NEWS that The Stanhill is to undergo a makeover had Virginia Aighton digging out her family albums, as her great grandfather James Gorton kept the pub a century ago.

She has sent Bygones this image, which she reckons was taken in the late 1890s or the first decade of the new century.

His name above the door tells that he was licensed to sell foreign and British spirits, ale, beer, porter and tobacco.

Digging into her family roots, the 1891 census shows that James was 21-years-old and had been working as a coal miner since the age of 11. Starting as a part timer, he followed his father, also James, and brother down the pit.

He married cotton weaver Eliza Holden from Darwen in 1892 and two years later the couple had a daughter, Sarah Jane, known as Sally - Virginia's grandmother. The family lived at 51, Roe Greave Road, Oswaldtwistle.

The 1901 census, however, shows him now 31, as the head of his family and a tavern keeper, with his address as 61, Stanhill, Stanhill Inn. He was still there when he died in February, 1911.

Said Virginia: "It must have been quite a coup for him to take over the inn, after working so long in the coal mines. I imagine that his life was pretty hard."

Following her husband's death Eliza took over running the inn and she eventually remarried - her second husband being Doctor (Doc) Whewell, who, she understands, was quite a pub character.

Said Virginia: "I don’t think he was a doctor as such. In fact, I think he was interested in horses and broke in ponies.

"I also recall my father talking about being in the Stanhill as a boy, as his mum Sally used to help out, although she worked as a cotton weaver."

Sally had married Joseph Allen, a coal miner, in 1915, in St Paul's Church, Oswaldtwistle and they had one son, Virginia's father, James Gorton Allen, born the following year.

Apprenticed at Naylor's printing works, he served in the Second World War and the letters he wrote to his sweetheart, Ella, have been collated by Virginia into an e-book called 'About the Jam, Darling.' But that is another story....