The White Bull Inn witnessed many changes of ownership in its time
THE White Bull Inn was a reasonably successful business during much of the 19th century.
The inn had a good location near the Market Cross, putting it in the thick of trade on market days.
Just a few doors down from the cross, just after Costa Coffee, is the modern comparative location.
Like most inns of Ormskirk, it changed hands many times over the years and like many, it tended to welcome new tenants through marriage.
In 1811 the inn changed its name from The Pied Bull to the White Bull, probably due to the acquisition by the then landlord, Henry Halsall, of a large pub sign of a White Bull.
The Harriott brewing family of Aughton Street briefly put one son, William, in the inn during the 1820s, when they were running about six pubs in the town.
The White Bull was then transferred into the hands of another prominent brewing and inn-keeping family, the Allens.
They took on several pubs, also during the 1820s, and were very successful for a short while.
Like many of the inns, the White Bull had a yard at the rear and several outbuildings.
In the 1850s, Smiths Ironmongers carried on a thriving business in premises in the White Bull yard.
James Rodgers ran the pub during that decade, having previously had the Rising Sun Public House in Burscough Street, (across from the present library).
James gave up the White Bull and his nephew, Charles Howard, son of Charles Howard, an iron founder who was a partner to John Ball, iron founder, of Church Street.
Charles Jnr was a hairdresser by trade and had married a girl called Ruth Holland; he took on the Bull, but only very briefly.
In early 1861, Charles died and left Ruth in charge of the inn.
She had given birth to their son George in November 1860 but by early 1861 she was widowed and was the sole innkeeper.
William Culshaw Edge took over James Smith’s ironmonger business in the White Bull Yard in 1868.
Ruth Howard, née Holland, remarried in February 1868 to widower John Ormesher, from Cross Hall Farm, Lathom.
John’s first wife was Emma Jane Brookes Armstrong. John died in 1874, aged 36, leaving Ruth with a young family.
The inn was then taken on by Charles Frederick Armstrong, younger brother to Emma Jane Brookes Ormesher, née Armstrong, Charles married Mary Sharrock, the daughter of Thomas Sharrock, who was the last landlord of the old Legs of Man Inn next to Josiah Wainwright’s ironmongers shop on Moor Street.
The Legs of Man was next door but one to the Kings Arms and by the 1860s Thomas Sharrock was a butcher at the Legs of Man.
Again the landlord died and left his widow to run the business.
Mary Armstrong married for a second time to John Bimpson, who brought up his wife’s children at the White Bull and on her death in 1889, John, who himself died in 1892, was succeeded at the Bull by William Ashcroft.
The White Bull yard became the property of Ormskirk ironmonger, Josiah Wainwright, who had served his apprenticeship with Richard Owen, then took over the ironmongery business at 7 Aughton Street from Matthias Edge before taking over number 1 Moor Street and then number 7 Moor Street.
He continued to own the warehouse property in the White Bull Yard, even after he retired to Berkshire.
William Ashcroft took over the White Bull just as he had married Anne Ormesher, the widow of John Ormesher, (not the same family as the Ormesher mentioned above) the late licensee of the Eagle and Child, which had occupied the corner plot at the junction of Burscough Street and Church Street for decades but lost its license in 1892.
In 1908, the large warehouse at the top of the White Bull Yard, previously used by Cuthbert Holstein as a store for his glass and china business at No 13 (later to become Muggy Lee’s), and also used by Evan Heaton, (who was related to Ruth Holland above), was taken over as a warehouse by John James Balmforth,
Balmforth was selling his small agricultural implements on the market every week just below the clock.
Securing the warehouse storage immediately adjacent to his regular market pitch and across from his ironmongers shop at 4 Aughton Street made good business sense.
Ellis Warde & Co were the owners of the White Bull in 1908, after it closed, Fleetwood-born fishmonger Edward Iddon ran his business from there and also operated charabanc trips to Southport.
James Eastham (not of Edenfield) ran his successful printing and compositor works from No 9, with a print shop in the White Bull Yard.
Among his many contracts was the printing of the roles of admission tickets for the Regal Cinema, Church Street, which opened in 1935.
Ormskirk & District Family History Society can help newcomers to family history carry out the detailed research needed to identify their ancestors in a wealth of complex and varied records.
The next meeting takes place in the Moorgate Guide Hut at 7.30pm on Wednesday, July 25.
The guest speaker is local railway expert Roger Bell, who will be talking about the Burscough Curves among other railway related topics.
Admission to members is free, non members may make a small donation of £1. Refreshments 50p.