IN THE last look at Northwich lost pubs we travelled along High Street, so now it’s time to carry on up Witton Street, and the first one we come to is at number 28, The Ship, standing on what used to be called Ship Hill.
Two previous pubs stood on this site before this one.
The first landlord is shown as George Holland, who was the host from 1763 to 1777.
The Ship in the early 1900s
The building was covered in clapboarding like ships, and the front door had paintings of clipper ships on it.
The pub closed in 1933; the last two landlords were Joseph Perry 1878 to 1892 and John Perry 1892 to 1933.
The Ship in the late 1800s
This part of Witton Street had its fair share of watering holes as we will see.
The next one slightly further up and on the opposite side of the street was the Black Dog.
The original name in 1763 when first recorded was the Greyhound and pub nicknames being what they are it is most likely that it was nicknamed the Black Dog for thirty years and then re-named officially. It closed in around 1857.
Continuing along, we come to a large and impressive pub called the Talbot at 40 Witton Street, now replaced by awful 1960s architecture.
The Talbot in the 1950s
The building stood with three stories and was named both The Talbot Inn and The Talbot Vaults.
The Northwich Brewery Co opened it in 1831, and eventually, Greenall Whitley owned it.
The location of Chapel and Talbot
The first landlord was John Wilkinson who had taken over the new pub from an Inn with the same name in Lock Street.
The last landlord was Samuel Inglesfield, who was there from 1952 to 1962.
When it closed, its full licence was transferred to The Oak Tree in Waterloo Road which itself closed in 1972.
Crossing the road again we find an attractive black and white building at numbers 57 to 59, the building is still there but is no longer a pub, it was the George and Dragon.
The George and Dragon in the 1970s
It began life as a pub in 1760, and it had four guest bedrooms and stabling for sixteen horses in stalls together with three loose boxes.
In 1927 the usual Northwich affliction, subsidence, had taken its toll and the building was demolished, and the current building erected and opened in 1928.
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Trade declined due to fewer people living in the town and on November 29,1979 it closed for good, the last two landlords being George Burgess and Dennis Snape. The building now houses retail businesses.
Just one more pub to look at on this trip up Witton Street and that is The White Lion at 71 to 73, another popular Northwich town-centre pub.
The White Lion when three stories in 1895
It opened in 1767 but again, like many Northwich buildings it suffered greatly from subsidence until it had to be demolished in 1885.
It does not stop there, however, as the new White Lion built on the site in the same year, as a three-story building, continued to slip into the ground.
The White Lion in the 1970s
Luckily while doing so, it stayed upright, and the whole building sank with the ground floor being under the ground!
The three-story pub then became a two-story pub, what used to be the bar snug and taproom became the cellar. On February 1, 1990, the White Lion closed its doors for good.
The White Lion being demolished
It remained derelict for a while before being demolished, leaving a hole where the pub used to be. Decorated boards have now shielded this hole.
Next time we’ll continue up Witton Street to report on more lost pubs.
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