Napoleon Inn

The Napoleon Inn is on Botany Lane in the Hurst Brook area of Ashton. It is a fairly typical English "local" - a homely back street pub (public house) serving a local area of a town.

Botany was originally a small area of miners' houses, separated from Ashton and Hurst by farmland. By the 1850s it had become merged with the growing Hillgate area.

The earliest records of the Napoleon Inn are from 1861, at which time it was licensed as a beer house (meaning it could sell beer, but not wines and spirits). The records show that James Hague and then his widow and two sons were the licensees for 74 years. The dirt road that runs alongside the pub is called Hague Street, but I don't know whether that is just co-incidence.

James was also a grocer but it is not clear whether he operated that business from the same premises. His elder son worked as a hatter before taking over the pub. I will say some more about hatting in the Hurst Brook area in a couple of weeks.

The pub acquired a wine licence in 1888 and became fully licensed in 1961.

"Napoleon Inn" is my contribution to this week's "My World" feature. Please check out the other blogs participating in this week's My World.


See Birds Eye View of this location.