Curriers' Arms aka Clarence Hotel

Name: The Curriers' Arms

Address: 9, Cleveland Street, Chorley

The Curriers' Arms was located on the plot occupying the corner of Cleveland Street and Chapel Street, parts of which later became known as the Beaconsfield buildings.  The pub was certainly around in the mid-1840s as the newspaper clipping below shows: -

Preston Chronicle 19 August 1843

In the mid-1850s the first St Mary's Roman Catholic School is also known to have been formed in a large room attached to the Currier's Arms in Cleveland Street before moving to Mount Pleasant.

Listed landlords at the Currier's were Joseph Pearson (1843-61), Emma Bradshaw (1865), Thomas Gillett (1871-81) and Theodore Harwood (1882) and Richard Walmsley (1885).  

1851 Census

Plans for the Currier's Arms & Tap Room

The original plans for the Currier's Arms above confirm that this was indeed the same property that was renamed the Clarence Hotel in the 1880's with its tap fronting onto Chapel Street (now Supanews).  The Beaconsfield Buildings appear to have been occupied by the stables and warehouse of the Currier's Arms the whole plot occupying the corner of Chapel Street and Cleveland Street.

1861 Census

1871 Census

1881 Census

A statue of Benjamin Disraeli was sited on the rooftop of the premises, which was erected in 1886 after his death in 1881 by the Primrose League, who met in the room below. The statue was removed for renovation some years ago and is currently in the walled garden at Astley Hall in Chorley.

First reference to the Currier's Arms under its new guise, as the Clarence Hotel was in 1889 with the landlord being a William Marsden and there followed Daniel Gee (1891), Samuel Howarth Heath (1901-11), Wilfred Baxendale (1921), Levi Brindle (1929) and Arnold Burrows (1936). Daniel Gee was a landlord in Chorley for some considerable time, moving to the Railway Hotel on Steeley lane after the Clarence where he was shown on the 1901 and 1911 census records.

1891 Census

Baptism: 18 Mar 1892 St George, Chorley, Lancashire, England
Sarah Gee - [Child] of Daniel Gee & Alice Ann
Born: 27 Feb 1892
    Abode: Clarence Hotel Market Place
    Occupation: Publican
    Baptised by: J. E. Jelly
    Register: Baptisms 1887 - 1897, Page 138, Entry 1103
    Source: LDS Film 1526078

1901 Census

The Clarence Hotel c.1900

1911 Census

1921 Census Wilfred Baxendale

London Gazetteer 21 Nov 1929

The building was later demolished and in its place today is the Dorothy Perkins store, as pictured below: -

Dorothy Perkins store on the old Currier's Arms site

Beaconsfield Buildings 2005