THERE was a time when Bolton had a pub on almost every corner.

They were the centre of local life for many families.

Patricia Melia was the daughter of Bert Glover who was the landlord of the Duke of Connaught, a Magee Marshall pub, which was situated at 85 Mill Street, Bolton.

She said: “Prior to the Duke, we were in the Vulcan pub on Folds Road for a very brief period. I was too young to recall anything about that. It might have been called the Eagle & Vulcan.”

Patricia’s younger brother was born in 1935 in one of the upstairs bedrooms at the Duke, being delivered by the local and very popular Irishman Doctor Simmons.

She added: "My mother was Irish who came to England to find work. We lived in the pub from 1934 until about 1950ish. My dad was rejected from joining the Army in the Second World War as previously, when a teenager, he suffered a couple of accidents while working in the mines in the Atherton area. The accidents apparently precluded him from firing a rifle. I guess he was one of the 'lucky' ones to escape that horror.”

Patricia says her most abiding memories of the Duke are: “Lying in bed listening to the customers singing in the pub on Friday and Saturday nights. If the air raid warnings sounded, my three brothers and I were bundled downstairs and laid on a mattress which had been placed in the area under the stairs for that purpose.

“ We often lay there listening to Churchill’s speeches.

“On leaving the 'Duke' my dad became landlord of the Swan Hotel on Hindley Green, near Wigan. It was a bit more upmarket than the Duke as it had a bowling green at the side.

“I was brought up in the Duke and my very first job, as an office girl, was at the Mill Hill Spinning Co. Ltd. formerly situated on Mill Hill Street, just down the road from the Duke.”