Standish - Shamrock

Name: The Shamrock

Address: 126, Preston Road, Standish

The Shamrock on Preston Road first opened in the 1870's and was originally called the Seven Stars Hotel, which made it the third Seven Stars in Standish with its older namesakes, the Old and New Seven Stars further down Preston Road on the border with Coppull.

CAMRA Whatpub has the following history: -

The Shamrock at Standish public house is named after the unofficial emblem of Ireland Trifolium repens (known in Irish as seamair bhán and anglicised as “The Shamrock”). Despite bearing the name The Seven Stars until April 1994, the Shamrock public house has, throughout its history, been known by Standishers as The Shamrock Pub. Exactly how the Seven Stars public house became nicknamed the Shamrock is not known but Standish rumour has it that mid-nineteenth century Irish travellers who settled in Standish were responsible for the moniker The Shamrock. 

Listed landlords at the pub were Henry Harrison (1881), William Derbyshire (1891-1903) and Thomas Henry Halton (1903-11). It is interesting to see that the Haltons and Derbyshires were landlords here, as those families were the main tenants at the Old & New Seven Stars in the 19th century and by the late 1880s already appeared to have been scaling down business at the Old Seven Stars to move nearer the village centre (see press cutting below).

1881 Census

Preston Herald 09 October 1889

1891 Census

1892 Map

Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 23 July 1898

1901 Census

William Darbyshire was behind the bar from the late 1880's until his death in 1903.  He died at an address in Liverpool, which is where his son Thomas and family had moved but parish records confirm he was brought back to Standish and buried at St Wilfrid's.

 Burial: 27 May 1903 St Wilfrid, Standish, Lancashire, England

William Darbyshire - Age: 54 years

    Abode: 19 Percy Street, Liverpool

    Buried by: G. Tomlinson, Curate

    Register: Burials 1891 - 1905, Page 166, Entry 1321

    Source: Original Register

Landlord in 1911, Thomas Henry Halton was brought up in the New Seven Stars Inn higher up Preston Road, in 1901 working for his father James as a barman so it seems fitting that he went on to follow in his father's footsteps running another "Seven Stars".

1911 Census

These days the Seven Stars Hotel is a Marston's Inn and has for the last 20 or so years been known as the Shamrock, possibly to satisfy those with Irish roots living in this part of Standish after the closure of the St Patrick's Inn, 100 yards down the road on the corner of Moores Lane and Preston Road, which was open from the 1870's into the 1900's but closed many years ago. It has been run as the Chinese Delight Restaurant more recently but closed for business and was demolished in 2019 to make way for new residential development.