HISTORIAN Jack Nadin has been delving into the nooks and crannies of Padiham and investigating the many old ale houses which once served the locals.

The area around the parish church of St Leonard’s, the present building dating from 1869, had a number of pubs catering for the ale-drinking working class, including the quaint Old Black Bull, which closed down in 1938.

The Starkie Arms is one of the town’s oldest public houses, although substantially rebuilt.

It takes its name, of course, from the Starkies, of Huntroyde.

We know that in 1810 William Waddington was the landlord at the Starkie, and that on March 24 that year a vocal and instrumental concert was held there, conducted by Mr Samuel Mills – front seats 1s. 6d. back seats 1s.

The George and Dragon Inn used to stand at 19 Church Street and was kept by George Shackleton near the end of the nineteenth century. It survived until at least the mid 1920s, when kept by Bob Moorhouse, but it had disappeared by 1945.

Nearer the top end of Church Street was another public house named the Swan, which was kept by George Horsell in the early 1880s.

Then there’s the cement rendered frontage of what used to be the old Commercial Inn. It was always known as Bottom Drum while the Whalley Range, just 100 yards higher up, was known as Top Drum.

It’s likely their names came from old militia bands meeting there after practice.

Their large bass drums were probably too big to get into the pub and were left outside on the pavement.

Elizabeth Stuttard kept the old Commercial Inn, in 1945.

Near here and the ‘Top O’ Town’ are a number of still- surviving pubs, the Whalley Range, the Hare and Hounds, recalling hunting days now gone, and the Alma, named after the battle in the Crimean War, which was kept for a while, as many will recall, by Archie Lee.

We might mention here the Partridge Inn, which was at 26 Alma Street from around 1883 through to around 1896.

Then we still have the Free Gardeners named after a Masonic Institution, at 2 St Giles’ Street.

Also on St Giles’ Street at numbers 19-21 was the Volunteers, kept by Bob Wilkinson in the mid 1950s, but which has now been replaced by modern housing.

Bank Street is a short street that contained an amazing number of pubs.

There was the Cross Hill Tavern, kept by Thomas G. Robinson from the 1880s until around 1902 when it appears to have ceased being an inn. On the other side of the street is The I. O. of O. F. M. L, built in 1845. This was the Oddfellows’ Arms until around the mid 1930s, while at 8 Bank Street was the Crown, an inn that ran until around 1896.

In Adamson Street was the short-lived Bird in Hand – this later became the Cotton Tree, which survived until the early 1900s.

On Moor Lane itself was the Joiners Arms. A little further down towards town, at 30 Ightenhill Street, was an inn known by the name of the Sparrow Hawk, which was only mentioned once in 1883 when the landlord was Peter Fish.

At 20 Ightenhill Street there was also the Welcome Inn, which lasted until at least the mid 1930s.

On Mill Street there was also the appropriately named Weavers’ Arms, which closed around the mid 1880s, the Dun Horse, and the Cricketers’ and Footballers’ Arms, which ran, rather like the Dun Horse, until about the time of the First World War.

Finally, just around the corner from the Hand and Shuttle was the Croftwell Inn, which was referred for compensation way back in 1908.

It seems that the ‘Padjammers’ were quite a thirsty bunch – and still are some might say.