The Flying Horse stood opposite the still standing Waterloo on Greengate and only closed a few years earlier in 1979. The first licence for the beerhouse was in 1845 and it originally only occupied a small part of the three story building shown above. The Flying Horse survived an attempt to close it by the police who said the trade was too poor. In the 1930s and '40s as an Empress Brewery then Taylors Brewery house and it was nicknamed the Flying Knacker, being so small that "if ten men were in the vault you had to sit outside". In the '40s it extended into what had been a fried fish shop next door and in its final years was a Tetley house [1]. In the mid '70s the Flying Horse was a thriving and highly rated pub with a male vault and small lounge with service through a hatch. The vault was old fashioned, wood panelled with sporting pictures hung, while the lounge had a record player and a fine selection of LPs and piano. Hand pumped Tetley bitter and mild plus Double Diamond and Skol were on offer and this must have been one of the few pubs of the time that hadn't succumbed to Guinness [2]. Its sudden, unexpected closure and demolition just four years after such a glowing review sounds like a shame [1].
1. Salford Pubs - Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003).
2. The Manchester Pub Guide, Manchester & Salford City Centres (1975).
I understand this pub closed sooner than the other Greengate pubs as it was demolished in advance of the building of Trinity Way.
ReplyDeleteI met the landlady yesterday she and her husband ran the pub for over twenty years she has very fond memories and loved the pub and people that frequented it she would still be there now if not for the council.
ReplyDeleteI’ve just found a distant cousin running this pub on the 1939 Register - Joseph Withers.
ReplyDeleteJoe De Fleece was the landlord when it was demolished,went on to be the landlord of The Cross Keys Jersey Street Ancoats.
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