Crescent Inn

[tonyf9]

I have a photo which is marked by an Aunt some many years ago, that indicates my Great Grandfather, a Stonemason, present at the installation of some monument outside of a Public House called the Crescent Inn, Walker & Homfrays, Breweries.
As the family came from the Stalybridge area, I have tried to search where this was likely to have been.
I have been trying to upload the photo to Photobucket etc etc, but success is eluding me at present.
My guess is that the photo could be around 1900+, but does anyone have any clues on the existence of the Pub name or Brewery?

Tonyf9

[Gay J Oliver]

My neighbour has a book all about the pubs of Stalybridge. I'll try and get hold of tomorrow.

[Woody]

Hi Tony

There's nothing obvious for Stalybridge but Gay might be better informed. The most famous 'Crescent Inn' in Greater Manchester is the listed building that's still to be found on Crescent Road in Salford. Google it and you'll get a photo for comparison. It's a very long shot but Walker and Humphray was a Salford Brewery.

[Woody]

Hi Tony

Here's a bit more which might (or might not) be relevant. In 1891 there was a Crescent Inn at 309 Great Ancoats Street, Ancoats, Manchester where the landlady and her husband, a steel merchant’s traveller, were each born at Stalybridge – David Kinsey (b 1857) and Fanny (b 1859). She was Fanny Frances Nottingham prior to her 1883 marriage in a civil ceremony at Ashton under Lyne.

This Crescent Inn was still trading in 1901 (Faint family) and 1911 (Bryant family). In every instance the husband followed a trade of his own and it’s the woman who runs the Inn. That suggests it was more of a beerhouse than a traditional inn (no spirits license). Sadly, in 1901 and again in 1911 Fanny was a patient in Prestwich Hospital.

Both Ashton New Road (A 662) and Ashton Old Road (A 635) feed into Great Ancoats Street behind Piccadilly Railway Station and there was a direct tram route to Ashton under Lyne. (Now, 100 years later, we're building another set of tramlines to replace those that were dug up in the 1950s. I'm still not quite sure how that can be labelled 'progress').

[tonyf9]

Hi Woody,
Great research you have made, and I will further explore.
Something I have looked at, more in seeing if I really have stumbled on something, is looking at the buildings that still exist on Clarence Street in Stalybridge via Google Maps. I do realise that CLARENCE is not CRECENT, but somewhere in my searches I think I was directed here probably from Brewery minutes. Now I did send a photo via Gay's email address (because I just could not launch via Photobucket) which shows the Crescent Inn behind my Great Grandfather. The angle of the shot does look very closely to be the building which now is BRIAN KELLY, TAILORS WORKSHOP, and this building looks very much like an old Pub (now windows bricked in etc). Also, across the road is a substantial structure, now FLOCK DEVELOPMENTS, and they have foundation stones in the base structure perimeter. I wonder is these stones were being located etc at the photo time, and the Lady Mayoress was officiating?
A long shot!
Tony

[Woody]

Tony

And there’s more, although it’s now become a matter of ruling out the options.

I thought I’d found your ‘Crescent Inn’ at 118 Broadbottom Road, Mottram in Longdendale. It’s been closed for some time and is now a private dwelling, but after I'd dug deeper I’m equally sure is not the one you’re seeking, despite it having a War Memorial next to it which could have been the reason for the event in the photo. However, I found the photo you’d posted on Rootsweb and the pub shown here is an end-terrace on flat ground. The Crescent in Broadbottom Road is detached and on a hill.

It’s now a matter of ruling out possibilities and I doubt very much that ‘The Crescent’ in question is in Stalybridge or Ashton-under-Lyne. Rob Magee published a couple of substantial booklets in 1990 that provided references to all the watering holes in those two districts of Tameside, including many photos and name-changes over time. He spent months researching licensee arrangements, ownership, breweries, Rates Books and more so if he didn’t find ‘The Crescent’ in either Ashton or Stalybridge, I’m prepared to accept it’s not there to be found. That doesn't mean it's not in one of the other Tameside districts but stone masons did travel fair distances plying their trade so towns in Cheshire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire are not out of the question.

I found the Broadbottom Road ‘Crescent’ by searching a few Trades Directories (which you can access free on-line – http://www.historicaldirectories.org) and that reminded me that this place had still been open for business in the 1980s.

If you do choose to go down the Trades Directories route, be prepared to first spend time getting used to the way the site works - and then to waving ‘bye-bye’ to hours of your spare time. Your family photo looks like it was taken in the late 1890s/ early 1900s and the on-line Trades Directories are arranged by location and/or by decade. I focused first, for example, on the Directories for Cheshire in 1901 and, having found it there, worked backwards to earlier Cheshire directories.

You could also have a look at the Tameside Image Archive website which you'll get via Google There are hundreds of old photos there and you might just get lucky.

[Gay J Oliver]

I can concur with WOODY I too have searched the books by Rob Magee and not just the indexes, but throughout the text for any name changes over the years. Sadly though Rob Magee did not write a book about the pubs of Dukinfield and I did wonder about a Crescent inn in Dukinfield around Crescent Road somewhere, but our Dukinfield expert at the local archives centre doesn't think this was ever the case. So I too was stumped.

[joanslad]

crescent inn. the licensee,sarah ashton is on the 1891 census as living at 26 foundry street dukinfield with "the crescent inn" written in the first column, so i assume thats where it was located. i only noticed this when i was looking up my ancestors, the hartleys, originally from poynton they lived next door at 28 foundry street. other than the census iknow nothing about my hartleys.