Standish - Black Horse Inn

Name: The Black Horse Inn

Address: 7, Church Street, Standish

The Black Horse has been a going concern in the centre of Standish adjacent to St Wilfrid's church on Church Street since the early 1800's.  More widely known as the Lychgate Tavern these days, the Inn has spent most of its existence as the Black Horse. First reference I can find to the Inn is in the 1824 Standish Directory below when William Grafton was the landlord.

One cannot help but think the Black Horse was a better name for the pub as "Lych gate", which actually means "a roofed gateway to a churchyard, formerly used at burials for sheltering a coffin until the clergyman's arrival". The actual Lych gate at St Wilfrid's is the other side of the church on Rectory Lane.

Listed landlords at the Black Horse were William Grafton (1824-28), Thomas Bulman (1834-45), Henry Banks (1848), James Fisher (1851-54), Thomas Hatton (1861-71), Peter Schofield (1868-67), Robert Atherton (1872), Thomas Halton (1873), William Crankshaw (1881), John Asbrey (1891-1905), George William Mather (1911-24) and James Kerry (2023).

1841 Census

Landlord Thomas Bulman died in January 1845 at the age of 42 years and was buried at St Wilfrid's. After Thomas's death the Black Horse was run by Henry Banks for a few years before he moved on to the Black Bull and James Fisher took over behind the bar.

1848 Pigot's Directory

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 21 July 1849

1851 Census

1854 Mannex Directory

Preston Chronicle 17 April 1858

The original sign of the Black Horse can be seen beneath the makeshift
Lychgate Tavern sign shortly after it reopened.

Preston Chronicle 19 November 1859

Preston Chronicle 09 June 1860

1861 Census

Leeds Mercury 19 November 1861

Preston Chronicle 29 May 1861

Bolton Chronicle 25 July 1863

Preston Chronicle 09 April 1864

Preston Chronicle 18 February 1865

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 13 July 1867

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 18 October 1867

Preston Chronicle 29 August 1868

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 05 September 1868

Preston Chronicle 10 September 1870

1871 Census

Leigh Chronicle and Weekly District Advertiser 05 August 1871

Chorley Guardian 06 April 1872

Chorley Guardian 17 May 1873

Preston Chronicle 24 May 1873

Blackburn Standard 19 February 1876

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 03 October 1879

Preston Chronicle 11 October 1879

1881 Census

Preston Chronicle 16 September 1882

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 11 November 1885

The Black Horse closed prior to refurbishment and
rebranding as the Lychgate Tavern

Lancashire Evening Post 15 November 1888

1891 Census

Preston Herald 25 February 1891

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 11 March 1891

1901 Census

 

1905 Kelly's Directory 

John Asbrey died shortly after the Kelly's directory was printed and the probate record below shows his "estate" went to his son William, who by this time had followed in his father's footsteps and was running the Oddfellow's Arms further up Church Street.

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 19 January 1907

When George William Mather took over the Black Horse he was already well-established in the trade having previously run the Wheatsheaf, the flagship outlet of James Almond's Brewery next-door. George was born in Withnell near Chorley and as a teenager trained to be a mechanic but by 1891 he had fallen on hard times and he and his wife Maria were living in the Blackburn District Union Workhouse. However, things started to look up as he was initiated into the Grand Ellesmere Lodge of Freemasons in Chorley on 12th September 1894 when his occupation was shown as "Master Union".  Seven years later he was at the Wheatsheaf and the rest, as they say is history...

1911 Census

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 25 January 1913

2016