Castle Inn, Hunts Bank

Castle Inn, Hunts Bank. (c) manchester.gov.uk [1].

The Castle Inn (Or Caftle Inn, f denoting the historic long or medial s, as on the map) stood on Hunts Bank as it rose from the River Irwell before Victoria Station was built in 1838 after the purchase of land including Hunts Bank, by the Manchester & Leeds Railway. A local bard, Charles Kenworthy, described the change taking place in the area in 1838 in verse:

"The 'Castle', that long braved the flood,
Where oft was brewed stout ale and good
A College Inn is seen
Where frowned the ancient dungeon wall
Rose modern buildings, fair and tall
And stables Paletine" [2]

The Castle Inn was presumably named after Manchester Castle (this itself may have been no grander than an wooden palisade on the highest point of the embankbank). This drawing from 1780 shows that dungeon that stood on Hunts Bank, with the old cathedral in the background. Is that the Castle Inn on the left where the snappily dressed thirsty fellows are headed? As the above verse suggests, the Castle was later named the College Inn, after Chetham's School, which has survived in the area for over 550 years.

1. www.publicaccess.manchester.gov.uk/...pdf.
2. Memorials of Manchester Streets, Richard Wright Proctor (1874).