Fascinating stories of watering holes
Details of some of the pubs which feature in Alan's book:
The Cricketer's Arms at the junction of The Strand and Gold Street.
Now a pet shop, Animal Dreams, pictured above, this former pub is only recognisable by a stone carving depicting the venue's name alongside a bat, wicket, ball and a pair of gloves.
Alan said: "No one could walk past this place and not recognise that it had been a public house at one time - the stone panel on the corner tells it all."
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Frances Easter Hamilton was listed as keeping a beer house on the site in 1871 – curiously that was 17 years before the Cricketer's Arms was built.
The Congress on Sutherland Road.
The pub, pictured above, which still runs today, has the nickname 'The 39 Steps'. Alan says this relates to a story of a Longton CID officer who would visit the pub for a drink and leave a note on his desk which simply read '39 steps'.
Alan said: "As a matter of interest I have paced out the distance from the door of the Congress back towards the archway of the old police station. I came to the conclusion the detective must have taken great strides or more likely, he was running."
It is believed the venue is the only pub which goes by the name, Congress. Records show that in 1878 a beer license was transferred from the Old Red Bull to the Congress Hotel on Sutherland Road.
Dunrobin Hotel on Lightwood Road. It is believed this towering building, pictured right, was erected in the 1890s with a provisional licence granted on August 25, 1896.
Brewery Joules once owned it before Bass took it on in 1973.
It was modernised in the 1950s and Alan claims this process turned the once iconic building into 'nothing more than a box'.
He added: "Behind the wall was a bowling green.Having one side sharply sloping towards the road, it was often the cause of balls accelerating away and into the gutter. This created curses from the unwary and peals of laughter from the home team."
The final licensee was listed as Jesse James Boulton who ran it until April 1998. It was cleared in July 2010.
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