Ron Rainford has provided the below information about the history of the Pheasant public house, he explains how he came into possession of it.
Rather interesting how I came into
possession of it. A third cousin I met on the Internet and I
visited the Pub. I had an idea it was run by the family at some stage and
said to the Publican it deserved a free beer. He gave us both a pint and
then said he thought the history of the Pub was somewhere in the attic.
Whilst having lunch he brought it to us. It was displayed on a large board
and I was naturally fascinated. I asked if I could come back
the next day and study it as I was pushed for time. He said I could keep
it.
Ron
Caboolture, Queensland
THE
PHEASANT
INN
LITTLE
CROSBY
Compiled by:
Frank Tyrer, M.A., B.Sc.
THE PHEASANT INN is situated in that part of the manor of Little Crosby to the north of which was known as the Morehouses or Moorhouses. It was sometimes referred to in ancient documents as the Morehouses in Little Crosby; sometimes as Little Crosby with the Morehouses; and sometimes it was considered apart from Little Crosby almost as a separate manor.
A large part of the area was, and still is, marsh or moorland, and it is probably from this fact that it got the name ‘Morehouses’. The people living in the village of Little Crosby must have spoken of the people who lived in the few cottages about a mile to the north near the moor or marsh lands as those who lived in the houses in the moor or the ‘moor-houses’ hence the district became known as the ‘Moorhouses’ or the ‘Morehouses’ . This area also included some land in Ince Blundell. In a document dated about 1275 there is a reference to “land in Little Crosby and Morhousis. Later the district became known as Hightown, possibly because the villagers in Little Crosby thought of it as being the higher end of the township and manor of Little Crosby – the higher end or “High Town’.
For centuries people brewed their own ale; ale being, of course, the main drink at meals, for young as well as old. Some people were more expert at brewing than others and became known for their good ale, so much so, that others in the village would go to their houses to buy the ale. It was not long before these houses became known as ale houses. It is almost certain that this happened in the Morehouse district of Little Crosby, and the inhabitants of the few thatched cottages there would go to the ale house for their ale; the thatched cottage most probably situated near the junction of Orrell Hill Lane with Moss Lane, the lane which ran across mosses to and from the village of Little Crosby . Thus this ale-house was situated most conveniently for people coming from Ince Blundell, Lady Green, and the North End of the manor and the Morehouses. Thus it would be situated on the same spot as the Pheasant Inn now stands on.
From some stone-work uncovered during alterations to the Pheasant Inn in 1967 there is some evidence that a building stood on this site dating possibly from about the late sixteenth century or early seventeenth century and this may have been an ale-house.
By 1650 we begin to get more definite evidence. For in October, 1650 one, “Richard Tyrer, a common alehouse keeper within Little Crosby” was called to appear at Farnworth near Widnes before the Court Leete of the honor and fee of Widnes and was there fined twelve pence for breaking the assize of ale. This meant that the ale he was selling was not up to the standard required by the law of the time. He had probably been adding too much water to it ! The manor of Little Crosby was one of the many manors forming the Honor or Barony of Widnes and that is why Richard Tyrer was dealt with at Farnworth , for that was where the Cort of Leete or the Baron’s Court was held. It is interesting to note that in the Court Rolls in which were recorded what went on in the court, Richard Tyrer was called a Common ‘Tipulator’ ! Alas Richard Tyrer seems to have been a frequent offender, for at each of the Court meetings from 1650 to 1656 at least he was fined twelve pence for the same offence !
Twelve pence was quite a large sum in those days. But Richard Tyrer was not only fined in the Court of Leete at Farnworth for his poor ale; he was also called to appear before the Hundred or Wapwentake Court held at West Derby; the offence being that as a common alehouse keeper he had broken the Assise of Ale, and for this, on 6 October, 1651 he was fined twelve pence.
The question arises: ‘Was Richard Tyrer the alehouse keeper at the Morehouses; the alehouse which was the forerunner of the Pheasant Inn?’ William Blundell ‘the Cavalier’ Lord of the manor of Little Crosby, from 1638 to 1698, stated that there was no alehouse in Little Crosby village in his time. If this were so, then Richard Tyrer almost certainly kept the alehouse in the Morehouses.
Bur there is further evidence that Richard Tyrer was the alehouse keeper in the Morehouses. On 12th November, 1657, a woman named Tyrer was buried in Sefton Churchyard and the entry in the Burial Register of Sefton states that she was the wife of Richard Tyrer who lived in Hannyate in the Morehouses. In 1658 a Richard Tyrer was buried at Sefton and the Register says he lived in the Hannyate in the Northend. This is interesting for the name ‘Hannyate’ means ‘Hanns Lane’ and this was the ancient name for the lane or road which we now call ‘Moss Lane’, the lane were the present Pheasant Inn stands. Putting all this information together I think it can definitely be said that around about 1650 Richard Tyrer kept an alehouse, almost certainly on the site of the present Pheasant Inn.
Also during the alterations to the Pheasant Inn carried out early in 1967 some pebble- dash and cement were removed from an outside wall and underneath there was found a brick wall and a date stone bearing the date ‘1719’. The bricks appeared to be eighteenth century bricks. This suggests that extensions were made to the old alehouse in 1719. The Lord of the manor of Little Crosby at that time was Nicholas Blundell, who was noted for the Diary he kept from 1702 to 1728. He was a close observer of all that went on in the district and recorded everything in his Diary, including the building of new houses, barns etc., and any alterations made to them. In 1719 he was busy getting clay from a field called the Ackers in Little Crosby, near Sniggery Wood, and from this clay he had made 200,000 bricks to build a ‘house’ where a Roman Catholic priest could live and people could hear Mass in secret, for at that time Catholics were not allowed to worship or build churches in complete freedom. This house still stands by the present St. Mary’s Church in Little Crosby and is now used as the Presbytery and Convent. On 7th July, 1719, Nicholas Blundell tells us that he went to the Morehouses to order some of his tenants to bring carts to carry coal to his brick kiln. Having done this he went to visit one of his tenants, Jane Bryanson, to arrange a new lease of her house and farmlands, and then went on to visit Gabriell Norris, another tenant, “to see what Alterations he had made in his house” From Norris’s house he went along Orrell Hill Lane to Ince Blundell Hall to pay a call on the Ince Blundell family. Now Jane Bryanson’s house was just where the present Moss Lane makes a T-Junction with Alt Road to Hightown, not far from the Pheasant Inn so Gabriell Norris’s house lay somewhere between Jane’s house and Ince Blundell Hall, and it is quite possible that it was in Moss Lane or near where Orrell Hill Lane joins it, that is where the present Pheasant Inn stands. Remembering this, and the fact that apart from the building of the Roman Catholic ‘House’ in Little Crosby, the only other building or alteration to a house in 1719 Nicholas Blundell mentions was that at Gabriell Norris’s. I think we can safely say that in 1719 Gabriell Norris was the keeper of the alehouse which stood where the Pheasant Inn stands now. This ‘1719’ date-stone is now preserved in the inside wall of one of the bar lounges of the Pheasant Inn. Gabriell Norris; who had formerly lived at Formby, was in January 1709, living in James St, Liverpool. But by March of the same year he was living in the Morehouses. In documents prior to 1709 he was described as a ‘mariner’, which could mean that he was a sailor on boats sailing from Liverpool or possibly owned and sailed in a fishing boat.
From 1719 until the nineteenth century little is known about the alehouse which stood on the site, but sometime during this period from being a common alehouse it became known as a ‘Public House’ or ‘Inn” called the ‘Ten Billets Inn’ When Inns and Public Houses were given names, they were often named after the reigning sovereign, or lord of the manor, or their coat-of-arms. In this case the name
Ten Billets” is a reference to the Arms of the Blundell of Crosby Family, who lived and still live, at
Crosby Hall. The arms of the family is a black shield with ten silver oblongs on it. In Heraldry such oblongs are called ‘Billets’. At some later date the inn name was changed to “Blundell Arms”. It is possible that at the time the Inn was known as the ‘Ten Billet’ a sign was displayed of the Arms of the Blundell of Crosby Family, that is ten silver billets on a black shield, or perhaps it was carved on the wall.
Little is known of the actual appearance of the Inn before 1856. To begin with it must have been just a farm house cottage built of stone, white washed, with a thatched roof. But from a painting of the Inn as it was in 1856 and from some notes entitled ‘Merseyside, 1860 –1910’ written by Thomas Barnes, whose mother was the Inn-keeper, we have the first detailed description of the outside appearance of the Inn and what it was like inside.
It was a two storey white-washed building with a tiled or stone slab roof. On the front face in the lower storey were two windows of small panes of glass, on either side of the door. In the upper storey were two smaller windows also of small panes, one over each of the lower windows. In the space between the lower and upper windows a large painted sign, stretching almost right across the house read “WILLIAM BARNES, LICENSED TO SELL BEER, SPIRITS, TOBACCO”. At each corner of the front face stood a water butt, while in the garden or fore-court in front there was a water pump. A low wall separated the Inn from the roadway. On the north gable-end there were two outside chimneys, similar to those used on Tudor houses, one in the centre of the wall and one at the corner with the front of the building. On this wall on the left of the central chimney were two windows, of small panes, the one in the upper storey being smaller than a similar window beneath it in the lower storey. To the right of this chimney, carved in stone and painted was the arms of Colonel Nicholas Blundell, known affectionately as the ‘Old Colonel’. Colonel Nicholas was lord of the manor of Little Crosby from 1854 to 1894 and was a Justice of the Peace and the Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Lancaster. In November, 1847 he married Agnes Mary, the second daughter of Sir Edward Smythe, 6th Baronet of Acton Burnell, in Shropshire. Colonel seemed to be very fond of displaying his coat-of-arms, and it can be seen in several places in Little Crosby and Great Crosby. It is almost certain that soon after his marriage, the name of the Inn was changed from the “TEN Billets” to the “Blundell Arms”, and at the same time the sign of the “Ten Billets” was removed and replaced by that of Colonel Nicholas Blundell showing the Blundell of Crosby Arms impaling, or side by side with, the Arms of the Smythe Family, which was a black shield with three white roses arranged two and one. Above this coat-of-arms was the crest of the Blundells of Crosby, a half lion sitting up and holding a cross in its paws.
It was generally believed in the neighbourhood that the ten oblongs or billets on the Blundell of Crosby coat-of-arms had something to do with the word “Billeting”, and as a result it was accepted that if ever the Inn was required to do so by the army it must put up or billet ten men (the ten billets) and three officers ( the three roses) ! Actually, the Blundell coat-of –arms is a very ancient one, and the billets on it represent logs of wood. This emblem was probably chosen by an early member of the family, when the family were granted the right to bear Arms, as a reminder that one of the family was forester to King John, helping to look after the king’s forests in this district and preserve it for hunting, for which King John granted him the lordship of the Manor of Great Crosby sometime between1189 and 1194.
The painting of the Inn as it was in 1856 does not show us what there was on the south gable end, except that there was another outside chimney.
On the north side of the house and a little away from it was a small brewery. This was only a small plant capable of producing two and a half barrels of beer at a time, sufficient, probably, for the passers by and the small population of about one hundred who lived in the neighbourhood. This
brewery may have ceased to function about 1855, when the growing number of people requiring
refreshments at the Inn made it necessary to obtain their supplies from a larger brewery. In 1855 the old brewery utensils and plant were removed to Crosby Hall where it was used to supply those living and working at the Hall and on the estate. On the far side of the brewery by Orrell Lane were the pig styes.
On the south side of the house and adjacent to it were the stables and on the far side of these was the hostelry, a big shed-like affair with tethering rings for ten horses. This was quite a busy part of the Inn, for coaches, some carrying mail between Liverpool and Southport, and horse-drawn wagonettes pulled up here, so the horses could be rested or changed, fed and watered.
What must have been an unusual feature of the Inn was a small place behind the stables used as a mortuary for the bodies of shipwrecks on the coast at nearby Hightown and Formby. On one occasion it was used for seven men and one stewardess who lost their lives in such a disaster.
Tom Barnes also gives some interesting descriptions of the Inn as it was in 1860. He begins:
“…… We go to the Blundell Arms
Hotel, or as it was known at one time, the Ten Billets Inn, after a portion of
the Coat of Arms of the Blundells of Crosby Hall. I may say there is a little history in connection with
this Hostelry, as the original portion was built in the year of our Lord 1735,
as seen by the engraved stone over the front door, which was moved from the
north side of the original part about thirty years ago (about 1830; it being
moved from the ground level there to the present position.”
I am sure that Tom Barnes was wrong when he said the original part of the Inn was built in 1735. It may be that some alterations were carried out in that year to the original building. What he may have meant was that in 1735 the ale-house part had been enlarged and the house had then been called an Inn instead of an ale-house: an Inn with the name “Ten Billets”.
He then goes on to describe the interior of the inn as he knew it:
“Over the kitchen (which he
remembered being enlarged) there was a small room with a ceiling so low that one
could only stand upright in the centre of the room.
The dining room was over the four stall stable, at the back of which was
the shippon. The cellar had
an arch-shaped roof and over this was another room.
Old people at this time, that is 1860, told him that all the above rooms
were built when the premises were first turned into a public house during the
tenancy of Old Mrs Westhead. At
this time there was a brewery attached to the inn, the inn-keeper brewing his or
her own beer until about the year 1855”
“At he back of the Inn”, says tom Barnes, “there was a brook, but
it was filled in because it was dangerous for strangers who visited the inn, for
several under the influence of drink fell in !”
By the side of this brook, he tells us, were the pig styes providing
adequate space for quite a number of pigs.
Thus the inn-keeper had ready for his customers a plentiful supply of
home-cured hams and bacon. The
very sight of these hanging from hooks in the ceiling must have enticed many a
person to enjoy a hearty meal at the Inn.
The Inn, when it was known as the ‘Ten Billets’ and later as the
‘Blundell Arms’, the forerunner of the ‘Pheasant Inn’, was also the
social centre of the neighbourhood. It
had a skittle alley, which was the great attraction; a fore-runner of the
present day ten-pin bowling. There
was also a bowling green. Incidentally
this bowling green was ploughed up in the Second World War, 1939-45. But it was on the festive occasions that the inn was a
scene of hustling and bustling activity.
It was the custom in the nineteenth century for a party of two or three
good singers in the neighbourhood accompanied by a violin player to go carol
singing at Christmas visiting one house and farm after another, taking a whole
week to get round the district and ending up at the Inn.
Every year at the Inn a Christmas Ball was held where the young folks,
and some of the older ones, danced and everyone thoroughly
enjoyed themselves in rooms gaily decorated with holly and most likely overheated with a blazing log fire. On this occasion the Inn was kept open all night for dancing and refreshments and remained open until daylight the next morning. But the winter of 1871 saw the last of these Christmas Balls, for the compulsory closing order of 1872 enforcing closure at 11 p.m. put an end to them. Of course Christmas still was celebrated after 1871 but not on such a grand scale.
Another custom, now no longer celebrated, was that of ‘Braggot’ Sunday, or Mid Lent Sunday, when at most farm houses a large urn of beer or ale, home brewed or bought from the inn, was warmed to near boiling point, with fresh eggs added and seasoned with sugar and spices, and enjoyed by visiting relatives, friends and neighbours. This customary break in Mid-Lent from Lenten fasting is still carried out in some districts.
The nineteenth century saw Friendly Societies or Sick and Benevolent Societies or Clubs in full activity all over the country. The general purpose of these Clubs was to give relief to their members in sickness, old age and infirmity. A person admitted to be a member paid an entrance fee of a few shillings and then one shilling a month. Such a Society, known as Ince Blundell and Little Crosby Sick and Benevolent Society met monthly, usually at the ‘Ten Billets’ (‘Blundell Arms’) Inn. It appears to have been quite an active organisation and at one time had on its books 192 members. Every year a Club Day or Annual Treat was held and this was the occasion for much merriment and high spirits. Again it is to Tom Barnes we turn for our information about these affairs. For weeks prior to the event preparations were made, and these included the white-washing and painting of all the cottages and farm-houses in the neighbourhood. A procession made its way to a field where round-abouts, swings and Aunt Sallies provided all the fun of the Fair, and an Ormskirk Ginger Bread Stall displayed a feast of ginger breads in the shape of rabbits, bears, hearts and stars for all to enjoy, young and old, for a few pence. Exciting games and races were organised for adults and children and a band played for the enjoyment of everyone. The one or more Club members from almost every family in Ince Blundell and Little Crosby sat down to a dinner of roast beef, mutton or pork, vegetables and potatoes followed by a large helping of pudding and sweetmeats. Naturally, this dinner, all provided for out of the societie’s funds, was held at the Inn. In the evening the celebrations continued with dancing at the Inn until closing time. And on almost all occasions one or more fights occurred. These almost always arose as a result of the rivalry between the men of Ince Blundell and the men of Little Crosby. During one such fight Old Nanny Leatherbarrow, who kept the Ginger Bread Stall, was knocked over as was also her stall and the ginger bread rabbits, sheep and stars scattered all over the place. But the spritely old dame was up at once, and shouting: Hither Hell an ‘aw con feight too !” she layed about her, right and left, with her large old fashioned umbrella and knocked down three or four of the trouble makers and the disturbance was ended. Not a bad effort for an old woman of eighty years as she was then !
One custom, now gone out of use, was the ‘Three Mile Limit’, which entitled anyone who had worked a distance of three miles or more to be served with a drink whether the inn or public-house was open or closed on his arrival.
It would seem that very early on in the 1800’s a Mrs. Westhead was the Inn-Keeper, while round about 1854, Robert Rainford, a farmer, was the landlord. One of his sisters succeeded him. She married William Barnes, a farmer from Melling, a village about five miles distant from the Inn, and to do his courting he rode all the way on horse-back. By 1856 he was the licensee and it his name which appeared on the painted sign on the Inn in that year.
They had five children – tom, William, Edward, Jane and Anne. Tom was the ‘Ten billets Tom’ who was responsible for the remarkable description of Merseyside as he recalled it between 1860 and 1910. Edward (Teddy) had some interest in the inn, as indeed all the children had as we shall see. The daughter Annie, on 26th January 1888, married a farmer, William Appleton who was a widower,
and he became the next licensee. He was a pleasant character, very much liked by the customers
and it was not long before they began to refer to him as ‘Owd Appy’ , and the Inn as ‘Appys’ rather than the ‘Blundell Arms’
It was during this time that the inn gained a great reputation for its catering carried out by his wife, Annie, who was later assisted by her daughter, Mary Josephine, born in 1982. Not only did they excel in providing for parties, Christmas festivities, Friendly Society ‘do’s, but their fame spread further afield and travellers and parties from the Lancashire cotton towns and other places on their way in four-horse wagonettes for a day’s outing at Southport, pulled up at ‘Appy’s’ and sat down to enjoy a ‘ reight good dinner’. At the same time the horses were fed and watered, and if they had come a long distance, they were changed for fresh horses. And there is no doubt when the wagonettes returned later in the day to pick up the now refreshed horses, the opportunity was seized by the travellers for sampling more of the good catering Annie and her daughter and of the ale sold by the Inn.
Up to 1895 the Inn had been a ‘Free House’, but in that year, Edward (Teddy) Barnes, brother of Annie and brother-in-law of William Appleton, on behalf of the family, sold the inn to Threlfalls. One condition in the agreement was that Annie and her husband William Appleton should continue as Managers of the Inn on behalf of Threlfalls. So the Inn after many years ceased to be a ‘Free House’.
On the death of William ‘Appy’ Appleton, his son Jack succeeded him,
but the House was still spoken of as ‘Owd Appy’s’ . Indeed for many years afterwards was still known as ‘Appy’s’.
Jack Appleton died in 1952, and this ended, after more than one hundred
years, the family interest in the Inn, beginning with Robert Rainford sometime
before 1854.
Some alterations and refurnishing to the house were carried out in 1952. This work included the demolition of some of the interior walls in order to modernise the bar and lounge. Embedded in the wall of the old bar were some racks for holding bridles, which suggests that originally, it once formed part of the stables of the Inn. It was also at this time the name of the Inn was changed from the “Blundell Arms” to the “Pheasant Inn”.
In 1966 and 1977 further extensive alterations and additions were carried out, and the car park enlarged. Whilst this work was in progress a number of interesting objects were found, including the date-stone ‘1719’ and some old stone work which has already been mentioned, as well as some pieces of old earthenware, clay pipes, and hand- made nails of an early date from what was the old stable.