The Old Cock Tavern dated back to the 1830s. It was originally known simply as the Cock Tavern. There was also a pub by that name on Churchgate just a few hundred yards away, but while pubs with the same name – and there was more than one pub in Bolton named the Hen and Chickens, the Millstone and the Nags Head to name but three – often differentiated themselves with the longer established pub as naming itself ‘Old’ that wasn’t initially the case with the Cock. The Cock on Green Street eventually re-named itself as the Old Cock despite the fact that its contender for the title was open from at least the 1700s until the 1830s.
In 1848 the landlord of the Cock was George Bromiley.
He was hauled before the court in April of that year “on police intelligence”
according to a newspaper report at the time. The main reason for pub landlords
appearing in court was a breach of Sunday drinking laws which prohibited alcohol
being served before 12.30 on a Sunday lunch time and between 3.30 and 6 on a
Sunday afternoon. Sunday mornings and late Sunday afternoons were the time for
Divine Service and Evensong respectively. [1]
The pub was run for many years by Mary Shepherd, also
known as Mary Warburton. Mary and her first husband John Warburton first moved
into the Old Cock in the mid-1860s. John Warburton died in 1873 and Mary
married a weaver named John Shepherd in 1877. John and Mary Shepherd then ran
the Old Cock for a number of years afterwards.
The pub became a Tong’s house and remained so until it
shut in 1935. By then, Tong’s tied estate was in the hands of the Warrington
brewery of Walker Cain. After a review of their local pubs the Old Cock was
closed down. The building remained standing for a number of years afterwards
until it was cleared along with the rest of the area in the 1960s.
Fold Road car park now stands on the site.
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