Whatever happened.......... Pubs

[Bazf]

Just following Mick and owd berts photo threads and a lot of people mention Lions Pubs, I rember them being around in Ossy and not to abundent in Accy and from the threads I presume they were taken over by Matthew Brown but is either of the 2 brewerys still going?

[Sparkologist]

Lion Brewery of Blackburn used to be located behind the Seven Trees pub on Whalley New Road between Bastwell traffic lights and Skew Bridge. It was bought out by Matthew Brown, and I think they operated out of this site. Matthew Brown also bought Theakstons of Masham in North Yorkshire. They then became an attractive proposition for a take over themselves, and were bought out after a bitter (no pun intended) struggle by Scottish & Newcastle.
They are now known as Scottish Courage, presumably after another merger.
Lion Bitter 3.5% is produced for Scottish Courage by Mansfield Brewery.

cheers!

[Sparkologist]

Got it wrong! Sorry. It was the Nuttall's Brewery of Little Harwood, Blackburn, which became known as Matthew Brown Lion Brewery after the takeover.

Ithink that the Castle pub on Whalley road in Accy used to serve Lion bitter. That would have been about 10 years ago when Colin & Janet ran it.

[Tealeaf]

"Lions Ales" was the tradeing name for Matthew Brown & their pubs sold beer under the Lion brand name. Matthew Brown purchased Theakstons in the mid 1980's because at the time there had been a major real ale revival and the best known premium English Real Ale was Theakstons Old Peculiar.

However, their pocession of the Theakstons brand served only to attract the larger brewers & in 1989 Matthew Brown were themselves subject to a hostile takeover from S & N, who on completion of the deal announced that "brewing was safe in Blackburn for the foreseeable future"......18 months later the Lion brewery was flat building land. The Lion range has gone, Theakston's remains..and that's about it.

Their beers were quite nice; the mild was a bit nutty, the bitter so-so, but the best of the lot was a bottled beer called Crystal, which came in pint bottles and when you drank it your belly expanded because of all the gas in there.....you could do some really good, serious burps.

As for the pubs....well, The Queens in Church used to be a Matthew Brown pub, so did the Oak Tree & the Tanpits/Plough....in Accy, however, they tended to be the smaller back street pubs, although the Castle above was an exception...I think possibly Owd Bert might know of a few.

[Sparkologist]

I remember Crystal ale. When i was a sproglet, my dad used to drink it, & so did I, hic.... He used to get it from the off licence on Commercial St up Ossy, and i used to get the deposit from the bottles for taking them back.

[Bazf]

I rember under age drinking in a Lions pub in ossy, it was in a back street, for some reason I think it was the Black something or other and I'm guessing here so dont quote me. My main under age drinking hole was the Tinker and Budget.

[Tealeaf]

As well as the Matthew Brown Brewery, there was the Duttons brewery in Blackburn which used to stand where Morrisons now stands. This was taken over by Whitbread sometine in the 1960's and continued brewing until the early 80's, I think...Now Whitbread themselves are out of the brewing buisness. Amongst the Whitbread/Duttons pubs was the X Guns in Church...and the Royal Oak in Ossy.

In Burnley, there was a brewery called Massey's; this was taken over by Bass Charrington.....Masseys pubs included the Broadway in Accy (there was a Masseys sign outside right until the early '80's) & the Bridge in Church...

So Accy/Church/Ossy had pubs which were either Thwaites, Lions, Massey's (Bass) or Duttons (Whitbread), with one or two exceptions such as the John Smiths(Magnet Ales) pub on Blackburn Road. I'm told there was a few small breweries on in Accy in the 19c, but I don't know any details, although if you look on ebay now an Accrington 1890 Spencers & Howorth bottle is for sale, although wheather this is actually a beer bottle, as claimed, I'm not to sure.

[cashman]

just spotted this thread,2 lions pubs in accy,i used to drink in when moby dick was a tadpole=the WELCOME INN,on elephant st,@ the COLLIERS ARMS,round the corner on birtwistle st.also lion houses tramway,on manchester rd,also park inn,just higher up,the hope and anchor in town,warners arms,in town,happy days.

[accyplus]

There used to be a Lion House on Hyndburn Road but I cant remember the name of it,can anyone else remember ?.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by accyplus

There used to be a Lion House on Hyndburn Road but I cant remember the name of it,can anyone else remember ?.

union was the one on hyndburn rd,the palatine was just around the corner on frederick st,both were lion houses i drank in but had forgot,the reason i used to use lion houses was they had a great bottle(pint crystal)who remembers them,great drink.

[cashman]

ps. used to go out with landladys daughter in union,girl called barbara,smashing lass,havent seen her for about 37 years,whatever happened to her- i'd love to know.

[Wynonie Harris]

The Union and the Palatine...both cracking pubs and both, sadly long gone. Another of my regular haunts, just across Blackburn Road, was the Langs Arms on Grant Street. Accy seems to have lost a lot of its backstreet pubs these days, more's the pity.

Just off-topic slightly, does anyone remember the carpenters shop near to the Union? It had a wooden chain in the window which my dad told me was carved from one piece of wood. Fascinated me as a kid.

[accyplus]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

The Union and the Palatine...both cracking pubs and both, sadly long gone. Another of my regular haunts, just across Blackburn Road, was the Langs Arms on Grant Street. Accy seems to have lost a lot of its backstreet pubs these days, more's the pity.

Just off-topic slightly, does anyone remember the carpenters shop near to the Union? It had a wooden chain in the window which my dad told me was carved from one piece of wood. Fascinated me as a kid.

Was it called Eastwoods or something like that,the old chap who ran it once made me a small wooden shield for my football medal,only charged me 75P that was in the early seventies.