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Swan Tap

Name: The Swan Tap

Address: 5-7 Hollinshead Steet, Chorley



The Swan Hotel is the white building pictured on the right. This shows the Hollinshead Street
 side and it is just possible to see the old entrance (black door) into the Tap  

Situated on the same site as the Swan Hotel but on the Hollinshead Street side the Swan Tap was part of the hotel & brewery although ran by separate landlords. Generally speaking, a brewery tap is the nearest outlet for a brewery's beers. This is usually a room or bar in the brewery itself, though the name may be applied to the nearest pub. 

Listed landlords at the Tap were James Cluck (1881), Susannah Leather (1891) and Christopher Hilton (1901).



1881 Census


1891 Census


1901 Census


Lancashire Evening Post 22 May 1901

The above press advert in 1901 shows the Swan had become a Whittle Springs Brewery house at some stage after the end of the Lancaster family's ownership in the early 1880's. The Old Swan Brewery had been sold off around that time to a local mineral water manufacturers but the hotel and tap remained open as a viable business under the ownership and supply of Whittle Springs. 


Whittle Springs Brewery

The Swan Tap appears not to have existed prior to 1881 and this may be because originally the brewery and hotel were part of the same site and the term "Tap" is not applied to a brewpub which brews and sells its beer on the same premises. The death of John Lancaster in the late 1870's, the owner of the Swan Brewery, probably sealed the fate of the brewery and led to the involvement of Whittle Springs whose brewery was located just out of Chorley's town centre.

For more information on the Whittle Springs Brewery follow the link below.


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