Chorley's Inns and Taverns: Goosnargh (Bailey Hey)

Name: Dog & Partridge Inn

Address: Oakenclough Road, Bailey Hey, Goosnargh

1904 Painting of the Dog & Partridge

THE DOG AND PARTRIDGE INN (Bailey Hey Farm), GOOSNARGH

Bailey Hey Farm is on the road between Chipping and Bleasdale. The picture above, reproduced from a large painting by the famous Lancashire artist, Edwin Beattie shows Bailey Hey when it was not only a farm but also the Dog and Partridge Inn. Edwin Beattie, 1845-1917 was specially noted for his paintings of old buildings in Preston and Liverpool, threatened with demolition when the towns were being rebuilt. Between 1891 and 1899 he was an illustrator for the Preston Guardian, which had regular articles on the loss of familiar landmarks in the town. and features on historic buildings in Lancashire. From 1899. when photographs were increasingly used for illustration in newspapers, Beanie turned to producing watercolours of picturesque and historic local scenes for sale. Towards the end of his life though, the demand for his pictures declined and he fell into poverty.

There is a story behind the picture of the Dog and Partridge Inn. Mr Beattie was a heavy drinker. In 1904 on a visit there, he consumed much liquor and couldn't pay the bill. To pay off his debts he painted the above scene for the Bretherton family who ran the pub at the time. This is said to have been a common event in Beattie's later career, when in debt to other landlords and tradesmen. On the original painting it is possible to read the sign over the door:-

William Bretherton, Licenced Retailer

Ales Porter Spirits Wines Tobacco

(Courtesy of chippinghistory.co.uk)

1844 Map of Bailey Hey

Listed Buildings

Old Dog and Partridge (Bailey Hey), Oakenclough Road,

53.89025°N 2.64518°W

c. 1700 Originally an inn, later converted into a house. It is in stuccoed sandstone with quoins and a slate roof. The building consists of a three-bay house with a single-bay stable to the left. On the front is gabled wooden porch and casement windows. A flight of external steps leads up to a first floor doorway in the stable. At the rear are mullioned windows.

Whilst dating back to 1700 the exact history of the Inn is not known although by 1824 it was already established as a public house and in subsequent decades the landlords are recorded as both Innkeepers and farmers so it appears that Bailey Hey Farm continued to be part of the business through its 100 years or so as a public house.

1824 Baines Directory - John Parkinson

Listed landlords at the Dog & Partridge were John Parkinson (1824), Parker (1841-57), Margaret Parker (1857-), John Rawcliffe (1861-), Thomas Parker (1866-68), Mary Parker (1868-72), Joseph & Mary Bretherton (1872-89), Mary Bretherton aka Parker (1889-1903), William Bretherton (1903-08), Richard Fox (1908-) and John Baines (1911-17).

1841 Census - John Parker

1851 Census - John Parker

In 1851 Margaret Mercer was recorded as working as the House Keeper at the Inn. John Parker was recorded as a widow by this time, his first wife Sarah having died in 1846 and four years later John and Margaret married in the Chapel at Goosnargh.

1855 Marriage - John Parker & Margaret Mercer

1857 Burial of John Parker

Following John Parker's death in 1858 running the Inn as well as Bailey Hey farm would have been extremely difficult for Margaret so it's no surprise that three years later at the time of the 1861 census she had brought in a new tenant at the Inn, John Rawcliffe. The 1851 census above confirms that prior to this, John Rawcliffe was already living and working as a tenant farmer at Bailey Hey. It's interesting to note that it was referred to as the "Farmer's Arms" at that time indicating that either he decided to change the name or because the Inn remained under Parker family ownership it continued to display their coat of arms.

1861 Census - John Rawcliffe "Farmer's Arms"

Margaret Parker was to take over the running of the Inn shortly after this census and later remarried in 1863 as the below record confirms.

Marriage: 14 Feb 1863 St James, Whitechapel, Lancashire, England

George Winder - 33 Husbandman Bachelor of Blind Hunt (sic Blind Hurst) in Bleasdale

Margaret Parker - (X), 39 Inn Keeper Widow of Bailey High

Groom's Father: Jeremiah Winder, Farmer

Bride's Father: Robert Mercer, Labourer

Witness: Thomas Winder; Ellen Winder

Married by Licence by: Thos. Benn

Register: Marriages 1854 - 1949, Page 15, Entry 29

Source: Original Register Filmed by LAN_OPC

In 1861 a Mary Parker nee Bilsborough was living in Nateby with husband Thomas Parker, a "journeyman joiner" and their children, John and Margaret. Thomas was born in Goosnargh around 1837 and was the eldest son of our first landlord, John Parker. He and Mary Bilsborough married on 3rd February 1857 at Garstang and moved to Nateby to bring up their family but following the death of Thomas' father in 1857 they moved back to Bailey Hey in the mid-1860s, presumably to assist Margaret in running the farm and Inn. However this was to be short-lived as Thomas then tragically died in 1868 leaving Mary to run the Dog & Partridge, a job she embraced for around the next 40 years either single-handedly, with assistance from her second husband Joseph Bretherton or from her sons.

1868 Probate - Thomas Parker

Preston Herald - Saturday 04 June 1870

1871 Census Pages - Mary Parker

1872 Marriage of Mary Parker & Joseph Bretherton

1891 Map

1881 Census - Joseph & Mary Bretherton

1889 Burial record for Joseph Bretherton (40 years)

1891 Census - Mary Bretherton

The following excerpts from an article in the Preston Herald on Saturday 01 February 1896 give a lovely insight into life in the Chipping and Bailey Hey farming communities around the end of the 1800s and includes reference to a couple of our landlords, Mary Bretherton and John Baines, who was to become the landlord ten years or so later.

...

Preston Herald on Saturday 01 February 1896

1901 Census - Mary Bretherton

Mary Bretherton died in 1903 and the Inn passed down to her eldest son from her second marriage, William Bretherton.

Marriage: 8 Jan 1902 St Mary the Virgin, Goosnargh, Lancs.

George Bretherton - 27 Farmer Bachelor of The Dog and Partridge Inn, Whitechapel in Goosnargh

Isabella Bretherton - 21 Spinster of Bailey Hey Farm, Whitechapel in Goosnargh

Groom's Father: Joseph Bretherton, Farmer

Bride's Father: George Bretherton, Farmer

Witness: Nicholas Bretherton; Margaret Mary Bretherton

Married by Licence by: J. T. Kerby Vicar

Register: Marriages 1837 - 1915, Page 208, Entry 415

Source: Original Register at LRO

1908 Notice of Sale for the Dog & Partridge

The below press cuttings and records confirm that the Inn was to survive for another decade or so after it left the hands of the Brethertons in 1908.

PRESTON POLICE COURT

COUNTY, MONDAY—Before Dr. Hammond and Mr. W. A, Winstanley.

The licence of the Forrest Arms, Dilworth, was temporarily transferred from William Chatburn to George William Swift, and that, of the Dog and Partridge, Goosnargh. from William Bretherton to Richard Fox.

27 January 1908 - Lancashire Evening Post - Preston, Lancashire, England

VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER IN A PUBLIC-HOUSE

A singular case was heard at the Preston County Police Court on Monday, when Thomas William Nichols, schoolmaster at Bleasdale, was summoned for being drunk in the Dog and Partridge Inn, Goosnargh. The police evidence was that Nichols was found sitting on a settle in the taproom with a pint pot of beer before him, and when told he would be reported he said, " Don't do that. You'll ruin me for life. You know my position." Mr. Callis, for defendant, said Mr. Nichols had passed his examination with honours. and if he lost his situation as schoolmaster at Bleasdale school, as he would do if he lost the case, the doors of the scholastic profession would be closed against him. He submiitted that the police had been trying to catch Nichols, and said the truth of the case was that some people in the village thought it was not right for a schoolmaster to sit in a country public-house, especially on a Sunday night, and drink his beer from a pint pot. There might or might not be something in that, but he did not put defendant before them as a new-time schoolmaster, but as one of the old-fashioned type described by Dickens where they had a village school-master and the country parson sitting together on the sanded floor of the little public-house. Defendant denied that he had more than three pints between six and nine o'clock on the night in question, and said he had been schoolmaster at Bleasdale over two years. In reply to Superintendent Pickering, he said that only once had the school managers complained of his inebriate habits. Several witnesses deposed that defendant was not drunk. The Chairman said that defendant would be given the benefit of the doubt, and the case would be dismissed. They considered it, however, a very reasonable one for the police to bring.

1910 Map

PRESTON COUNTY POLICE COURT (1910)

There were no cases for trial this morning, the only business before the magistrates (Messrs. G. Toulmin, M.P., W. W. Galloway) being the consideration of two applications for the temporary transfer two licences. In the case the Dog and Partridge Inn. Goosnargh, the outgoing tenant did not appear, and Superintendent Pickering said the man would have to come from Bailey Hey, and all probability was snowbound.