Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Well, I've asked the question.......who's going to jump in with the first answer?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Because the front of it faces the street as it once was, which now is little more than an inlet from Henry St.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

It’s a former coaching house and would have been a lined along the now disappeared coaching road or turn pike?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

He said it better than I did. :D

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Don't be to quick Willow, I'm just as likely to get it all so very wrong!!!.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Well it makes sense to me. Henry Street is the major road there now and it looks as if The Stag was built sideways on, but the front did face the original major road.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

is it because that used to be the main road, it used to go past the clock and end up at the commercial

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

I think the original road went a different direction. From Church Kirk to Antley..via what became known as the Tanpits. All this must have been in the late 1700's. When I read about the farm known as Ponthalgh it seemed to indicate that there was a road from there to Dunkenhalgh / Altham and a road towards Blackburn, and one to the Antley via Church Kirk. The latter would probably have run down York St., past the Stag, down the Tanpits. The coaches would stop outside the Stag in the direction of the road,to enable people like Tealeaf to partake of refreshments!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Would an 1845 map help?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Cheers A-B....the maps a big help. What it does show is that, with the exception of what was then the 20 year old Blackburn & Whalley Turnpike Road (Blackburn Road today), there is a splattering of roads & lanes which appear to defy the normal logic of a straight line being the quickest route from A to B. However, for now I wish to say no more about that, other than it's a clue.

What I would like to comment upon is the obsession with Stagecoaches that everyone appears to have. Maybe it's with Christmas coming up that people have been out buying their greetings cards, as usual containing a fair selection of Victorian images of Georgian top-hatted men thrashing their coach through a white winter scene......well, you may have that on the brain, but it's no good here. While the Stag may well once have been a Coaching Inn, that is not the answer to the question above. As I'm sure you know, Stagecoach services (private, fee paying passengers and mail) only evolved after the Civil War and the Restoration. This is some 60 years after the first recorded meeting in the Stag! While it is common now for a building to be designed to allow for technological change, I doubt very much if 15th/16th builders would have had this as their prime consideration.

Given that we've got the map now, I'll give a second clue, and that lies on the far left of the map at a point directly east of the junction Church Lane and Maden street. So, have a good think. Forensic history can be so much fun, what?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

:drink:which side of the pub is the original?when i was a little un the door was on henry st.we have two postcodes,

the old beaten tracks from accy to rishton,and from blackburnshire to huncoat crossed close by to the stag so hazarding a guess id say it was built that way so you could see whom was travelling where.

..........just a guess.......

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Oh dear.....don't give it away yet.....Hey, I think there's a bunch of Accy Webbers downstairs....

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

The only thing that I can identify at the junction is a well. The buildings are unidentified. Drat! I wish I knew more!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Was it facing a village green or something like that?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Thanks for the Map A-Bob, it's very good, but the stag was built before the canal, and that affects (or affected) the highways.
But what I was really aiming at was, that the Stag was obviously built for travellers as an Inn. And that means a major thoroughfare was there on the spot. A crossroads would seem very likely, and there was an existing (or old) road from Church Kirk to Antley.

Haven't got much time to-day, but will have a look at Tealeaf's clue if I can!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

:drink:what puzzles me is that what is the front of the stag now, may have been up for a lot of years....but.....did they build two storey buildings that long ago???? if you look at the stag from henry street...its on two levels so this brings me to believe that the lower part of the stag is the original building ,with the front being put on in later years.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Now I'll have to go and have a serious study of the outside of the building so if you see a strange woman with a camera round there in the next couple of days you'll know it's me.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

It's not at the junction itself....it's directly west, the other side of the canal, on the very edge of the map.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

You said it was directly East before.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Does this help?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Who are these two? A-B has paid homage in the past to that dynamic crime fighting duo Doug and Sandra Hayes. Is the poor old chap becoming confused in his dotage?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

One would have thought it obvious why The Stag faces in the direction it does. If 'twas turned through ninety degrees to the left it would be facing toward Henry St. Thereby placing the inebriated residents of Church at great risk of staggering under passing vehicles as they wobbled out of the door at last orders, incapacitated due to the copious amounts of alcohol consumed.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

:o Thanks yerself, it's been a long and difficult day, good job one of us is awake.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

:drink:JUST FOUND WHAT COULD BE THE ANSWER...TEALEAF...the stag as you look from the front is the youngest part of the buiding,if you look from henry street at the lower roof that is the origanal building!how does he know you ask yourself! well i staggered into the loft with my torch and had a look at the beams holding the roof up, yes the ones at the front are old, but the attic in the lower part of the building are ancient.they are shaped like dogs back legs,its as if they cut a tree down and split it in half and used them to hold the roof up.......cant find my camera to take some pics but when i do i will show you its amazing what is holding that roof up, and for so many years.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

I feel a definite urge to go and look at the Stag today.

Looking at that old map of A-b's The front of the Stag seems to be facing towards the back of the Commercial across a field.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

There was a road from Church Lane to Dunkenhalgh, not a very good one, but you could drive down it to Rishton - have done so, and have less than happy memories of getting the back wheels of an MG stuck down between two bars of a loose cattle grid at midnight! It has now all been closed off to through traffic, but you can still walk it.

Willow - I will look at the outside, although so far my close inspections of the Stag have been from the inside!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

I keep meaning to go over there and take a look but I always seem to have a dozen and one other things to do.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Did we ever get to the bottom of this question?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

No, I don't think we ever did but I believe Tealeaf knows something about it.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

I'll give the answer later on this week.....but it is an answer that is very simple. Guesses, anyone?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Well my guess was that it faced the main road as was in the days it was built but I think I said that umpteen posts ago so it can't be right.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

the stag faces the way it does ,because the front of the stag as it is now was added at a later date!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

So which way did it face originally?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

the stag had a door on the side of henry street.that is the main part of the building,when it was renovated they covered it in all in that white horrible stuff and you cant see it. but a few locals still remember how it was! also willow the mail comes addressed to henry st, and bank st. one landlord got the building stripped to the original stone but was made to cover it back up because he did not get permission from the council,it also looked a mess where they put different stone in to block doors and windows!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

So the answer is that it faces the way it does because originally it didn't ?

Any idea how long ago that door was blocked up?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

apparantley late sixties early seventies.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

I'll have to go and stand staring at the wall to see if it jogs my memory into a vision of how it used to be - probably won't.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Some of the old boys in the tap room will give you a date sometime in the 1950's as to when the side door was blocked up. However, the main entrance to the Stag is the one we know and the one that faces south-west, along with most of the windows in the pub (compare the number of windows on this main side with the number of windows on the Henry Street side of the pub).

...One more clue, then, as to why the pub faces the way it does. The answer will be tomorrow night, 6pm, unless someone else gets there first.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

It faced either a main road, a village green or some other thing of significance?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

So why does the Stag face in the direction it does face? Well, the answer is very, very simple.

It faces southwest, and hence it gets the maximum sunlight. The back of the pub faces northeast, and hence remains coolest. Well before the days of refrigeration and big breweries, and during the time of Staggeringman’s predecessor bar about a 100, the landlord would have brewed his own beer on the premises. That would have had to be kept somewhere dark and cool (not necessarily in the cellar because pumping and dispensing systems were not available) …so brewing and storage would have taken place at the back of the pub

Meanwhile, any thirsty traveller or local yokel could take advantage sitting directly outside with his pint on a hot summers day and look over the adjoining crossroad and watch the world go by; or, if raining, stay indoors and stare contentedly out the expensive South-West facing windows contemplating the meaning of life and wondering just when someone would invent the Accy Web….

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

don't mean to sound ignorant but where exactly is the Stag?? I know tanpits garage (Frasers coaches) but not sure what the pub is called on there.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

The pub in the tanpits is either called the Plough or the Tanpits, depending on your preference. It does'nt really matter....no one cares and few drink there. The Stag is on the corner of Henry Street and Bank Street.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

its were i used to catch the ribble bus to go over dill hall to work in c-l-moors, stag was a pick up point for their buses.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

The Tanpits as was (Plough as now is) faces the same sort of direction doesn't it? Or does it? I get a bit confused with the bend ion the road.

It's an interesting explanantion but does that mean all old pubs face the same direction?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

:confused: YES WILLOW!It does but i am still not convinced that what is now the front was always the front!would like more information on this one!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

So would I. How about the cellar? Have you got any deeds that give a clue when the cellar was created?

I'd like to find other old pubs and see if they have cellars and which direction they face. I'm sure I've seen old films where barrels were kept in cellars.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

its got two arched cellars made from what looks like normal bricks,the records office at preston have all the old stuff of the pub,would love to have the time to go and look through them!

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

The only pub I know of that had a cellar that I personally witnessed was the Brigade in Abbey st. As a kid I was down there one day when barrells were delivered through the opening on the footpath to the cellar below. My grandparents owned the pub. Holgate was the name. In the 50's.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

have been studying this for some time now tea and i think your explanation might be wrong?have a look at the attachments of the original beams in the loft,these are in the rear part of the stag. the ones at the front are boring so didnt take any piccies.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

That quote is from 27th of October 2004. That camera took some finding :D

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

ask mick about the batterys?

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

the first piccie is the bottom end of the stag showing the chimmney breast upstairs in a bedroom the other 3 are from behind a wall downstairs.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

the first picture is from what is the front of the stag,notice the windows how big they are(yes the could have been modified)but in the second picture look at the down stairs window, that looks more original than the others.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Mick tell us about the batteries.
Let me guess Harwood Red pinched them :D

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

excuse me Neil but how did you know?? :o

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

i would say so willow but thats my opinion, the front of the stag as it stands is an add on. the rear of the building is ancient hence the beams that hold the roof up, would love to know more and will keep delving.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

the wall is not straight by a mile, a expert would tell you straight away, but i am not an expert.the corridor between the bar and toilets is way out.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

You could do a search here at the Land Register office
you can get details and plans of the building but they cost £2 each so you will need a credit card


http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk...eSearchServlet

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

Quite true Mez,
The Ribble bus would come bown Maden St turn right at the clock and left at the Stag on to Henry St and then on to Dill Hall Lane - that was certainly from about 1955/6 through to Jan 1965. The bus often had to stop because my son or my dog were laid in the road. My mother ran the confectioners shop there by the clock during that period.

Re: Why does the Stag face the way it does?
 

I've just found this from the 1871 cencus records. It states The Stag Inn as being at 1 Lane Ends
1 Lane Ends, Church. 'Stag Inn'
William HAWORTH/head/m/36/Licensed victualler/Church 41.197 Family 3
Sarah HAWORTH/wife/m/33/Great Harwood 71.90 Family 3
John W HAWORTH/son/6/Church 71.91 Family 3
James HAWORTH/son/5/Church 71.92 Family 3
Alice H HAWORTH/son/3/Church 71.93 Family 3
Arthur HAWORTH/son/1/Church 71.94 Family 3
Elizabeth AMES/servant/u/21/General Servant/Church
Annie CHATER/servant/13/General Servant/Church