Wigan Road , Euxton
‘Euxton Burgh/Exton‘
The Red Lion in Euxton, later called the ‘Anderton Arms’ was once a 17th century coaching inn. Today the building is better known as the popular Italian restaurant ‘Papa Luigi’s’.
This page concentrates on the first recorded landlord of the inn, Thomas Ravenscroft and his family. Research confirms that the family occupied the inn from at least 1791 and were still present twelve years later in the year 1803. Thomas and Ann are my 5x great grandparents, descending from their youngest son James.
The next documented Landlord after Thomas Ravenscroft was John Beardsworth in 1825, followed by Thomas Grime in 1837.
Thomas and Ann married on the 30th of November 1783 in Great Budworth, Cheshire and had at least seven confirmed children.
Elizabeth, Peter, Ralph, Twins Joseph & Alice, William and James.
The building would have been much smaller when the Ravenscroft’s lived there. An extension of the original building was carried out later in the century.
Map showing the Red Lion – 1844-1847, published in 1849.
A Coincidence?
There is a question mark in Euxton history surrounding the Red Lion and the Anderton Arms and whether they were one and the same building or were in fact two separate inns located across the road from each other.
Evidence for two separate houses comes from Kenneth Hodkinson in his book ‘Euxton-Burgh – A pictorial record of bygone days’. The author’s view is contradicted however by other local history sources that believe that there was only ever one public house and it was simply renamed later in the building’s history.
Kenneth records that the Red Lion once stood on land now occupied by Saint Mary’s car park. Another local history source names this building as Saint Marys Cottage when it later became a residence. There is no doubt that a house once stood in the church car park confirmed by old maps of Euxton, but whether it was the original Red Lion is disputed.
During my own research I came across the two public houses mentioned in separate newspaper articles on the same day – see below.
One article describes the opening of the new St Mary’s Catholic Church; and the other gives details of an inquest that took place on the body of Hugh Swift, a local farm servant who was victim of an accident on the nearby railway. If the explanation that the two inns were one and the same then we can perhaps confirm from these articles a specific time in the buildings history when the name change occurred.
I found no record of the ‘Red Lion’ in local news after this date, likewise I found no mention of the ‘Anderton Arms’ prior to this particular newspaper article.
As stated by others the most convincing evidence for the two inns being one and the same comes from the 1861 census, where John Pearson is publican of the Red Lion and then later the Anderton Arms, as seen in the below article.
PRESTON CHRONICLE – SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 1865
PRESTON CHRONICLE – SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 1865
The ‘Old Bowling Green’
An article in the Lancaster Gazette in 1802 suggests that Thomas Ravencroft may have been a tenant of the land where the ‘Bowling Green’ restaurant resides today. Also, a close of land named Buckshaw Hey.
Thomas Ravenscroft passed away in Dec of 1838 aged eighty.
Ann Ravenscroft remained in Euxton after the death of Thomas, living with her son James and his three boys Thomas, William and Joseph. James was widowed in 1837.
What happened to the rest of the family?
Click on to Page 2 to read more.
*Three other possible ‘Ravenscroft’ children were born with parents Thomas and Ann before the birth of Elizabeth Ravenscroft. John and Ellen at Langtree, Standish and Thomas born at Charnock Richard. Whether they are part of this family is yet to be confirmed.