The Mill Hill Hotel (new pub) on Mill Hill Bridge Street

As the caption on the card states, this is Mill Hill Bridge (Street) over the River Darwen and the grand, ornate, Mill Hill Hotel. Or as nearly everyone that lives in the area, or has lived in the area, call the 'New pub'.

(Please click on the image to expand)

The pub was built for Thwaites Brewery in the early part of the 20th century, so it's hardly new anymore. My theory is, that they called it that, when it was a new pub and the name just stuck through the generations. If anyone knows different, I would love to hear another reason as to why it's known as the New Pub.

For anyone that has ever read William Woodruff's 'Road To Nab End', there's a chapter in it, where they are off, as a family, to the seaside (Blackpool). He writes as though they went into town, to the central railway station to catch their train and tells us of his mum and dad popping into a pub on the way to the station. He and his siblings were left to play outside and he describes big legs of 'potted meat' outside the front doors.

 Well, as Woodruff was writing from memory, I reckon he got mixed up over time and I think it was this pub above, they played outside, as this is the only pub I know, that has large, red, marble pillars outside the doors and with just a little imagination, they do look like potted meat. Also, as Woodruff and his family were living on Griffin Street at the time and heading for Blackpool that day (ie, heading west from Blackburn), why would they trail all the way into town, loaded down with bags (as he says they were), when Mill Hill station was just around the corner?

PHOTO COURTESY OF COTTONTOWN AND THE COMMUNITY STUDIES DEPT. BLACKBURN LIBRARY