Kersal Hotel, Moor Lane

Kersal Hotel, Moor Lane, Kersal, 1990. (c) deltrems at flickr.

When Kersal Moor was the venue for the Manchester Racecouse in the 1700s and 1800s, there was an alehouse opposite to cater for spectators and participants.  Its first name was probably the Running Horses, as recorded in 1776, and in the next century the pub was known as the Racehorse, the Turf Tavern and the Griffin & Turf Tavern.  It was described as having a bowling green, archery grounds, gardens, and booths that were rented out to Manchester shopkeepers on race day [1].

Former location of Kersal Hotel, Moor Lane, Kersal. (c) Google 2012 View Larger Map.

When the Manchester Racecourse moved from Kersal to Castle Irwell in the 1840s, the Turf Tavern's brewhouse was sold and the pub was converted into a hotel.  The Kersal Hotel had 15 rooms and it now boasted "the best bowling green near Manchester."  Boddingtons Brewery bought the Kersal Hotel in 1893 and rebuilt it into the grand pub shown here on the corner of Oaklands Road and Moor Lane.  It only offered three bedrooms now but was still was described as "the largest and most up to date hotel in the district [1]."

Kersal Hotel, Moor Lane, Kersal. (c) Salford Pubs of the 70s at flickr.

In more recent times the pub was also known as the Kersal Moor Hotel and it survived into the 1990s, still under Boddingtons.  Sadly, the pub closed in the mid-'90s and was left empty for almost a decade. It was finally demolished in 2004 and has since been replaced by a block of new-build flats.  At the Lost Pubs of Prestwich Historypin site you can see a nicely done before-and-after shot of the Kersal Hotel and what's since replaced it [2].

Kersal Hotel, Moor Lane, Kersal. (c) Lost Pubs of Prestwich by S100py [2].

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

2. http://historypin.appspot.com/LostPubsofPrestwich/#9.