ON February 10 I printed an old picture of an off-licence in Chorley New Road, Horwich, date unknown, but which was also known as The Cat. It has brought a couple of letters.
Mr T Pollitt, of Bateman Street, Horwich, tells me that he was manager of The Cat, and has the original picture, which on the back says "1914". He says the building was originally supposed to be a pub, but never got a licence. I also said in the caption that the girl on the old picture in the 1970s still lived across the road from The Cat, and was a customer. Mr Pollitt says that the customer from over the road was not the girl on the photograph, who was later Mrs Blackburn of Fairburn Street.
Then Mr Roger Higson, of Denstone Crescent, Bolton, contacted me to say that the off-licence was owned by Magee Marshall, and known as "Horwich Shop", and he says that the manager at the time of the photograph was Matthew (Matt) Guthrie.
"It was nicknamed 'The Cat' by local people who said that trade was stolen from 'The Dog', which is a hotel over the bridge on Chorley New Road, now under another name.
"Behind the shop on the opposite corner to 'The Cat' is a small back street which is known locally as 'The Cat Parlour'. Local people, many of them workers from Horwich Loco Works, would bring bottles and jugs into the shop to be filled with Magee's IPA beer, and they would congregate in 'The Cat's Parlour' and drink it.
"My father, Harold Higson, was licensee of the off-licence from 1926 until he passed away in 1963. I have many memories of living at the shop, and well remember during the Second World War when the large cellars were turned into air-raid shelters for people who lived in the surrounding streets.
"During this period we could see the sky lit up over Manchester when the blitz was on, from the steps in the back yard of the shop."
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