the estate from his father. He was an MP of Preston in the first parliament of Queen Victoria at the age of 24.

Robert Townley Parker (1793–1879)

1835 Poll Books - Thomas Silvester

Thomas Silvester was landlord in 1835, marring local lass, Anne Clissold later that year.

1835 Marriage of Thomas Silvester & Anne Clissold at Cuerden

1837 Poll Books - Thomas Silvester

Two years later they were still running the Inn but by 1841 had moved on, Robert Brown being the new landlord.

1841 Census - John Brown 'Toll Gates'

Ten years later, and another change of landlord, Thomas Bowling replacing John Brown behind the bar.

1851 Census - Thomas Bowling 'Toll Gates'

1860 Electoral Register - James Worden

1861 Census - James Worden 'Parker's Arms'

By 1871, James Worden and his wife Ellen had moved to nearby Chorley, where he was working as a labourer in a local brewery, which was probably John Lancaster's Swan Brewery on Hollinshead Street.

1871 James Worden - Halliwell Street, Chorley

There is no trace of the Parker's Arms on census or directory records after James Worden's departure in the late 1860s, but the building remained standing all the way through to the 1890s, as shown on the OS map below. However, by the time of the 1909 OS map, both buildings on the east side of Wigan Road, opposite Cuerden Gates Farm had been demolished.

1891 OS Map

The 1891 census below shows Cuerden Gates Farm with Chain Lodge and Hall Gates Cottages next on the enumerator's route. It seems likely that the Inn had been converted to residential use by this time, and likely made up the Hall Gates Cottages.