Chorley's Inns and Taverns: Standish

Name: The Old Seven Stars Inn

Address: Preston Road, Standish

The Old Seven Stars Inn was, and still is a farm that also ran a beerhouse as a secondary source of income in the 1800 and 1900's. It is one of the oldest public houses still standing in Standish today although the beer trade has long since dried out and one of three separate Inns in close proximity during the 1800's (see 1845 map below).

It first appeared on the 1824 Standish Directory when a J Hallwood was the landlord, and almost certainly farmer.

1824 Directory

Listed landlords at the Inn were Richard Wilson (1767-94), J Hallwood (1824), Edward Sagar (1828), Thomas Sumners (-1841), Thomas Derbyshire (1841-69), Thomas Derbyshire Jnr (1869-88), Thomas Higham (1901), Thomas Derbyshire (1905), William Gaskell (1911) and Andrew Clarke (1924).

Early records confirm that Richard Wilson was an early landlord at the Old Seven Stars.

The Papists registers in Coppull in 1767 listed the Wilson family as follows: -

Wilson Richd Hucster 38

Wilson Peggy Wife of Richd. 37

Wilson Edward Child 11

Wilson Betty Child 5

Wilson Peggy Child 4

Wilson Dorothy Child 2

Wilson Richd Child 1

A "Hucster" was an ale seller, so as early as 1767 Richard appears to have been selling beer from the farm.

The 1794 Coppull census conducted by the vicar of Standish confirmed the family weer still in residence: -

House or Farm: Seven Stars

Tenant: Richard Wilson

Children: 1

Total: 3

Religion: Rome

The London Gazette in January 1841 listed a Thomas Sumners as an insolvent debtor as shown on the press cutting below: -

1841 London Gazette

1841 Census

Annotated 1845 Map with the Seven Stars (Old & new) and the Grey Horse (Coppull)

1851 Census

Preston Chronicle 30 September 1854

1861 Census

Thomas Darbyshire died in 1869 at the grand old age of 88 years and was buried in St Wilfrid's in Standish.

1871 Census

The following information has been taken from Frothblowers which records some of the history of the Derbyshire or Darbyshire family: -

The pub and farm at Standish Nr. Wigan were in the Darbyshire family from at least the 1700s and Richard Darbyshire (1844-1915) was the licensee of this and the Black Bull at Standish prior to moving around 1882 to the Glynne Arms Hotel at Hawarden, Flintshire.
Richard Darbyshire was quite a character, a strict teetotaler and any member of staff caught drinking would have felt the full force of his views on drinking. He was also an extremely tough business man but so well respected he was even featured in an 1898 article in The Strand Magazine about the village of Hawarden following the death of the former Prime Minister and local resident William Ewart Gladstone. It reported on his love and care for animals when such things were not the norm and the warm relationship he enjoyed with Gladstone and in particular the Grand Old Man's respect for his treatment of the horses for hire.

Richard Darbyshire 1890's

The article describes the Richard as 'somewhat of a character' and 'long may he reign'.

Married to Mary Ann Wynne in 1868 they went onto have five children James, Jack, Maria, Elizabeth and Henry.

The Old Seven Stars Farmhouse is a Grade II listed building and dates back to the 1600's. A description on the Historic England website being as follows: -

STANDISH-WITH-LANGTREE STARS BROW S Old seven Stars Farmhouse - II Farmhouse. C17 with later additions. Dressed stone and brick with stone slate roofs. 2 storeys, 3 bays, the end bays gabled, the 2nd bay is of one storey to front. 1st bay probably the original part, of stone with moulded base. 2nd bay has stone left part and brick on stone base to right. 3rd bay of brick on stone base. Ground floor has casement windows to 1st and 3rd bays; 2nd bay has single-bar sash. 1st floor has sashed window with glazing bars to 1st bay and horizontally sliding sash to 3rd bay. Entrance with flat arch to 2nd bay. Left gable-end stack and cross-axial stack. Left return has blocked entrance, 2 casements and horizontally sliding sash. Rear has wing to right with blocked 2-light brick-mullioned window to 1st floor. Interior has chamfered beams; stair with close string, turned balusters and square newels.

1881 Census

Following Thomas's death in 1888 there is no trace of the Old Seven Stars on the 1891 census although next door neighbour James Halton was recorded in residence at the New Seven Stars. There is only other farmer listed along Langtree Lane, a James Sumner who is next door, so I suspect that the Old Seven Stars farm had been let to him after Thomas's death but did he did not run it as a beer house at that time. The follow press cutting from the following year confirms the family moved the licence to the Seven Stars Hotel in Standish, now widely known as the Shamrock and the Old Seven Stars was, from that point onwards used solely as a farm.