TODAY we take a look back at some of the old pubs of East Lancashire, in the years when an establishment stood sentry on every street corner.

These were the days when our cotton towns were also renowned for their drunkenness and rowdyism, when beer was the daily tipple of many a working man and woman.

On short stretches of streets throughout our communities there would be a handful of pubs, in Penny Street Blackburn there were at least eight, Darwen Street boasted a dozen, while a 100 yard stretch of St James’s Street, Burnley, contained five public houses, the Old Red Lion, The Swan, the Clock Face Inn, the White Lion and the Boot Inn.

Of course to quench the workers’ thirsts there had to be a number of breweries, some which were swallowed up and others which expanded and grew.

Thwaites brewery which has been established in Blackburn for more than 200 years, was founded by Daniel Thwaites in 1807.

Born in Cumberland in 1777 he trained as an exciseman, before coming to Blackburn where he met and married Betty, daughter of brewer Edward Duckworth, who had no sons.

Thus it was that management of the brewery passed to Daniel and Thwaites Brewery was established in 1807.

In those days, beer was the common beverage at every meal, for both young and old and was universally regarded as a prime necessity of life.

Throughout its history, the Star Brewery has stayed within the family, Daniel’s sons Thomas and Daniel taking over after his death in 1843 and then his granddaughter Elma, in 1888.

She was chairman when the brewery celebrated its first centenary and she was the first woman to be given the freedom of the borough - an honour that was also later bestowed on the brewery’s shire horses.

Dutton’s was another major brewery in town, starting up its Salford brewery in the early 1800s, although it was a risky venture, for there were already 14 other breweries in the town.

But Thomas Dutton realised the value of the tied house system that guaranteed brewers a monopoly in their own pubs.

The first he bought was the Golden Ball at Blakey Moor, the next was the Hare and Hounds at Lammack then the George and Dragon in Northgate; the Lord Nelson at Salford and the Good Samaritan in Grimshaw Park - the first links in the eventually-enormous Dutton’s pub chain.

Real prosperity did not come until after WWI and in 1928, Dutton’s bought the Blackburn Brewery Company whose Swan Brewery - demolished in the 1960s and the site of Larkhill Health Centre - had already absorbed Horsfall’s of Brierfield and Crabtree’s of Clitheroe.

Eight more northern brewers were taken over in the following 30 years, helping the company to acquire more than 700 pubs and 100 off-licences, but throughout all that time one thing that hadn’t altered was the brewing process for Dutton’s old English ale, known as Old Ben - and later in bottled form as Oh Be Joyful’ or OBJ - though its strength was reduced down the years.

In Burnley, the best known brewery was Massey’s which established the Bridge End Brewery, in Westgate, around 1750.

The company once owned over 150 pubs and off-licenses in the town although the family were also cotton manufacturers, running the Victoria Mill, in Trafalgar Street.

In 1925 Masseys acquired William Astley of Nelson followed by J. Grimshaw, its last major competitor in Burnley and John Kenyon of Cloughfold three years later.

Massey’s introduced an Owl trade-mark in 1937, which featured on its beer labels, such as Massey’s 6d Special Mild Ale, King’s Ale and Golden Bitter Beer.