Depicted above in 1963 as it closed, the Welcome was at No11 on the south side of Ellor Street in Hanky Park [2]. It opened in the 1860s and was soon advertising the "finest sparkling ales" and London and Dublin stouts. By the 1930s brewers Groves & Whitnall had the Welcome and in 1950, the Salford City Engineer stated that the beerhouse could stay indefinitely, despite the large-scale redevelopment (erasing) of Hanky Park. Sadly the brewery claimed that, although a good house, it was "a bit cramped" so a compulsory purchase order was served after all [1].
When the surrounding streets were being pulled down in 1961 the last landlord, Sid Harrison, took 1 pence off the price of a pint, and the punters flocked in! He told the Manchester Guardian that three hours after opening he had to go and fetch more barrels of mild from the brewery himself. In 1962 he also offered dinnertime discounts for pensioners (bitter 1/1d instead of 1/3d and mild 1/- instead of 1/2d) [1].
The Hanky Park families that had been moved out to new estates in Little Hulton, Kersal and Silk Stret would return to the Welcome at the weekend (like they would many of the old pubs round here). On Black Sunday (28/4/63; much more about this in Neil Richardson's [1] and Tony Flynn's books [2]), Harrison was paraded along Ellor Street in a coffin! A petition meant that the Welcome stayed open for a couple of weeks after Black Sunday [1].
A tiny length of Ellor Street still runs through Salford Precinct today, but the Welcome was at the other end near Cross Lane. The approximate old location of the Welcome was just a few dozen yards along today's Churchill Way.
1. Salford Pubs Part Three: Including Cross Lane, Broad Street, Hanky Park, the Height, Brindleheath, Charlestown and Weaste, Neil Richardson (2003).
2. Hanky Park, Tony Flynn (1990).
No comments:
Post a Comment