Chorley's Inns and Taverns: Walton-le-Dale - Bay Horse (later the Sir Robert Peel)

Name: The Bay Horse (later Sir Robert Peel)

Address: 168 Victoria Road, Walton-le-Dale

Courtesy of Alexander Knapp under the Creative Commons License

The Bay Horse on Victoria Road dates back to the early 1800s and retained this name until the mid-late 1850s when it changed name to the Sir Robert Peel, who had died in 1850. Sir Robert Peel was twice British prime minister and his period in government saw landmark social reforms and the repeal of the Corn Laws. He also established the London Metropolitan Police Force and became known as the “Father of Modern Policing,” This was one of two pubs of that name open in the Preston area in the mid-1800s, the other, on Newton Street/East View closing in 2009.

Confirmation of the location can be made by examining the two maps on this page of 1844 and 1891.

1824 Baines Directory James Briggs

1834 Pigot's Directory ? Kay

1844 OS Map

Listed landlords at the pub were *Bay Horse* James Briggs (1824), Mr. Kay (1834), Robert Bretherton (1840), John Brindle (1848), Richard Barton (1851), Jane Barton (1854-55), *Sir Robert Peel* Henry Nightingale (1861), Margaret Worthington (1869-84), John Rostron (1891), William Ellison (1901), Herbert Davies (1911), Stephen Robinson (1921), James Biggs (1934-39), Stephen Robertson (2003-10), Robert J Wareing (2014-) and Amanda Jayne Hesmondhalgh (2014-18).

1841 Census Robert Bretherton Bay Horse

1848 Slater's Taverns & Public Houses John Brindle

1851 Census Richard Barton Bay Horse

1854 Mannex Directory Walton-le-Dale Hotels Inns & Taverns Jane Barton

1855 Slater's Jane Barton Bay Horse

As the newly-named Sir Robert Peel, the pub's first landlord was Henry Nightingale, a widower originally from the Adlington area of Lancashire, who was running the pub whilst caring for hie 3-year-old son Charles in 1861.

1861 Census Henry Nightingale Sir Robert Peel

1869 Slater's Taverns & Public Houses Margaret Worthington

1871 Census Margaret Worthington Sir Robert Peel

Margaret Worthington ran the Sir Robert Peel for several decades from the mid-1860s to her death in 1884), She came from good stock, her father William being an Inn Keeper himself at the Windmill Inn in Balderstone where she grew up.