Victoria Brewery

Name: The Victoria Brewery

Address: 29, Bolton Street, Chorley

The brewery was located in the backyard of the Albion pub in Bolton Street and was run by a Joseph Greenwood in the 1880's who was also the landlord of the King's Arms,a few doors up the road. 

The buildings date back much further and it seems likely that there was a brewery at that location from earlier in the 1800s as directory records show the presence of a brewery on Bolton Street as early as 1835.

1835 Directory

There is no record of any name for the brewery but following William Smith's departure the brewery appears to have been run by the landlords of the Cunliffe Arms Hotel; William Wilson from sometime in the 1840s; Henry Croston when he took over in the late 1860s and then Edward France during the 1870s.

1851 Directory

1861 Directory

1871 Directory

1879 Directory

1844 Map

Joseph Greenwood was born in Blackburn but grew up in Chorley with his Uncle and Aunt, Thomas and Jane. Thomas was a shopkeeper and beer seller and in 1861 they were living around the Plymouth Hill area of Chorley (towards the end of Moor Road) in what we now know as the Sebastopol Inn.  

1861 Census

Ten years later the census shows that there was a grocer's shop at 282 Moor Road and a 
public House at 284, both run by Thomas Greenwood. By this time Joseph was working as labourer in the nearby Printworks in Birkacre.

1871 Census

In 1871 Joseph married at St George's church in Chorley, the record being as follows: 

Marriage: 26 Aug 1871 St George, Chorley, Lancashire, England

Joseph Greenwood - 22, Clerk, Bachelor, Moor Street

Nancy Smith - 21, Spinster, Clifton Street

    Groom's Father: John Greenwood, Merchant

    Bride's Father: Richard Smith, Printer

    Witness: George Smith; Margaret Greenwood

    Married by Superintendant Registrar's Certificate by: John Phillipps

    Register: Marriages 1865 - 1873, Page 178, Entry 356

    Source: LDS Film 1526078

By 1881 he and Nancy were living and working at the King's Arms, 45, Bolton Street, Chorley (now Living Waters Church) and it was in the 1880's that he started the Victoria brewery.

1889 Directory

1881 Census

Post Office Directory 1889-90

The business must have been fairly short-lived but prospered, as ten years later in the 1891 census he is shown as a retired Licensed Victualler living on Bolton Road. 

1891 Census

Retirement didn't suit Joseph and by 1901 they were back in business running the Queen's Hotel in Chapel Street.

1901 Census

The fate of the Victoria Brewery remains unclear, but it does not appear in later directories and I can only assume it was taken over by the subsequent landlords at the Albion and run as part of the business.