Chorley's Inns and Taverns: Horwich

Name: The Saddle Inn

Address: 55, Lee Lane, Horwich

The Saddle Inn on the corner of Lee Lane and Brownlow Road has been open since the 1850s and remains so to this day. It changed its name to the Pheasant Plucker for a few years but around 2012 the pub reverted back to its original name.

A building can be seen on the 1845 map below at the road junction but this appears to be far smaller in size to the Saddle Inn and as there is no record of the pub on the 1851 census or trade directories at that time I assume this was demolished to make way for the Saddle Inn.

1845 Map

Listed landlords were Elizabeth Pimbley (1861), John Pimbley (-1874), Joseph Hampton (1874-78), George Ploughwright (1878-81), Mary William(son) (1883), James Rigby (1883-), William Newton (1889), Robert Turner (1900-01), Job Allen (1904) and Peter Crompton (1911).

1861 Census Elizabeth Pimbley

1869 Quarter Sessions

1871 Census Elizabeth Pimbley

1881 Census George Ploughwright

c.1935

By 1881 the Pimbley's had moved out of the Saddle and George Ploughwright had taken over behind the bar. Elizabeth's son John was still living nearby, just two doors down Lee Lane at no.36. It was in the 1880s that the postal numbering system changed in Horwich and by the next census the Saddle was listed as no.55.