Ye Old Nelson, Chapel Street

Ye Old Nelson, Chapel Street, Salford. (c) stephenbroadhurst at flickr.

One of the more recent Chapel Street pubs to close, Ye Old Nelson on the corner of Sidney Street has been subject to something of a campaign by locals to save it, as featured in this blog.  It is also another Salford pub well researched by the late Neil Richardson in Salford Pubs, Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi (2003):

'In the eighteenth century this part of Chapel Street was called White Cross Bank and the roadway curved round a grop of cottages here.  After these were pulled down, the Nelson Tavern and ajoining shops were built.  The pub was opened by Alice Schofield in 1805, the year Lord Nelson died at Trafalgar.

'The licensee in the 1820s, John Goostry, was also the owner and when he moved out, John Taylor acquired a lease on the pub.  Deborah Taylor took over in the 1840s, then in September 1859 the Nelson Tavern was advertised for sale under the terms of John Goostry's will.  It was described as a freehold spirit vault and brewhouse and there were two shops adjoining Chapel Street and some cottages at the back.  The lessee (Mrs Taylor) paid a yearly rent of £115 and under the terms of the lease had to keep the property in good repair and painted both inside and out.

Ye Old Nelson, Chapel Street, Salford, 2008. (c) Andrew Greco.

'In the 1860s and 1870s Messers Hannay & Dickson, wine and spirit merchants and later brewers, had an interest in the Nelson, but when the time came to rebuild, Chesters Brewery probably put up the money.  Permission to rebuild was granted to licensee Robert Marsh in August 1895 and Chesters records show they bought the property in April 1898.  The Nelson was rebuilt on the same site, but rising well above the original roof line; the height of the chimney stack on the shop next door had to be increased by several feet.

Among the first occupants of the new pub (now called Ye Old Nelson) were Bartholemew Sullivan, Robert Leatherbarrow and Dick Buckley, who was there in the 1920s-30s.  Later licensees included Arthur Mullaley and Norman Strokes in the 1950s, Leonard and Dorothy Price in the 1960s and Neville and Avril Hulme in the 1970s.  The Old Nelson still had its high ceilings and other original features when it closed in 2003.'

Ye Old Nelson, Chapel Street, Salford, 2009. (c) MikeJDavis at flickr.

1. Salford Pubs, Part One: The Old Town, including Chapel Street, Greengate and the Adelphi, Neil Richardson (2003).