Heywood People in 1825
The following page is taken from the 'Village Directory of Bury Parish' section of Edward Baines' 1825 publication History, Directory, and Gazetteer, of the County Palatine of Lancaster.
Early Heywood Pubs: The Curse of the Working Classes
Before the recent spate of pub closures, Heywoodites used to take some pride (rightly or wrongly) in the high number of pubs in the town. It is still a common boast that Heywood was in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most pubs per head of population. There are two things to say about this;
Firstly, it is an urban myth simply because the publishers have no record for ‘most pubs’.
Secondly, if Guinness did have such record, Heywood would have once had a decent chance of holding it, if the figures in this 2008 BBC article are anything to go by. An unscientific survey for a Radio 4 show asked the question ‘which town has the most pubs for its size?’ and resulted in least 25 places staking their claim. These included ‘Glasgow, Glastonbury, Bewdley, Bollington, Weymouth, Witney, Saffron Walden and St Albans’ Some of the top contenders were: Manningtree, Essex: 5 pubs, 900 people (180 per pub) Otley, West Yorkshire: 21 pubs, 15,000 people (714 per pub) Brighton and Hove: 278 pubs…
Firstly, it is an urban myth simply because the publishers have no record for ‘most pubs’.
Secondly, if Guinness did have such record, Heywood would have once had a decent chance of holding it, if the figures in this 2008 BBC article are anything to go by. An unscientific survey for a Radio 4 show asked the question ‘which town has the most pubs for its size?’ and resulted in least 25 places staking their claim. These included ‘Glasgow, Glastonbury, Bewdley, Bollington, Weymouth, Witney, Saffron Walden and St Albans’ Some of the top contenders were: Manningtree, Essex: 5 pubs, 900 people (180 per pub) Otley, West Yorkshire: 21 pubs, 15,000 people (714 per pub) Brighton and Hove: 278 pubs…
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