The St Loyes

The St Loyes, Exeter, Devon

A striking 1930s pub in the “Moderne” style, unexpectedly tucked away in suburban Exeter. The Heavitree brewery has an estate of pubs but hasn’t actually brewed for decades.

The Castle Inn

The Castle Inn, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

The weeds are growing up around this old pub just a short walk from the English Bridge, which closed in 2008.

The Royal Oak

The Royal Oak, Frodsham, Cheshire

A small four-square brick-built pub just off the town centre that has been the Frodsham Tandoori for many years now.

The Spread Eagle

The Spread Eagle, Woolley Bridge, Derbyshire

A prominent former Whitbread pub on the A57 between Glossop and Mottram, that has been closed and decaying for at least fifteen years.

The Staffordshire Knot

The Staffordshire Knot, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs

A modern pub, maybe built as late as the early 1980s, rather off the beaten track in a location with no through traffic, that now has planning permission for residential redevelopment.

The New Inn

The New Inn, Bury, Lancs

A former Wilsons pub, once a Good Beer Guide entry, now in the process of being converted to a nursery. An attractive stone building, on a main road in a prosperous residential area, you have to question why this one is no longer viable.

The Owen Glendower

The Owen Glendower, Ford, Shropshire

An attractive 1930s mock-Tudor roadhouse on the main A458 road between Shrewsbury and Welshpool, that has now been turned into the “Saffron Cottage” Indian restaurant.

The Rising Sun

The Rising Sun, Shraley Brook, Staffs

An attractive, white-painted pub on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border that once enjoyed a reputation as a multi-beer free house and also for a while brewed its own beer. Although closed for some years it retains its pub appearance.

The Junction

The Junction, Oldham, Lancs

A redbrick pub on the main A627 Oldham-Ashton road, set in an area of typical inner-urban decay and depopulation.

The Millstone

The Millstone, Norcott Brook, Cheshire

A late-Victorian redbrick pub rather off the beaten track, although not too far from Runcorn and Warrington. It closed around 2005 and has now become an attractive private house.

The Crown

The Crown, Aston-by-Stone, Staffordshire

Not yet boarded up, but clearly closed and stripped of its pub identity. A main road pub on the A34 between Stafford and Stone.

The Castle

The Castle, Widnes, Lancs

A street-corner pub at the north-east end of this chemical industry town. This was my dad’s local when he became old enough to drink.

The Hawthorne

The Hawthorne, Oldham, Lancs

Tucked away in an odd little rural pocket south-east of the town centre, this seems a rather unlikely location for a venue describing itself as “Pub and Dining”.

The Holden Bridge

The Holden Bridge, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs

Yet another massive inter-wars roadhouse in an area of the country that seems to have suffered particularly badly from pub closures.

The Swan

The Swan, Frodesley, Shropshire

A small village pub in the countryside south of Shrewsbury that closed in 2006 and is now a private house. Spot the pair of kegs still lying around in the back yard.

The Hen & Chickens

The Hen & Chickens, Oldbury, Staffordshire

Another massive West Midlands Tudor-style roadhouse, once a famous landmark on the A4123 Birmingham-Wolverhampton road, that has now become the Wing Wah Chinese restaurant.

The Bankfield

The Bankfield, Hyde, Cheshire

An imposing former Robinson’s pub with half-timbered detailing and a corner turret. Nobody can claim there is a lack of nearby housing here.

The Royal Hotel

The Royal Hotel, Waterfoot, Lancashire

An imposing four-storey Victorian building fronting a main road in Rossendale. It actually was a hotel with letting rooms as well as a pub.

The Bennett Arms

The Bennett Arms, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs

Yet another closed pub in Newcastle – this one not a big inter-wars roadhouse but a Victorian pub set back from the road.

Bar 2

Bar 2, Sale, Cheshire

Situated right next to Sale Metrolink station, so not short of potential customers, this looks like an old pub that has acquired a modern, trendy guise, but nevertheless has still bitten the dust.

The Top House

The Top House, Castleton, Lancashire

A typical street-corner pub in a rather run-down small town on the main road between Manchester and Rochdale.

The Brickwall Inn

The Brickwall Inn, Tarbock Green, Lancs

A chalet-style 1930s roadhouse in the strip of countryside between Widnes and Liverpool. The extent of the car park suggests that at one time this was a very popular destination pub.

The Salamanca

The Salamanca, Fourlanes End, Cheshire

A roadside pub by the A50 in the south of the county, still in Ansells livery, that has been closed and decaying for at least ten years. The name comes from Wellington’s victory in Spain in 1812, where local worthy Stapleton Cotton commanded the British cavalry.

The Golden Lion

The Golden Lion, Stockport, Cheshire

Now a solicitors’ office, but still retaining a sign showing its former pub identity. A former Burtonwood house in the overpubbed Hillgate area, once one of the least appealing calls on the annual pre-Christmas Hillgate “Stagger”.

The Old Tup

The Old Tup, Gamesley, Derbyshire

A modern estate-type pub alongside the A626 between Marple and Glossop. I have a personal memory of this pub, as my father and I stopped there for a sandwich on the way to my university interview at Sheffield in 1976. They took an age to make it too! I believe this one may have since reopened, but I wouldn’t lay money on its long-term survival. Spot the ginger lad in a blue footie shirt on the StreetView image.

Memory Lane

Memory Lane, Heanor, Derbyshire

Extending this pub and giving it a kind of “theme” clearly wasn’t enough to save it. Apparently it was full of household items from the 40s, 50s and 60s. There is a photo of it when open here.

The Spinners Tavern

The Spinners Tavern, Oldham, Lancs

A solid, brick-built pub with mullioned windows just to the east of the town centre. One of a number acquired by Banks’s in their ill-fated move into the area in the late 1980s.

The Greyhound

The Greyhound, Adswood, Cheshire

A big 1930s pub, typical of so many that have closed, standing on a substantial site at a busy road junction. Still shows as trading on Street View. I have posted on my main blog about it here. Apparently this week it is in the process of being demolished.

The Blue Bell

The Blue Bell, Wrinehill, Staffs

A small ex-Greenalls roadside pub close to the Cheshire border, which has since been demolished.

The Midland

The Midland, Peak Dale, Derbyshire

A former Robinson’s pub in an isolated location surrounded by quarries, now converted to a pair of private houses.

The Horse & Jockey

The Horse & Jockey, Saddleworth, West Riding of Yorkshire

A purpose-built pub opened in 1937 alongside the main A62 road from Oldham to Huddersfield – from the look of the signage by one of Bass’ predecessor companies. Now derelict and at the mercy of the elements, it appeared in the 1984 Good Pub Guide and was still trading in the early 1990s. There is an epitaph for it here. Only a mile or so from the Floating Light – most of the roadside pubs on this route have now gone.

The Pomona

The Pomona, Reddish, Lancashire

Still decked out in Wilsons livery, this pub just over the Manchester boundary at the North end of Reddish has been closed and derelict for a number of years.

The Old Colonial

The Old Colonial, Birkenhead, Cheshire

The decaying Birkenhead docklands are not the most promising location for a pub, but, judging by the signage and banner, an effort does seem to have been made with this one in recent years.

The Gladstone

The Gladstone, South Norwood, Surrey

On a rundown suburban shopping street, very “London” with its cramped corner site and characteristic yellow-grey stock bricks.

The Bow Garrett

The Bow Garrett, Stockport, Cheshire

Originally called the Bulkeley Arms, a distinctive four-square brick building on the main road towards Cheadle, less than half a mile from Ye Olde Woolpack. I have no idea where the name comes from.

The Bird in Hand

The Bird In Hand, Sharpley Heath, Staffordshire

This free house at an isolated crossroads in rural Staffordshire now looks very forlorn, but by the look of the windows and signage money has been spent on it in past years.

The Robin Hood

The Robin Hood, Helsby, Cheshire

A former Greenalls pub later taken over by Marston’s. It looks Edwardian but could at a pinch be 1920s. The steel plating over the bow windows conceals some attractive stained glass. The village of Helsby has lost two of its four pubs in the last few years – see also the Horse & Jockey.

The Black Horse

The Black Horse, Salford, Lancs

An impressive late Victorian or Edwardian pub on the main A6 road out of Salford, close to the well-known Crescent free house.

The King George V

The King George V, Longbridge, Birmingham

A particularly magnificent inter-wars Brewer’s Tudor roadhouse by the main A38 south of the city, now the Emerald Cantonese restaurant. Note the archway through the wall on the left-hand side. Within a mile of the similarly impressive Beeches.

The Nicholsons Arms

The Nicholsons Arms, Stockport, Cheshire

A classic 1960s estate pub by the Lancashire Hill flats, but in fact next to a main road and only a few hundred yards from the town centre. Unaccountably, this was the only Stockport pub to feature in the first edition of the Good Beer Guide - maybe the compilers drove out from Manchester and included the first Robbies' pub they came across.

The Rivelin

The Rivelin, near Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire

In a very scenic situation by the main A57 overlooking some reservoirs, only a few miles outside Sheffield, surely this pub could be viable as a destination venue.

The Haxby

The Haxby, Gorton, Manchester

This pub, tucked away right at the back of an inter-wars estate, was notorious as one that, although within the area covered by our local branch of CAMRA, virtually nobody had ever clapped eyes on.

The Badger

The Badger, Church Minshull, Cheshire

Cheshire’s country pubs have come off better than most from the recent wave of closures, but an exception is this pub in the classic location next to the church in a small village at the heart of the county. It still has its Allied Breweries lettering – I think this one originated from the Ind Coope estate rather than Tetley’s.