TYLDESLEY doesn't look likely to lose its image as a boozer's paradise. A trio of shut clubs have, or are, being revamped and reopened.

The town centre Tyldesley Labour Club, which closed at Easter and reopened under new management as Tyldesley Social Club, is currently undergoing a revamp.

Another Labour Club - at Tyldesley's former East Ward stronghold of Mosley Common - has undergone extensive alterations and is set to reopen in Garratt Hall Road under private ownership.

And the last club casualty - Tyldesley Allotments and Smallholders Club which closed in May - is about to reopen as a non-members' club.

On Tuesday former club steward Brian Leece successfully applied for a drinks' licence for the soon to open The Cabbage Club - the local nickname for the closed Poplar Street club.

He will be licensee of the club which is being opened by Manchester-based Friendly Inns on Saturday, July 12 at 7pm.

Jean Bradshaw, Friendly Inns' business manager, told The Journal:"As our name suggests we're a friendly company and we're hoping to open it up as a social club for the good of the community."

She said Friendly Inns had successfully reopened closed-down pubs in other areas. And among its 40 or so licensed outlets in the Manchester, North Wales and Yorkshire regions, are some which have been a focal point in a community revival.

So the beersellers of Bongs are doing their best to provide the goods to please.

Drinkers and publicans in neighbouring towns look enviously at the Thursday-thru'-Sunday hordes attracted by an abundance of main street watering holes.

But present day bar numbers would need to be tripled to match the thirst-quenching stations available in the town's heyday.

Late Tyldesley local history buff Jimmy Jones loved to tell the tap room tale of how in the year before The Great War Tyldesley had 11 places of worship and no fewer than 26 pubs, three political clubs and one non-political club.

The town also had six off licences.

And in 1913 they liked pies as well as pints with 19 bakers and confectioners, 18 fish and chip shops and five tripe dressers.

That same year Tyldesley housed numerous pits with 15 coal winding shafts, three cotton and weaving mills, two foundries, a saddler, two blacksmiths and a tar works.

There were 22 farmers and two pawnbrokers, 10 ironmongers and 15 boot, shoe and clog shops plus nine men's barbers shops!

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