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Hotels past & present
Hi
Tracing my family tree is proving to be an amazing on-line journey around England and Ireland. Someone from Merseyside Geneology & History Forum kindly pointed me to this website in my search for hotels in Liverpool that a Great Grandfather worked in from around 1870s to 1880s. No-one in the family really knows anything about him so I'm trying to piece some of his life together.
Please can anyone help me on this? Looking for photos or info about the Hanover Hotel which I think is Hanover Court in 1871. I've seen some recent photos (it's a blues & rock venue) but don't know if it's the same hotel. Also the New Brighton Hotel in New Brighton. Can't find anything about this. A bit out of the area but there's also The Lion Hotel, 67 Bridge St, Warrington.
His wife Maria Tansey came from Ireland. She lived in Fortesque Street, West Derby (1881 ish).
Thanks for a great website & forum. I love all the old photos.
Val
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Hi
Yes, he's on the 1871 Census (usual wrong spelling) at the Hanover Hotel. His occupation was a billiard marker- whatever that is? I really don't know if he lived there. He's on the 1881 Census at the Lion Hotel, Warrington. Again I don't know if he lived there. He married in 1882 when he was working at the New Brighton Hotel. He certainly liked hotels/pubs. Must run in the family!
Cheers
Val
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Hi
Thanks for the offer. GGrandfather's name was Charles Henry Bolt. He arrived in Liverpool somewhere between 1861-1871. He calls himself Chas Hy Bolt on his marriage cert. He probably thought that really cool. In Kelly's Directory of Liverpool & Birkenhead 1894, the Hanover Hotel address is 62, Seel St. Proprieter Thos Wheeler. On the Census it just says Hanover Court. The Brunswick Hotel was no. 66. I think the Hanover Hotel of today could be the same one- it has a renovated look about it.
I can't find anything about the New Brighton Hotel or The Lion in Warrington. Surprising as there's so much history on-line about Liverpool/Lancashire.
Something else I'm not sure about: is the Church of Our Lady of Mercy (can't find this listed) the same as the church called Sacred Heart, Hall Lane?
Cheers
Val
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Hi
Many thanks for your research. I did have difficulty reading the Census image. It's good to know the hotel still exists with a new lease of life. Charles Henry's life was quite a short one but it must have been a far better life than many.
Cheers
Val
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I was baptised, holy communion, confirmed and married in Sacred Heart parish, Hall Lane, Liverpool. I have never heard it referred to as Church of Our Lady of Mercy. It is not down on my wedding certificate either.
The Hanover Hotel is in Hanover Street not Seel Street. The block where it stands was badly bombed in WW11. I think it is post war.
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The building that is the Hanover Hotel is over 200 years old, and wasn't bombed.
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Is anyone still interested in the history of the Hanover Hotel? If so let me know and I will give you a run down of what I know. My family owned it for several years.
Sam
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That would be great, thanks :PDT11
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OK here goes
62 Hanover Street was the town house or a Mr Earle, a prosperous Liverpool merchant and ship owner. It is one of possibly only two remaining houses in the city built at an angle to the street so that the merchants who resided there could see what ships were arriving at the port without the inconvenience of leaving their houses.
We do not know when the house was converted into a hotel, but in about 1923 Mrs Margaret Blackler, the wife of Richard Blackler the founder of Blacklers store in Elliot Street, purchased the hotel as a going concern for Mrs Child?s Husband James who was a Liverpool dentist. Apparently he was a bit of a philanderer and was ejected from the family house and lived in Room 17 at the hotel instead. He tried to run the hotel from there but without a great deal of success. On Mr Child?s death Mrs Child approached her daughter, May McMillan to see whether her husband would agree to take over the management of the hotel. At the time John McMillan was the Traffic Manager for P & O Shipping in Liverpool and he did manage to get the Hotel running efficiently but was hampered by Mrs Child continually breathing down his neck. He was not allowed to spend money on refurbishment until 1951 for the Festival of Britain when the Festival Cocktail bar and the Lounge Bar were created.
Mrs Child died in 1962 leaving the hotel to her daughter May McMillan. John McMillan died in 1966 leaving his widow to struggle on with running the hotel with the help of accountants. After a year Ian McMillan took over the management of the hotel and switched the emphasis from the accommodation and food sales to bar sales. He created four new bars, the Cavalry Bar in the cellar, the Shire Bar on the right as you entered the hotel, and the Tartan Bar on the left where the reception area and stairs now are and finally the Portcullis Bar. Geoffrey Stringer was the designer and panelling taken from Oxford colleges was used for the woodwork. During the 60?s and 70?s they were without doubt the most popular watering hotels in Liverpool. Ian McMillan says that Friday and Saturday nights where memorable occasions.
In 1970 ((I need to double check this date think it could be a little later) Mrs May McMillan died and Ian & Maureen McMillan and their family (daughters Samantha and Fiona) went to live in Painswick in Gloucestershire. Soon after Ian McMillan decided to put the hotel up for sale and move his family to the Channel Islands. Mrs Egan the manageress ran the hotel for three years until it was sold to Ernie Williams the owner of the Lord Nelson Hotel.
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Wow ... i've loved reading this , ( thank you )
My friends grandad was Mr Williams he lived on Brodie Ave & like you say they also had the Lord Nelson if i remember correctly it was himself & his brother who had a partnership I think they sold up late 1970's.
Karen x