Standish - Boar's Head

Name: The Boar's Head Inn

Address: Wigan Road, Standish

The following background is taken from the Boar's Head website: -

One of the oldest pubs in England – the Boars Head at Standish – has a rich history.
Russ Jervis and his partner Rene Heyes are already compiling a list of stories about the historic old pub, said to date back to the 13th century. Russ, who also has Wigan’s Cherry Gardens Hotel, said the first news they received was that the Boar’s Head had not one but two ghosts. The first is said to haunt the cellar, the second the billiards room.
Russ, who worked for 27 years as a class one driver for the GPO, said: “This is the most fascinating pub in the whole of Lancashire. “You can feel the atmosphere as you walk in. We certainly won’t be making many changes, just a lick of paint here and there and renovating the beer garden.”

Russ, who first left the post office to take over Gems on Upper Dicconson Street, said: “We know that some pubs have closed in recent months, but I’m fully confident about our future as the Boars Head and at the Cherry Gardens. Both remain very popular.”

As for the ghosts, it is said that the one in the cellar dates back to the days when prisoners transported from Chester Assizes to Lancaster for hanging were put up at the Boars Head along the way. “It really is very spooky down there,” said Russ, who added that he had been told the spectre in the billiards room was something of a top-hat wearing toff.

Located at the Boar's Head junction and close to the old railway station of the same name the Inn had a prominent position at the junction of the roads leading to Preston, Chorley and Wigan and would have benefitted greatly from the passing road and rail trade.

1907 Map

1824 Directory of Standish

Listed landlords I can identify at the Inn from directory and census records were Lawrence Shorrock (1834), John Jackson (1824-58), George Cox (1861-62), John Pilkington (1862), Henry Liptrot (1869-74), Edward & Catherine Vose (1880-95), Richard Norris (1901-07), George Henry Harmer (1911), Joseph Gobin (1924), Russell Jarvis (2008) and Janet Marie Jones (2023).

1841 Census

Liverpool Mercury 03 January 1845

1851 Census

Preston Chronicle 28 August 1858

1861 Census

Preston Chronicle 14 May 1862

Leeds Mercury 05 December 1862

Preston Chronicle 07 May 1864

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 01 March 1867

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 27 February 1869

Preston Chronicle 29 October 1870

1871 Census

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 01 July 1871

1874 Shocking Accident on the Railway
– A man named George Sharrock (40), contractor in coal mines under the Wigan Coal and Iron Co, met his death on Sunday morning last under shocking circumstances. It seems that deceased along with his wife came to Wigan on Saturday night, and that they parted from each other about seven o’clock. On his way home to Bed rock, Haigh, Sharrack called at the Boar’s Head Inn between ten and eleven o’clock. At eleven o’clock he was turned out drunk by the landlord, whose name is Liptrot (Henry). He had then wandered on the London and North Western Railway and laid himself down on the line. A goods train passing some times after his body was found completely severed in two. The guard in charge of the train felt a sudden jerk in passing over the body, and on the train being pulled up as soon after as it was possible, he, on going back, discovered the deceased. Three or four of the waggons were thrown off the line. Deceased has left a widow and four children. Very curiously Liptrot, who last saw Sharrock alive, has since committed suicide by hanging himself.

Like many Innkeepers during the 18th and 19th centuries Henry Liptrot also worked as a farmer as his Probate record from 1874 above showed.

Chorley Standard and District Advertiser 04 September 1880

1881 Census

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 08 January 1881

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 02 February 1886

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 20 July 1889

1891 Census

Preston Herald 05 July 1893

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 02 May 1894

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 12 October 1895

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 20 February 1901

1901 Census

Lancashire Evening Post 11 November 1901

Lancashire Evening Post 27 March 1907

1911 Census

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 06 October 1917