The Butchers and Commercial Hotel

The Butchers and Commercial Hotel (above) was the home in Preston of George M Herling and his wife Mary Jane from 1910 but the 3 storey building with stables, in use from at least 1869, no longer exists. It was only about 100 yards or so south of the Cattle Market Hotel further up Brook Street, pictured below that is still in business (although it spent some time being called "The Filberts"). The hotel names relate to the cattle market in Brook Street built originally in 1867 and the two businesses would have been competitors. Presumably the Herling couple moved into the hotel business after George's experience at the Golden Ball in Garstang nearby which was managed by his step-father, William Dewhurst. According to "Preston Pubs" George Herling became the licensee in 1908 and the business was actually owned by Mr Sumner (presumably William, who had a connection via the Sumner Hotel - see next page). But that might just have been the initial arrangement as later Mary Jane was listed as proprietor.

The B&C hotel was on the corner of Brook Street and Addison Road but the latter street name disappeared and for a while it became the New Arterial Road. The hotel's address was listed as 360 Brook Street in a 1916 trade directory and Kelly's 1924 directory but as Addison Road in contemporary Post Office telephone directories - it was on the corner and probably had entrances in both roads. The telephone number was Fulwood 87 in 1916 with George Herling as the person in charge and proprietor (although he had actually died two years earlier), Preston 687 in 1922-7 now with Mrs M J Herling listed. However, in 1929 the telephone subscriber's name changed to F(rederick) Roberts, as Mary Jane had retired (by then she was 69). Roberts was the licensee from 1927 but by 1936 Alfred Southworth had taken over - he was the husband of Mary Jane's daughter Alice. By 1940, perhaps before, the licensee had changed again, this time to John Brooks.

The hotel was still there in 1951-2 but the telephone number had changed to Preston 378711. In 1953 the address changed to Blackpool Road which was the new name for both Addison Road and the New Arterial Road (so the hotel didn't move, only the address changed). It was still there in 1964 but the phone number changed to Preston 3787 in 1960 and again to Preston 53787 in 1964. However, by November 1965 it was no longer listed at all.  In 1891 and 1901 the B&C address was 42 Brook Street North - the north section of the road was later renamed and re-numbered to align it with the other sections. At some point previously the address had been 72 Brook Street North.

In February 1921 there was a Mrs Jane Herling as tenant of the Victoria and Station Hotel (now called "The Old Vic") at 79 Fishergate, Preston, according to a newspaper report of a fire there during which Jane and her family were evacuated. It is not clear who this person was and she does not seem to be listed there in the telephone book at the time. Perhaps it was Mary Jane Herling?. A servant also caught in the fire was Mrs. Polly Hargreaves aged 52.

The photograph below is thought to have been taken from near the B&C hotel during the resurfacing and widening of Addison Road in 1930.

Another feature of Addison Road was the Preston Steam Laundry, about 200 yards from the B&C:

This photograph was stated to be taken from the top floor of the B&C hotel in 1951 and is looking east along Addison/Blackpool Road, probably during a holiday weekend.

Today the Cattle Market Hotel is still there as a public house with restaurant, but the area is even more dominated by new and used car dealers and part of the original B&C site is occupied by the Brooklands Motor Company, a used car dealer. It seems quite possible that some of the lower parts of the perimeter wall now used by Brooklands in Norris Street were originally the B&C stable walls.

Mary Jane's daughter Alice and her husband Alfred Southworth (a subsequent licensee of the B&C) lived at 15 Addison Road in 1932, at 13 Ainslie Street in 1939 and at 22 Addison Road in 1941/2. All three addresses were only a short walk from the Butchers and Commercial. Electric trams were planned to travel beyond Ashton Long Lane into Addison Road but they didn't ever get that far and anyway ceased in about 1935.

After moving from the hotel Mary Jane and her new husband Robert Hargreaves lived at Oakerside, 11 Sharoe Green Lane, a few miles east. That building still exists, see below.

Another branch of the family ran a hostelry in Fulwood, the Sumners Hotel in Watling Street Road. That was Edward John Milward Herling (1870-1939), Mary Jane's brother-in-law. The original building was replaced by another on almost the same site and with much the same name, although in 2018 that was demolished. Before about 1901 it was called The Prince Albert Hotel.

This is an AA map of Preston from about 1936. Addison Road can be seen in the top left-hand corner, running east to west, Brook Street crosses it running north - south. Watling Street Road runs east to west in the top right hand section of the map. Opposite the Cattle Market Hotel and the B&C there was a garage/petrol station called Cornall's on the corner with Addison Road (Blackpool Road). It became "Speedy" Tool Hire.

No other pictures have been found of Addison Road, however, below is a view of the resurfacing of Ashton Long Lane (later called New Arterial Road, then Blackpool Road) looking west from Addison Road just after the trams stopped running in the mid 1930s. The tramlines and cobblestones still exist in the westerly direction in this photo but have just been removed from the far side of the road.

Below is a view of Serpentine Road (later New Arterial Road, then Blackpool Road) from about 1938, looking west towards Addison Road. The entrance to Moor Park is on the left.

Mary Jane's daughter Alice (William Shaw's sister, born 20th August 1890, died 1976) and her husband Alfred Southworth had at least six children, all born in Preston: Mabel Anne born December 1912, died 1975, Alfred born 1915, Irene, born 1919, George Herbert born 1921, Mary Isobel born 1923, Eric born 1925 (and perhaps Robert b. 1916, Thomas Edward b. 1918 and May b. 1920). Irene married Ronald Cosgrove in 1940 and they had two children, Carole born in 1946 and Dale born in 1948. Ronald died in 1987. A grandson named as G C Southworth is listed on Mary Jane's death certificate as the informant, he was living at the Conservative Club in Church Street, Preston when she died in 1950. George C was born in late 1911 in Preston with his mother's maiden name listed as Shaw. But it is not clear how he relates to George Herbert who was born in 1921 with his mother's maiden name of Herling. George C was George Clifford Southworth, born 12th September 1911, died February 1987 both in Preston.

Alfred Southworth was brought up in Brook Street and his parents Thomas Richard Southworth (1857-1935) and Sarah Isabella (1867-1937) lived at number 17, then 22 and at least between 1905 and 1911 they had a shop close to the B&C at number 330. His mother was born in Bangalore, India (probably from a military family), his father in Preston and he had eight siblings. They were Mary (b. 1885), Thomas (b. 1888), William (b. 1889, d. 1973), Henry (b. 1893, d. 1944 or 1966), Ivy (b. 1895), Matthew (b. 1896, d. 1978), Francis (b. 1898, d. 1931) and Isabella (b. 1900). A Mary Southworth was licensee of the Fox & Grapes Inn in Ribbleton Lane in 1932 but died on 2nd October of that year aged about 34. At the same pub in 1907 - 1913 the licensee was William Dewhurst aged 58 in 1911 with his wife Mary aged 52. One of their children was Annie aged 25.

Alfred Southworth and Alice Shaw-Herling married on 1st May 1911 at St Lukes, Halliwell, Bolton. At the time Alfred was living at 167 Mornington Road, Bolton and Alice at No. 22. Alfred's father was described as "loomer" and Alice's father as "publican". Witnesses were Thomas Duckworth Dickson and Mary Elizabeth Dewhurst. Alfred was recorded as "farm service" and Alice as "domestic".

Mary Jane's second husband Robert was from a dairy farming family. His father was Thomas Hargreaves (b. 1831, d. 1910 both in Woodplumpton) and mother Jane Brown (b. 1834, d. 1903). His grandfather was Robert Hargreaves (b. 1803 in Freckleton, d. 1882) and grandmother Ann Arkwright (b. 1810 in Barton, Preston) and they married in January 1829. The Hargreaves family farmed in Woodplumpton for most of the 19th century. Mary Jane's second husband Robert had a son called Thomas Hargreaves, (b. 1893, d. 1975) who married Florence Isabel Bargh (1895-1949) in 1918 in Barton. He also had two daughters Esther (b. 1889, d. 1961) and Jane (b. 1890, d. 1918). Robert's first wife was Mary Ann Myerscough (b. 1864 in Fulwood) who died in 1925. The Hargreaves' farm in Woodplumpton was just over 5 acres in 1873 but 82 acres in 1881.

Mary Jane Shaw / Herling / Hargreaves died on 30th September 1950 aged 90 while living at Oakerside, Sharoe Green Lane, Fulwood. She left her estate of £1,289 1s 4d to be shared by two of her three surviving children, her son James Leslie Herling (then a local government officer) and her daughter Alice Southworth, wife of Alf. It is interesting that her son William Shaw was not a recipient of any part of his mother's estate, but he was not living near Preston and there had probably been no recent contact. Mary Jane's second husband Robert had died earlier in the same year, on the 23rd of March and he left his estate of £4,763 18s 6d to his daughter Esther Eccles (1899 - 1961), and son Thomas Hargreaves (1893 - 1975), a farmer. They were the two surviving children from his first marriage to Mary Ann as daughter Jane had died. These were substantial inheritances for 1950.

Below is Oakerside, 11 Sharoe Green Lane recently. It is the house with the white front door in the row of six that it is part of seems to have been built between 1901 and 1911, probably 1908. The row was originally known as "Woodhouse Terrace" and the sign is still on the wall of no. 11 (perhaps named after Robert Woodhouse, a prominent member of the Preston Union and Justice of the Peace at the time it was built).  In the 1911 census the five-roomed no. 11 was occupied by Thomas Heaps, his wife and seven of their eight children.  The "Oakerside" name given by Mary Jane to her house as a reminder of her birthplace (Oakerside or Okerside in Derbyshire) is now long forgotten and would have no relevance to anyone else. In their latter years the Hargreaves shared the property as husband Robert's probate return gives his address as 11A (and other people were listed as living at no. 11 in 1939). The first telephone in the house was installed in 1980 with H. Butterworth as the subscriber and Preston 716734 as the number.  Immediately opposite this row of houses used to be Springfield Farm, owned in 1911 by James Sumner (a son of William snr) who lived there in the 10 bedroom Brookfield House which was later replaced by new housing construction.

It is interesting that one of Robert Hargreaves' daughters, Esther Eccles, was living at no. 7 Sharoe Green Lane when she died in 1961 (but not in 1939). That is the house at the left-hand end of the same block as no. 11 where her father lived. Esther was survived by her husband John William Eccles who died aged 83 in 1969 (b. 27th Jan 1886). They were married in 1912 in Broughton.