I am returning this week to the town of Chorley, which was one of the key lynchpin locations during the Second World War as its sister village Euxton was the home to the Royal Ordnance Factory which provided vast numbers of munitions which greatly assisted the war effort. When I used to sporadically play golf very poorly, we made a few visits to nearby Duxbury Park. I recall on the 10th hole they had a lake in situ on a very steeply inclining fairway that I could never clear and lost a plethora of golf balls in that pesky water hazard.
This is now the continuing tale of the evening of my debut attendance at the ‘Deadwood Dog’ Foxtails bar. Prior to attending there we made a visit to the nearby Chorley Last Orders at the Lamplighter on Market Street, which adopted that name in 2015.
Lamplighters. Image Credit proper-pubs.com
The town is intrinsically linked to the market, and this goes all the way back to them initially receiving an official market charter from King Henry VII in 1498. This authorised for a weekly market to be instigated which has continued for over six centuries and takes place every Tuesday. The street like many other provinces contained a Woolworths, this time in an art deco building prior to its untimely demise in the 1990’s.
The Lamplighter is one of the oldest remaining hostelries in the town and dates back to around 1793. The current name pertains to the role of lighting streetlamps in the evenings which was phased out in the 1930’s when they began to be automatically controlled, before electricity was introduced in the 1950’s.
Its original moniker was the Joiner’s Arms, and this was exemplified by the initial landlord Thomas Green who was listed as a joiner and cabinet maker alongside his innkeeper status. As in keeping with the many pubs of that era, they were listed as one of the lodges of the Freemasons and many such ‘dubious handshake’ meetings took place there. It was in later years called Dicey Riley’s and then The Entertainer.
It was a renowned local music pub in the 1960’s with singers Julie Jones, The Golden Girl and Ozzy Williams performing there. Ozzy was reportedly very well respected to the stage that at his funeral in 1970 he apparently stopped the traffic on Market Street. It is a traditional large room establishment, and they stage music at the weekends and on our foray, we saw a singer called Desmond playing.
Market Street back in the day. Image Credit wwwpinterest.com
Post-gig we also had a quick visit into Chorley White Bull’s Head which is a large double-fronted terrace pub.This is another one from bygones times and records indicate that it is the oldest public house in the town residing in its original building and still bearing its primary name. It was in its early days a meeting point for traders after their day at the nearby market.
Apparently, members of Boyzone and Westlife were spotted in there after their surprising purchase of the local football team in 2023. Thankfully, there are no reports of them performing any tunes whilst there! When I attended, there was a local performer called Tommy playing on a stage in the corner.
A couple of years earlier on a previous skelp over we darkened the door of Chorley Nelipott Bar on Chapel Street nearer to the railway station. It has an affiliation back to the ‘dark satanic mills’ by being housed in what was previously a weaver’s cottage.
White Bull. Image Credit beerintheevening.com
It opened originally in 2016 as Speakeasy Bar, one of the first small micro bars to appear but since then many have followed suit, and I think Chorley is up to double figures now in this regard. It briefly changed to Warp & Welt, another reference to earlier times, then in June 2019 to its current name. It is independently run and has two lounge rooms downstairs and stairs that take you up to a function room. It also has a small outdoor space at the rear for the ‘days of summer’ and on my particular visit I saw a singer called Eamonn.
