Should of Mutton Hotel

[Virginia]

My grandparents (Harold Walker ?1895 - 1957 and Amelia nee Woodhead ?1893 - 1973) I believe owned and ran the Shoulder of Mutton Hotel in Lancashire from about 1948 until they sold and went to manage the Turf Hotel in Bradford where Harold died.
I also believe that the hotel was near Accrington - in Green Haworth or Oswaldtwistle?
Any suggestions, please, as to where can I look to find more information and/ or confirm the little I have already?
Virginia

[pifco]

Sorry but I don't know anything about the landlords or landladies of the Shoulder of Mutton in Oswaldtwistle but I used to call in every now and again. The pub was on Broadfield facing Cross Edge on the edge of the moors. It closed as a pub about 10 or 12 years ago and was turned into a house.

[wadey]

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/717357

[Virginia]

Tanks guys.

I'm now informed they moved there in 1949, it was a Tetleys pub and it closed in 2007.

And the photo is the right place

[cashman]

went in in 60s early 70s was a Thwaites house in those days.

[Bob Dobson]

The correct address was 6, Cross Edge, Ossie. In 1939 the landlord was George Fielding

[pompeylass]

As far as I know the Landlord and Landlady were called Les & Edith Pierce. This was round about the early 70's.

Alan St John and I (Sheila Holt) used to sing folk songs in the front bar, on Sunday afternoons. We were called The Bards and we had many (now famous) folk singers singing there as well; Mike Harding, Jasper Carrot, Billy Connolly, Barbara Dickson etc; all just on their way up, and made successful careers.

Alan, who I sang with, is now 80 and almost blind, but he still plays fantastic guitar and performs occasionally. These were happy times as I was only 17 at the time.

As far as I can remember the Walkers lived next door (to the left of the picture).

[pompeylass]

We had an arrangement with the Pierces' where we would practice performing new material in the corner of the bar, for free, and they would make us a free lunch and free drinks all afternoon.

The pub would get more and more popular until you could hardly move on Sunday afternoons.

The Walker's were hippy types and never away from the pub, I remember, and after one Sunday session we all piled into there house for a few hours socializing.

[Bob Dobson]

My pal's parents, Cec and Lilian Gratrix had the pub for a short while in the early 1960s.

[pompeylass]

It seems I've made a mistake!

I've just been talking to my old singing partner, Alan, and he said the two hippy types who lived next door to the pub were not called Walker at all, but he couldn't remember their surnames, he only knew them as Harry & Mina (short for Wilhelmina).

Alan thinks I've got them mixed up with a couple called Walker who we knew from Blackpool Street (Between the Palladium Bingo and the Train Station) who were in our group of fans.

This Harry & Mina stuck in my memory, it seems, because they were involved in the writing of one of the tracks on our LP, called 'Time' and partly involved in the title of the LP too, namely “Time for The Bards” .

While we were all in the pub, Harry started up a conversation about how Alan went about writing his songs (of which he was, and still is
prolific at, to this day).

Alan said “ You give me a a subject and I'll come up with a song about it”

Just at that moment Les, the Landlord shouted “Time please”! “ There you are!” said Harry. “Come up with a song about that, 'Time', Harry exclaimed.

Alan duly did, with input from me, and we give it a try out on the following Sunday. Harry thought it was amazing, and everyone said how great it was that it ended up appearing on our one and only LP, which is now documented in the website 'Discogs” as well as appearing on 'YouTube' too, along with a few other tracks.

It's really amazing because that LP's production was only 200 demo copies in 1971 and copies have turned up in Norway, Italy and the USA. We could say that we've finally become International Singing Stars, but it's been 50 years coming.