Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road

 Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road, Salford. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

Next door to Jollies (formerly St Philips Hotel) the top of Oldfield Road near to Chapel Street was the tiny Prince of Wales.  It was known locally as "Little's", not due to its size and probably not to differentiate it from the other Prince of Wales further down Oldfield Road either, but because it was run by the Little family from 1910 to the 1950s.  As pointed out by Mr Wilson, it was fairly common to have two similarly named pubs in proximity to each other, and for them to be known as the "Big ..." and "Little ..." - the Big Queens and Little Queens on Regent Road, the Big Derby and Little Derby on Derby Street in Ordsall, and the Big Dover and Little Dover in Higher Broughton (both still surviving).

 Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road, Salford. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

The Prince of Wales opened a couple of years after its neighbour, the St Philips Hotel, as the Horse and Groom beerhouse in about 1838.  By the 1870s it was renamed the Prince of Wales and was a Groves & Whitnall house towards the end of the century.  The aforementioned Littles took over in 1910 and by the 1950s it was a Tetley's house.  The Prince of Wales or "Little's" closed in 1983 and reopened as Chung's Chippy [1].  Three decades later and the chippy is still going, despite its old neighbour being demolished.

Former Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road, Salford. (c) Google 2011. View Larger Map.

1. Salford Pubs - Part Two: Including Islington, Ordsall Lane and Ordsall, Oldfield Road, Regent Road and Broughton, Neil Richardson (2003).

Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road

Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road, 1992. (c) deltrems at flickr.

Down Oldfield Road from the St Phillips Hotel (later Jollies), was the Prince of Wales at No.165.  It was pulled down at some point in the 1990s despite being a still popular pub in the preceding decades, and has been replaced with "The Fusion" apartments on the corner of Middlewood Street (note how the brick wall - the start of the railway bridge - is still the same).  In the 1970s it was described as a "good Northern end-of-the-street-pub" with Tetley bitter and mild on beer engines and Skol and Guinness on keg [1].

Former location of Prince of Wales, Oldfield Road, Salford. (c) googlemaps.

The Prince of Wales was originally a shop when Samuel Lord opened it as the fully licensed Railway and Drovers Inn.  By 1845 the pub had assumed the Prince of Wales name although in the directory it was listed as the Prince of Wales and Yorkshire House in the 1860s-'70s.  The pub was rebuilt in the early 20th century by Cornbrook Brewery and included a shop next door which was a hairdressers then funeral parlour.  By 1949 the Prince of Wales was included in th Hampson Street compulsory purchase area but it was spared following a change of plans and Bass Charrington had it in the 1960s when they incorporated the shop into the pub.  A final stint as a freehouse from 1985 saw it last until closure and demolition in 2001 [2].  

1. The Manchester Pub Guide, Manchester & Salford City Centres (1975). 

2. Salford Pubs - Part Two: Including Islington, Ordsall Lane and Ordsall, Oldfield Road, Regent Road and Broughton, Neil Richardson (2003).