The history of the former Brickmakers Arms in Warrington

He was the licensee of the School Brow pub from the 1890’s until his untimely death in 1934 when he fell 20 feet out of the pub window at the age of 70.

Only a week before the accident he had signed the lease over to his son Herbert – who was on his honeymoon when his father died having recently married.

(Image: Supplied)

Herbert was similarly unlucky – he was forced to give up running the pub on doctor’s orders when he split his stomach and took over a convenience store on Bewsey Road.

The building has most recently been home to Papa's Fish and Chip after it closed as a pub. Plans were approved earlier this year to build a Krispy Kreme donut store in the car park.

In his book Buttermarket to Cockhedge, historian Harry Wells explains the history of the building.

"There was a small public house here listed in the 1864 directory, occupied by Thomas Welsby, beer retailer, and later in 1891 by James Smith.

"The name of this pub celebrates the brickmaking industry in this part of town.

"Clay and sand were found in abundance on Cockhedge and in the Battersby Lane and Orford Lane district and these materials were used to make the distinctive warm reddish brown brick which was used for local buildings up to the last part of the nineteenth century when the harder, orange coloured, products of the Ruabon brickworks became popular for both public buildings and terraced houses.

"The pub itself is faced in Ruabon brick and what we see today dates from 1904, a period when brewers Greenall Whitley were rebuilding and enlarging their premises all around town in a variety of Queen Anne and other revival styles.

"Here, the design by Warrington architects William and Segar Owen, with an ornate terracotta panel now taken down, an extravagantly high curving gable, and elaborate corner doorway, belie the relatively modest size of the pub interior."