Brown Cow, Church Street

Brown Cow, Church Street, Eccles, 1929. (c) Tony Flynn [1].

The Brown Cow was a Walker & Homfrays beerhouse on the corner of Silk Street and Church Street in Eccles, Salford.  Eccles is one of the most heavily-pubbed parts of Greater Manchester but the Brown Cow was demolished in 1930, a year after it closed under landlord, Robert Talbot, who'd run the beerhouse for 40 years.  It can be traced back to at least 1872 and is reported to have attracted the more boisterous elements of Eccles.  In 1888 a local, William Radcliffe from Silk Street, was arrested in the Brown Cow and fought with police, until he was handcuffed and taken to the police station on a milk float [1].


Brown Cow, Church Street, Eccles. (c) Old Maps [2]

These days Silk Street doesn't run all the way up to Church Street, but the former location of the Brown Cow would have been near the Eccles tram stop.  The 1890 1:500 Eccles Town Plan [2] shows the Brown Cow at the top of Silk Street on the old Market Place.  However, it's not named, unlike the still-serving Town Hall Hotel (see map, top left), on account of it being a mere beerhouse rather than public house.

1. A History of the Pubs of Eccles, Tony Flynn (1982).
2. www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html.