A popular ‘estate pub’ which has served its community for around 60 years is under threat of closure after plans emerged to turn it into a nursery. The Cotton Tree Hotel, which has served punters in the School Hill area of Bolton since the mid-1960s, is the subject of a planning application submitted last week by The Nest Therapy Ltd to convert the pub building into a children’s room with a perimeter fence .
The building, just north of Bolton town centre, is still in use but has been put up for sale by its owners on property websites in recent months for around £295,000. The Prince Street pub has a function room that has hosted countless weddings, funerals and other celebrations over the decades.
A recent post on a nostalgic Facebook group about the Bolton-centric pub sparked dozens of fond memories of the Cotton Tree. Those who posted their thoughts described fond memories of country and western nights, rock shows and karaoke nights.
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Several recalled their weddings being held upstairs, many from the pub’s “heyday” in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Bolton’s piper would practice upstairs before retiring for a beer downstairs, and those who worked at the nearby Wallis and Hartley mill would drop in on a Friday afternoon to break their wages.
To this day, the pub welcomes dozens of veterans on Armistice Day, who pop in for a pint or two and swap stories after the parade to mark the borough’s commemorative days, and the pub’s customers and management are proud to support a variety of charities.
Several pubs on the estate close each month as people’s social habits change Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the Cotton Tree early Wednesday night to ask customers what it would mean to lose the neighborhood’s only pub.
It’s fair to say that the unassuming Cotton Tree has seen better days. The exterior of the building looks a little run down, but this is more than compensated for by the warm welcome inside.
The neat and tidy main lounge holds a good number of people, about 20 people, and the atmosphere is friendly and jovial with the clatter of billiard balls punctuated by laughter and conversation. After paying a hefty £3.60 for a pint of premium lager, the pub’s regulars only want to tell me what the place means to them.
Dave Williams, who lives in School Hill, has been a regular since he moved to the area eight years ago. “I pop in for a pint or two after work a few times a week,” he said.
“It’s a friendly place and most people know each other. This pub welcomes strangers, welcomes all. “When a person first came in, went outside and left the phone on the table for four hours, no one would touch it.
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We take care of each other. “If the pub closes, I don’t know what I’ll do – maybe just stay at home more.” Frank, 70, lives nearby and has been a Cotton Tree regular for 43 years.
He said: “I would be devastated if this place closed, it’s a big part of my life, it’s my social life. “All the people here are my friends and if it closes it will be like losing contact with my family. “I know I won’t see most of it again.”
Janice Slater, 54, and her partner James Stewart, 57, travel to Cotton Tree from their home in Kearsley, about four miles away. Janice said: “There is a sense of community here and we look after each other. Everyone has problems and here you can talk to someone about it and have a laugh. When I heard about the construction plans, I was saddened.”
James said: “It’s a focal point for the whole area, a place that still brings people together. I celebrated my 50th birthday here, there were so many celebrations, weddings and parties, people coming together and having a good time.
“Once pubs like this are gone, they are gone forever. If it goes, it will be a big, big loss for hundreds of people.”
The man is still in his oil-stained work clothes. “I drive miles from where I live in Brightmeet to come here. I’m doing it because it’s a normal pub, a normal local, and they’ll be gone soon.’
Bolton Council planners will decide on the change of use planning application at a date to be decided.