Address: 2 Chorley New Road (previously Crown Street), Horwich
The Toll Bar Inn was built sometime in the mid-1800's and is at the junction of Chorley New Road (previously Crown Street), Lee Lane, Scholes Bank and Crown Lane. It does not appear on the 1845 map of the area but is clearly shown on the 1892 map and ones thereafter.
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| 1845 Map |
The south-eastern corner of the block contains the most significant settlement in our area, the railway town of Horwich. Chorley Old Road climbs from Lee Lane towards the Parish Church, an area where the Anglo-Saxon farm settlement, "an enclosure on the higher ground" must have been". At the foot of Lee Lane and the head of Scholes Bank the rough stone walls and thin flagged
roofs indicate the remains of Eighteenth Century housing. Old Road itself was an early turnpike of 1787 with a toll recalled in the name of the public house, "The Toll Bar Inn".
The New Road was added in 1822,some claim to provide local unemployed with labour. Its main significance is that in 1884 the Locomotive Works grew around it, so establishing the "second" Horwich.
At what stage it became a beer house is not known to me, as early census entries for occupants at the property are recorded as toll collectors/keeper. It wasn't until 1871 that the resident, Robert Lee is first shown as a beer seller. It was originally called "Toll Gate House" and whilst its primary function would have been toll collection I suspect it also doubled as a beer house for most of the second half of the 1800s.
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| 1907 Map |
Landlords/tenants at the Toll Bar Inn were Thomas Johnson (1841), Robert France (1851-60), John Gaskell (1861), Robert Lee (1862-71), Samuel Lee (1881-90), Robert Lee (1883-86), Thomas Price (1890-99), Mary Lambert (1899-1905), James Price (1905-11), Widdup Wilkinson (1824), George & Daphne Keene (late 1970s-90s), Mark Knowles (2001-04), Sue Beeley (2001-2018) and Tina Baggaley (daughter of Sue Beeley)(2018-).
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| 1841 Census Thomas Johnson Toll Keeper |
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| 1851 Census Robert France Toll Collector |
25 February 1860 - Bolton Chronicle
Self-destruction by a Farmer - On Monday forenoon Mr. Robert France, farmer, of Anderton, near the Crown Inn, Horwich, committed suicide in his own residence.
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| 1861 Census John Gaskell Toll Collector |
29 March 1862 - Bolton Chronicle
On Monday, the Bench provisionally transferred the following licences until the annual licensing day, namely — The Crown, Horwich, from Robert Lee (now a beer seller, living opposite) to John Burgess, blacksmith of Sharples...
It was possibly in 1862 that a beer licence was first successfully applied for at the Toll Bar Inn and the directory records confirm that Robert Lee, who was resident at the Inn was a "Retailer of Beer" later that decade in 1869.
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| 1869 Slater's Directory |
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| 1871 Census Robert Lee - Butcher, Beer Seller & Farmer |
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| 1876 Post Office Directory |
Robert Lee is again confirmed in the above directory as a butcher and beer seller, something his son Samuel was continue until 1890.
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| 1881 Census Samuel Lee - Butcher |
On 11th August 1890 the Bolton Evening News recorded the transfer of the licence at the Toll Bar Inn, Horwich, from Samuel Lee to Thomas Price confirming that the Toll Bar was a beer house prior to 1891 when in the hands of the Lee (Leigh) family.
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| 1891 Census Thomas Price - Beerseller |
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| 1895 Slater's Directory showing Thomas Price as a Beer Retailer |
Death records show that Thomas Price died in 1899 at the tender age of 37 years leaving his wife Mary Hannah Price to bring up their children; Harry, James, Fred, Walter, Allen and May as well as running the Inn. She quickly remarried in 1900 to a John C Lambert and had a further child, Lizzie Lambert but tragedy again befell her, as John was also to die the same year, just 28 years old and by the time of the 1901 census she was again on her own.
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| 1901 Census Mary H Lambert - Beer & Wine Seller |
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| 1905 Kelly's Directory |
County Coroner, held inquiry this afternoon into the death of Harry Price (19), of the Toll Bar Hotel. Horwich, who died on Sunday as the result being shot in the head at the starling shoot at the Hilton Arms Hotel, Hilton House.
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Harry Morris 1906 Photographed outside the Toll Bar in Horwich
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Mary endured her fair share of tragedy during her time at the Toll Bar Inn but she remained there with her family after Harry's death and in 1907 married her third husband, Peter Higham, who was a local man working as a Bleacher. The 1911 census record below confirms they lived together as a family at the Toll Bar whilst Mary's oldest living son James ran the Inn.
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| 1911 Census James Price - Publican |
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World Champions Morris Dancers 1913 - Harry Morris led the team
and is seen at rear centre outside the Toll Bar Inn |
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| 1924 Kelly's Directory |
Bolton News 15th September 2019
The family of a former landlady have raised a toast to her after renaming the pub in her honour. Susan Beeley managed the Toll Bar Inn on Chorley New Road, Horwich, for 17 years before her death last year. Now, after an extensive renovation, the venue has reopened and will be known as Beeley’s Sports Bar. Ms Beeley was a much-loved character in the pub and the job of running it has now passed down to her daughters Tina Baggaley and Joanne Smith. Ms Baggaley and her partner James Bye who will take over as landlady and landlord of the bar. Speaking after the reopening of Beeley’s on Thursday, Mr Bye said the family were delighted when the pub’s owners at Bravo Inns suggested the change in name. “It’s a great honour,” he said. “We were blown away when our bosses rang and asked us about changing the name. “To honour Sue in that way was so special and it meant a lot to the family. She had been here that long that it was part and parcel of all of our lives.”
The bar has been closed intermittently for around 12 months but has been undergoing a £140,000 refurbishment over the last four weeks. It has been fitted with new furnishings, carpets and paint, with a new bar, as well as screens and projectors in place around the interior. There is a pool table and darts board and the pub will show a variety of live sporting events. Mr Bye said the reopening event was a special day for the family as well as the bar’s regular visitors who knew Ms Beeley well.
He said “It was a very emotional day. At 6.45pm we had customers waiting outside and we made a little speech about Sue and cut the ribbon but we were getting messages an hour before the opening saying, ‘Come on open the doors’. When people saw the inside they were astonished because for the last four weeks we’ve done Thursday to Sunday with no carpet and no paint on the walls. The team who worked on the place have done so well.”
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| 2019 rebranded as Beeley's |
Fabulous reading. Thankyou
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