Chorley's Inns and Taverns: Fazackerley Arms Hotel

Name: The Fazackerley Arms Hotel

Address: 13, Market Place, Chorley

Fazackerley Arms (1950s)

Situated on Chorley's market square the Fazackerley Arms was very much a town centre boozer. It was built in 1829, as the date on lead drain spout and information below records. The spout was salvaged from the Fazackerley Arms when it was demolished in 1994 to make way for Market Walk: -

LEAD SPOUT-HEAD RESCUED FROM THE FAZACKERLEY ARMS HOTEL

DURING DEMOLITION IN JANUARY 1994

This spout-head is a fine example of the lead-beater’s art, often adopted as ornamentation for rainwater drainage components in the past. This particular item is a piece of Chorley’s heritage, the date is 1829 marking an important period in the early stages of development of the town centre as a modern market town.

Prior to 1826 the market had been held in the main street, hence the name, Market street”, but in that year, Thomas Gillibrand, of Gillibrand Hall, Lord of the Manor of Chorley provided the present Market Place, which subsequently came under the control of the town council.

In 1829 the Fazackerley Arms was amongst the first buildings to be erected on the east side of the new Market Place, forming the first stage of the development of Livesey Street and Hill Street, the same area levelled for the town centre re-development 165 years later in 1994.

The son and heir of the aforementioned Thomas Gillibrand, Henry Hawarden had assumed the surname of Fazackerley on succeeding to the estates of his kinsman, Colonel Fazackerley in 1815 and both the street of that name and the Fazackerley Arms Hotel were named after him.

An appropriate companion exhibit is the “keystone” taken from the arch erected by the same Henry Hawarden Fazackerley at the entrance to Gillibrand Hall estate in 1843 (note the “Arms” of the Fazackerley” family – Two Swords in Saltire).

The arch was taken down in 1923 and re-erected at the entrance to Astley park, but with a new plain keystone and an inscription, “Pro Patria 1914-1918”, when the park became the town’s memorial to those who gave their lives for their country in the Great War.

K Hodkinson 1994

It first appeared on records in the 1830s and the listed landlords were Roger Roscoe (1835-39), Joseph Pearson (1841), Henry Banks (1848-1851), Mary & Peter Downey (1861), William Hindle (1865), John Dewhurst (1871), William Walmsley (1872-76), John Seed (1879-82), John Seed (1881-82), Robert Hebden (1889-96), Charles Hebden (1901), John Emmison (1911), Henry King (1936) and Les Mitchell (1990).

The Fazackerley Arms was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for Market Walk, a new shopping precinct leading off Market Square.

1841 Census

Preston Chronicle 29 January 1842

Market Day c.1900

Preston Chronicle 21 October 1848

1851 Census

Preston Chronicle 03 March 1855

Fred Taylor, landlord of the Court Tavern stood outside c.1920 (courtesy of his Great Grandson Adrian Beaumont)

1861 Census

Rear of the Fazackerley Arms

Preston Chronicle 07 April 1866

Blackburn Standard 21 April 1869

1871 Census

Lancaster Gazette 02 October 1880

1881 Census

Market Day c.1900

1891 Census

Blackburn Standard 19 December 1896

Photographs of Robert & Martha Hebden kindly provided by
their Great Great grandson Adrian Beaumont

1901 Census

Charles Hebden Landlord at Court Tavern, Prince of Wales & Fazackerley Arms (courtesy of Adrian Beaumont)

Marriage: 24 Sep 1902 St Laurence, Chorley, Lancashire, England

John Hebden - 21 Tailor Bachelor of Fazackerly Arms Newmarket St

Kate Ellen Wilding - 19 Weaver Spinster of 3 Waterloo St

Groom's Father: Robert Hebden, Publican

Witness: Thomas Edward Wilding; Mary Elizabeth Wilding

Married by Banns by: Reginald Stowell Curate

Notes: [ The words Tailor and Wea entered in Condition column, then crossed out and

initialled R.S. ]

Register: Marriages 1880 - 1904, Page 231, Entry 461

Source: LDS Film 1517687

1911 Census

Report in Chorley Guardian 19 July 1990
Pub dates from late 1820s. Have had ghostly happenings for years..
Pool team member Trevor Jones had gone to the cellar to put his cue away when he suddenly dashed back shaking & white saying there was a woman standing at the bottom of the steps. He hadn’t seen her face just a long black & red dress with lace round the bottom.
The account tied in with a previous sighting over a year ago & the description tied in.
Others have heard footsteps along the corridor to the Gents when there was no-one else in the pub & Ann Tyson who worked behind the bar reported seeing a strange mist in the back rooms.
One of the customers felt an unseen hand on her shoulder while standing in a particular spot at the bar, but when she turned round there was no-one there – it gave her an icy tingling feeling. Les Mitchell the licensee at the time had never seen the ghost, but recall a strange happenings. A fruit machine weighing approx 2cwt regularly changes position overnight moving halfway across the room!!