Friday 5 September 2014

Sir Colin Campbell, 166 Folds Road


A number of pubs were named after military heroes. The Sir Colin Campbell was one of them.

The Sir Colin Campbell was a beerhouse situated at 166 Folds Road, on the right-hand side as you leave the town centre and opposite the Beehive foundry. It lasted for around 50 years as licensed premises. 

The pub was certainly in existence by 1871. In that year Worrall’s Directory for Bolton and Bury lists Robert Marsden as a beer retailer at 166 Folds Road. There is no beerhouse at that address in Whellan and Co’s 1853 Directory so the premises must have been licensed some time in the 1860s.

The clue lies in the name. Sir Colin Campbell was a British Army general who was active in the Crimean War in the mid-1850s and in India in 1857-8. He retired from the army in 1860 and it is likely the pub opened around the time either of his military victories or his retirement.

The Sir Colin Campbell was bought in the 1880s by George Walker of Walker’s Bolton Brewery Ltd at the Park View Brewery on Spa Road. By 1913 it was owned by James Jackson & Sons Ltd who had taken over the brewery in 1904. [1]

The pub was situated on the corner of Baron Street. On the next block, just three doors away, was the Crown Hotel. The Dog AndSnipe, the Church and the Lord Clyde were in staggering distance and it seems the decision to close the Sir Colin Campbell was taken in the face of stiff competition.

The building existed before it became a pub and it remained standing for many years after the Sir Colin Campbell closed. It was demolished in 1969 along with number of other buildings in the area.

The Vernacare factory now stands on the site. The Sir Colin Campbell was situated on the green swathe grass in front of the factory in this image from May 2012 (copyright Google Street View).





[1] Pubs Of Bolton 1800-2000, by Gordon Readyhough.

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