The Coach and Horses
Stocksbridge
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The Coach & Horses Inn, Manchester Road, Stocksbridge. Click on a photo to enlarge it and for more information.
The pub is hiding behind the tree in the centre of the photograph. It hadn’t yet been enlarged. There are the two houses / shops attached on its right, standing on the corner of Smithy Hill and the main road. This photo shows how much land there was behind and to the left of the pub. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland
The row of shops and the Coach and Horses are on the right. The steelworks have expanded but there is still land to the left of the pub on which an extension would later be built. Further up the road, on the left, is the British Hall / Ebeneezer Chapel, which was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the shopping parade.
The Miners’ Welfare has not yet been built (it was constructed in 1902). The Coach and Horses can be seen set back from the row of shops which lead on to the corner of Smithy Hill. On the opposite side of Smithy Hill are the old council houses, which were demolished to make way for the Town Hall, which opened in 1928.
This snowy photograph of the Coach & Horses was taken in 1902, the year it was sold. The Miners’ Welfare Hall, which was built in this year, can be seen behind the horse and cart. The shop in the foreground belonged to Mrs. M. Blackburn, described in a 1902 newspaper article about Stocksbridge shops as “Mrs. Blackburn, ladies’ outfitter and draper.” When the pub was put up for auction this year, the sales advert mentioned a yard facing the main road and Hawke Green. It was here, between the
This photo was taken between 1903 and 1915/16 when the pub was owned by A. H. Smith, whose Don Brewery was on Penistone Road. They were taken over by Tennant Brothers in 1915. Smiths paid £6,700 for the Coach and Horses when it was put up for sale in November 1902. It was them who built the extension, which is not on the 1902 photograph above.
The brewery’s name over the door can just be made out as A. H. Smith (Don Brewery). A horse-drawn dray is delivering beer. There is a hoarding opposite the Miners’ Welfare which is also on the following photograph.
The sign possibly says Tennant Brothers but its rather blurred. The photo predates the one following, in which a garden belonging to the Knowles family is clearly shown. The photographer was standing next to the footpath that locals call “The Fields”, a path from Manchester Rd up to Bolsterstone. Knowles’ shop is to the right of the pub. Building materials are stacked up by the wall; if this was for Knowles’ garage, this would date it to before 1923 when the garage opened.
This photo was taken post 1915/16 when Tennant Brothers took over A. H. Smith’s. The photo also shows Knowles’ garden. Stocksbridge Motor Company was built by the Knowles family in 1923 (to the right of the garden, not shown). The Miner’s Welfare to the left was built in 1902.
This photo shows the Coach, with its distinctive lamp jutting out over the pavement, and Bamforth’s shop on the corner of Manchester Road and Smithy Hill.
This photo shows the Coach, with its distinctive lamp jutting out over the pavement, and Bamforth’s shop on the corner of Manchester Road and Smithy Hill.
The Coach & Horses is marked in red, fronting the main road. The shops and houses shown to the right were rented out. The smithy was behind, and the field to the left was used for events.
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Click here for a photo of the Coach and Horses dated 1979, copyright Sheffield Newspapers. Picture Sheffield reference: s22205