SOAPERY TAVERN #
15 Gradwell Street
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| Friar's Field Mill, through the railway arches from Gradwell Street became a Soap Works - hence the name of the beerhouse. |
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MINE HOSTS:
1849 - 55 Joseph Grice d. January 1855 [Preston Chronicle 3rd February 1855]
1855 - Mrs. Grice
1857 - 61 James Billington - married the widow of Joseph Grice.
1863 - 70 William Holderness - 16.10.1870, fined 20s + costs for breaching the Sunday Act.
1870 - 71 Richard Carr
1871 / 72 The beerhouse was closed due to demolition to widen the railway.
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TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION
On the 20th November 1849
At the MITRE INN, Fishergate.
LOT 1. ALL that BEERSHOP and
DWELLING-HOUSE, being
15 Gradwell Street, Preston,
occupied by Joseph Grice.
Preston Chronicle 17th November 1849
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Preston Chronicle 3rd February 1855
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MIDNIGHT BURIAL OF A SUICIDE
On Sunday evening last, a young man name
Joseph Grice, a power-loom weaver aged 19,
destroyed his life in a fit of passion. The mis-
guided young man lived with his mother and
step-father, who keeps a beerhouse in Gradwell
Street, Marsh Lane.
Following a quarrel with his mother, he took
himself to the canal near Maudland Bridge, and
threw himself in.
The jury returned a verdict "That Joseph Grice
did wilfully, feloniously and intentionally, kill and
destroy himself, by drowning himself in the waters
of the Preston and Lancaster Canal."
On the same night, Mr. Gibbons, Superintendent
of Police, accompanied by two church wardens and
a few policemen, seized the body under a Coroner's
Warrant. The body was interred in the cemetery
between 11 and 12 o'clock, without the rite of
Christian burial.
The law in such cases says the burial must be
between 9pm and 12 midnight.
Preston Chronicle 14th March 1857
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VIOLENT ASSAULT
A foundry labourer, Robert Morn, was charged with
violently assaulting William Stringfellow.
On a Saturday night, about two months ago,
Stringfellow and two of his friends were in the
Soapery Tavern, Gradwell Street. Whilst there,
Morn, along with 13 other men, came into the
house and asked for a gallon of ale; but, as they
had no money, the landlady, Mrs. Billington,
refused to supply them with it, and they went
out of the house, grumbling.
Strinfellow heard them making a noise, went
to the door and remonstrated with them, upon
which he and one of his friends were set upon by
two gangs of men. Stringfellow was knocked
down, and was brutally kicked on the head and
face, and had his waistcoat torn off him, had his
lip cut and his cap torn. Some of the party were
apprehended at the time, but Morn escaped,
and hadn't been seen since, till last Saturday,
when he was apprehended.
Morn was found guilty, fined £3 with costs,
in default of payment to be imprisoned for
two months.
Preston Chronicle 10th September 1859
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Preston Chronicle 9th February 1861
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Preston Chronicle 5th November 1870
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CENSUS RETURNS
1851
Joseph Grice 42 years Beerseller b. Preston
Jane Grice 40 Wife do
Catherine Grice 17 Daughter / Power Loom Weaver do
Hannah Grice 14 Daughter do
Joseph Grice 12 Son / Scholar do
Thomas Grice 8 Son / Scholar do
John Griffin ?? 46 widower ? do
1861
James Billington 34 years Beerseller b. Lea
Jane Billington 50 Wife b. Preston
1871
Richard Carr 33 years Beerhouse Keepr b. Bentham, Yorks.
Isabella Carr 37 Wife b. Walton