P h o t o B l o g

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Volunteer Inn


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"V" is for "Volunteer Inn" and today's photo shows, er... well, it shows Kenworthy's Funeral Services on Old Street in Ashton.

This might seem a surprising choice of location to photograph a "V" post, until you know that the building was originally the Volunteer Inn.

The pub itself was originally housed in a building dating from the 18th century, but was re-built in its present form in 1887. It is across the road from The Armoury, the drill hall for the volunteer regiment, seen here, and this gave rise to the pub's name.

It was only ever licensed as a beerhouse (i.e. not able to sell wines and spirits). It closed in 1956. The licensing officer had described it as "unattractive" and commented that it did little trade and was only used by Territorial Army soldiers. It was also noted that there were 39 licensed premises within a quarter of a mile!

The building became two shops and more recently a funeral directors. It was for sale when the photo was taken a few weeks ago.

See Birds Eye View of this location.

See Google Street View of this location.

"Volunteer Inn" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "V" posts from around the world please follow this link.

11 comments:

  1. Interesting building with an interesting history. Hope someone finds a usual purpose for it!

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  2. Fascinating history - I wonder how many other pubs have ended up as funeral parlours.

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  3. I thought, at first, that one had to volunteer to go to the Funeral Home.....
    Interesting History. I wonder what it will be next.

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  4. Interesting little building! I hope the building will be preserved by the new owner.

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  5. It's a quaint building, but I don't think I'll "volunteer" to stay there anytime soon!

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  6. Now, that makes me laugh out loud !! A pub transformed into a Funeral Service, that's something ! I think that's nice for the dead people to go to the pub a last time before they are burried !

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  7. I love when they repurpose buildings!

    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  8. I guess the pub had no atmosphere. Looks a bit dead.
    And, ‘preserved by the new owners’?
    No, the owners preserved the new customers.
    OK, I’ll stop now.

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  9. Well, at least it's not one of the high number of pubs going under ever week these days! For a 'beerhouse' to have so many pubs within striking distance was probably a severe handicap. No wonder it closed!

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  10. Thanks so much for your contribution - it is great to see an old building being re-used rather than demolished dont you think?
    isit as many contributors as possible each week but sometimes I just dont manage it, but we have a great ABC team and between us we see that everybody gets a comment. We are coming to the end of the current round and plans are in store for the next round, I do hope you will be part of the fun! If you would like to be part of the team just drop me an e-mail :-

    Denise Nesbitt
    ABC Wednesday founder & team member

    denisebydesigns at googlemail dot com

    ReplyDelete

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