Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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?

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

:drink: cheers!

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

"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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.:drink:

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

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.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

used to go in the langs,thwaites house,on way to friday night dance upstairs in the miners.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

Along with the demise of our heritage of back street pubs we also lost a lot of working mens clubs, I remember my mum going to Bingo and to listen to the Turn at the (AE?U) god can't remember the name, it was on Blackburn Rd by the station.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

The AEU club is now a restaurant called Accrington Pride.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

I posted this thread on Burnley web a few months back and I hope it may be of interest to you, I hope so!:) QUOTE=wayneyboy1942]Now it may be bad news for bitter drinkers,we are now drinking less and less bitter and we tend to have wine and larger instead. I've pinched this info from a paper yesturday.
The top selling beers are....

1 Stella Artois £591.8 million
2 Carling £318.0 milliom
3 Fosters £256.8 millon
4 Budwweiser £150.9 million
5 Carlsberg £126.3 million
6 Kronenbourg 1664 £122.0 million
7 Grolsh £116.1 million
8 Carlsberg Export £97.2 millon
9 Tennents £65.8 million
10 Guinness £63.9 million. .[/QUOTE]

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

[QUOTE=wayneyboy1942]Just for the record I'll post the the rest of the top 20 selling beers.

11 Becks £59.4 million
12 Carlsberg Specail brew £51.4 million
13 Tennents Super £51.2 million
14 John Smiths Extra smooth £49.6 million
15 Miller Beer £40.0 million
16 Boddingtons £37.0 million
17 Castlemain xxxx £35.9 million
18 Guiness original £35.1 million
19 Skol £26.5 milloin
20 Miller Genuine Draught £25.6 million
There you go pop pickers. :)
:)[/QUOTE The paper was saying that bitter drinkers were a dying breed.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

A.E.U. is correct,used to have a great friday night disco,with the late harry curry d.j. best oldies d.j. ever round here in my opinion.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

I remember both pubs on Hyndburn rd. wynone but not as drinking holes. I used to walk to school (accy g.)along hyndburn rd in the early fifties and I used to frequently stop outside the window of the carpenters shop and look in wonder at the chain made out of wood. I had ambitions of making one myself but never got round to it:D

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

the club on the corner was the AEIU. YOU ALL MISSED THE I...........lol

was in the palentine on the last day it was open, stripper on and the police raided it!
worked behind the bar at the langs when brian and gail hoole ran it,its a dieing trade due to rent rises,beer prices,and dvds,videos and sky tv.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

your quite correct about the i staggeringman but everybody called it the aeu p.s who was last landlord of the palatine? was it D.H.

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cant remember at this moment but will let you know.yes it was a bloke called dave h...t

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thought so used to go in very occasionally knew him and his brother E H long time ago.

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Although don't drink beer, there used to be a saying, Duttons for gluttons, Thwaites for mates and one other but cannot think of this ? Anyone know ?

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

don't remember that katex but the other local brew was Mathew Brown which became Lions. p.s. i don't drink beer either,but not by choice.lol

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

When I was a teenager just about the only beer you could get on tap in the Burnley area was Thwaites, Dutton or Massey (Burnley brewery). Remember the brewery and pub/beer loyalty (the local) people used to have in those days? One uncle of mine would only drink Dutton's and his favorite pub was the "General Havelock" (Manchester Rd., Burnley) while another would only drink Thwaites and his favorite pub was "The Junction" in Rosegrove. Neither one would drink Massey's no matter what! My father liked Massey's or Thwaites but not Dutton's -- he had two "locals" on Manchester Rd. -- the "Rose & Crown" and the "Bull & Butcher".

The only beer/ale which seemed to be universally acceptable to my father's generation was "Bass" in bottle -- that is what they would bring home from the pubs when they had late night parties.

Of course, my pals and me drank any brand of beer from any pub at hand wherever we were, such as "John Smith" at Todmorden when we followed Burnley during Cricket matches -- I don't remember it being available "across the border" in Lancashire in those days.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

Labatt's for tw............

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

I am resurrecting this thread because me and my old feller were in dispute last night about where the Australian pub was….i said it was over by Bull Bridge…(and was knocked down to make way for the Arndale) he said it was on the Ritz corner.
I remember the pub at the Ritz corner…..one of the girls I went to school with lived there(Susan Denwood), but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called.
So…please will one of the older drinkers on here settle this for me?
Thank you in advance.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

According to the Lost Pubs Project: The Australian Inn was situated on Weir Street, closing in 1964 after being declared an unsafe structure.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

Hi Ryewolf,
The Australian Inn was situated over Bull Bridge. The pub just further down from the Ritz cinema was I think called the Crown (not sure), but it was a Massey's house. Not sure whether the brewery is still active. Across the road was the Bridge pub.
Cheers
Phil Kenyon
Late Belfield Rd.

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

Yes, Thank you Philip.

I did a bit more researching yesterday and found that answer.

Weir St would be roughly where the back of the current vets practice is now.
And my other query about the little pub on Ritz corner….it was as you say….The Crown….dubbed the ‘little’ Crown because of course there was another Crown pub close the the viaduct in Accrington(now a hairdressers and a beauty shop).

Re: Whatever happened.......... Pubs
 

autralian was first pub i ever went in underage was i but could get in .

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So Cashy….was it approximately where the vets is near the Arndale?

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it was on the corner of castle street and what we used to call it the bottom of what we used to call the PLECK some one said it was WEIR STREET. but at that age i didnt know that.

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I think that the pub on Ritz corner was the Crown. It was usually called the Little Crown to distinguish it from the Crown next to railway arch on Blackburn Road. The Australian was next to Bull Bridge opposite side to the Black Bull.

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Me too Cashy.
The Australian would serve anybody. ANYBODY !

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TRUE they served ME.:D