Manchester The Hairy Bikers' Pubs That Built Britain

Pubs have been at the heart of Britain for hundreds of years.

Cheers!

-In city taverns...

-..and village inns.

'Landlords have pulled pints for locals, travellers...'

and, well, the odd king or two. Meself included

Try and have a drink now.

Oh!

But with 30 pubs closing every week, our historic taverns need defending.

Step. Step.

We're heading out to discover amazing stories linked to the nation's watering holes.

-Not far to go.

-How far?

-Oh, a couple of miles.

-What?!

'From the Wars of the Roses...'

..to shipbuilding on the Clyde,

we've ditched our bikes so that we can sample an ale or two.

Get in!

-This is very good.

-LAUGHTER

'So join us for...'

MUSIC: Step On by Happy Mondays

Manchester -

home of Liam Gallagher, Shaun Ryder

and a whole load of other mouthy Mancs.

# You're twisting my melon, man... #

But being gobby around here is a tradition dating back to

the city's harsh industrial past.

And today we're visiting the pubs where exploited cotton mill workers

in the 19th century put their miserable world to rights

and shouted for change.

# Call the cops... #

What do we want? We want change. When do we want it?

Now! What do we want? We want change.

When do want it? Now!

Whoa, easy, tiger. We're not in the 1800s now, you know.

No, mate, you're right, we're not,

because if we had've been in the 1800s,

we would have been arrested for protesting like this, you know.

Which is precisely why political plots were hatched in the boozer.

We're heading back to the early 1800s,

when across Britain the Industrial Revolution was in full swing.

The nation's cities were heaving with people who'd flocked there

to work in these new heavy industries.

And in Manchester cotton was king,

which explains the nickname Cottonopolis.

Here, pubs like the Olde Boar's Head were packed to the gunnels with factory workers.

But these folks weren't just after a quiet pint.

They were thirsty for political change.

Ah, The Olde Boar's Head!

I hear that this ancient inn has played host to the odd royal

-and even Dick Turpin.

-Has it?

Well, we should fit right in there, then, mate,

I can see ourselves as highwaymen, robbing the rich to save the poor.

No, mate, no, no, no, that was Robin Hood.

Dick Turpin was in fact a mercenary who got hanged for horse theft.

-Really?

-Aye.

-Well, let's stick to the day jobs, then, eh?

-Pint?

-I think.

The Olde Boar's Head is in Middleton on the northern edge of the city

and is one of Manchester's oldest boozers.

It was also the regular meeting place for a group of

political activists known as the Hampden Reform Club,

led by a man called Sam Bamford.

'Historian Jonathan Schofield has come to the pub to tell us more.'

-Just the man.

-Hello.

-Jonathan, hi. How are you? Very nice to meet you.

-Hello, Jonathan.

-Nice to see you.

This is a fantastic pub. Can you tell us all about it?

Well, the front part of the building is the ancient part of

the building and these would have originally been cottages.

But by the 1600s it becomes a boozer

and then later on it gets an extra string to its bow

when it becomes a court, which is a sessions court,

which is very appropriate for a pub, I think,

-cos it's nice to have a nice session in a pub.

-Hey-hey!

The irony of this is that, of course,

it was held as a place of justice,

but also that it should later on then become a centre of

dissent and radicalism, when a man called Sam Bamford

used to come and drink in here and talk about libertarian values.

Yes, because at that time political protest was being,

was being quashed, wasn't it? So what was he fighting for?

What they wanted, from

all the way in the early part of the 19th century

and a little bit at the end of the 18th century,

was simply representation, because

during times of distress there was nobody to talk to around here,

cos you didn't have a member of Parliament, you couldn't go to London with any distress,

-so you wanted universal suffrage, a vote for everybody.

-Yes.

And you wanted a member of Parliament, to represent you,

so they would meet in here and talk about these ideas.

Pubs like The Olde Boar's Head became a magnet for

the workers of over 100 mills when Manchester was at its peak.

Manchester by the 1830s was probably responsible for 50% of all British exports.

-Wow!

-And that's why the whole city became known as Cottonopolis.

Wow. So Cottonopolis in essence, then, changed the whole fabric of Manchester society.

That's the best joke I've ever heard about cotton, well done.

-Nice pun, Kingy. Slipped out.

-That's wonderful, that is.

Yeah, yeah, I think they used cotton as a material for reform.

-But the...

-Oooh!

-We're getting there!

-Good, this, innit?

-He doesn't lose his thread, does he, that one?

-Hey-hey!

Joking aside, conditions in the mills were appalling.

Working hours were unregulated,

serious accidents were commonplace

and wages were as low as three shillings a week.

But it's obvious from this that change was necessary.

Oh, absolutely. Samuel Bamford knew that,

so he would meet in this pub, with his radicals.

This was happening all across, and not just in Lancashire but across the country.

It was just focused in Lancashire because there was this quite

intellectual group of working people

who would meet and think these things.

It was no easy job, though.

The ruling classes were determined to stamp out these pub politics.

Bamford's band was becoming a real threat to the establishment.

But as common workers became more politically aware,

change was on the horizon.

What's fascinating about it is they were fighting for fundamental rights

-like, you know, a ten-hour working day.

-Yeah.

So if they're fighting for a ten-hour working day, how long did they work?

-12, 14, 16, 18 hours sometimes in the

-mills. Exactly.

So they were absolute just basic humanitarian rights

that working class people were asking for

-and the landowners...

-In fact, it goes deeper than that.

They're actually fighting for something more basic. Respect,

dignity, all those things. And those come from

-if you feel you've got some power through democratic vote.

-Yes.

But they weren't there to do anything

but protest the injustice of the system at the time.

On the 16th of August 1819,

a terrible event would transform the political landscape.

Sam Bamford and his followers from the Olde Boar's Head

joined a peaceful protest at St Peter's Fields.

Around 80,000 demonstrators illegally gathered,

but things soon spiralled out of control.

The authorities sent in sword-wielding cavalry

in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

Around 600 were injured and 15 killed.

Bamford was arrested for, "Assembling with unlawful banners

"at an unlawful meeting for the purpose of inciting discontent."

Phew!

Easy for you to say, mucker!

After a year in jail,

he turned his attention to writing political songs.

And Jennifer Reid is keeping these broadside ballads alive.

-Jennifer. Hello, I'm Si.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you. How are you?

-Lovely to meet you. How are you?

Now, Jennifer, you're a musician.

-Mm-hmm.

-Can you tell us the sort of music

and what would have gone on in Bamford's time in this pub?

In, like, the 1800s there was

a strong tradition of broadside ballads, so this is a tract,

printed on a cheap piece of paper, usually from pushed ends of cotton,

-because paper wasn't readily available.

-Right.

So they'd have to make their own paper,

and then these were written without tunes on the paper

and then you could buy a separate book of tunes, but that was

generated later on, so usually people would just make them up.

So, in the pubs specifically, they would paste up these ballads,

these broadsheets, paste them up on the wall so that the whole

community could learn the words to the ballad, and then the next time

it was sung, when everyone was quite merry, then everyone could join in.

So how important were the broadside ballads

in spreading the political message?

They were the main transfer of information between the 16th and 19th centuries,

but their heyday was in the 17th when news as an item

became more prevalent in people's lives.

People really started to understand that they could shape politics

and they were involved.

All Sam Bamford's poems were really rooted politically

and I think that's very interesting about his character.

The brutality and injustice of Peterloo

inspired broadside ballads by Bamford and other activists.

They were sung in pubs the length and breadth of England,

and Jennifer's still singing them to this day.

Here, Kingy, I think there's a chance we can travel back in time now.

I think so. Jennifer will you sing us a song?

Yes, I'll sing you Peterloo by Harvey Kershaw,

a famous dialect poet from Rochdale.

-Fantastic, thank you.

-I think we should take our seats, mate. Lovely.

# In Peter's Field in Manchester

# In year 1-8-1-9

# When cotton folk of Lancashire

# In protest did combine

# Corn laws had brought their crippling tax

# And price of food near broke folks' backs

# And set alight the smouldering flax

# And bristled many a spine

# Salute once more these men of yore

# Who were to conscience true

# And give their blood for common good

# On field of Peterloo. #

-Fantastic.

-Brilliant.

That was fantastic.

By goodness me, that's a rousing song.

-It sends a tingle up your spine, doesn't it?

-It does, it does.

Pub singsongs spreading the political message?

I think that's fantastic.

Now, don't go getting any ideas, Kingy.

I've heard you singing after a few pints and it's not pretty!

That's fascinating stuff, Kingy. I mean, riots, rights and pubs.

And, by the way, do you know where the phrase "to read the Riot Act" comes from?

I do not, mate, no.

In 1718, the Riot Act was passed,

which forbid meetings of more than 12 people from taking place.

But where does the reading bit come from, though, mate?

Ah, you see, the magistrate would turn up at the meeting,

read them the Riot Act,

and if you didn't budge, you got three years in jail.

-That's a bit harsh, isn't it?

-Aye.

And that's not the only bit

of pub trivia up our sleeves.

Pub signs are full of fascinating facts, too,

and here are three of our Manchester faves.

The Sir Ralph Abercromby stands on the site of St Peter's Fields,

and is one of the few surviving buildings from the time of the massacre.

Unlike its namesake, a famous British Army general

who died in 1801 in battle against the French.

Oops. Better not order a glass of Bordeaux here, then.

In a previous life, The Britons Protection was a recruitment centre for military service.

Oh, a few too many pints and you'd be fighting for King and Country.

And did you know The Peveril Of The Peak shares its name with a Sir Walter Scott novel?

This Grade II-listed boozer's also a star of stage and screen.

It's appeared in Corrie, Cracker and The X Factor.

More famous than us, then!

We're back on Manchester's mean streets

to discover just how tough life was in 19th-century Cottonopolis.

And how the local pubs were keen to keep up.

Well, there may not have been a limit to the amount of hours that you could work,

but did you realise that pubs could be open up to 18 hours a day?

I didn't actually, Dave, but that's no surprise given the booming population,

and a load of thirsty punters. You know what I think I might do?

Go and find out what they were actually drinking.

-MANCHESTER ACCENT:

-Nice job.

Well, I'm going to go back in time, to find out what was happening

on the streets. I'm mad for it, me. Banging.

Is that the best Mancunian accent you can do?

It's not bad.

MUSIC: Fools Gold by The Stone Roses

Keep it real, mucker.

I'm off to visit a brewery to find out more about the beer

the working man would've been supping in the 1800s.

And I'm hitting the streets of old Cottonopolis,

where I'm hoping historian Suzanne Hindle

can weave me a picture of life back then.

-Hello, Suzanne.

-Hi, Dave.

-It's Dave, hello.

-How are you?

-I'm very well. Where are we?

This is Ancoats.

This is where the heartland of industrial Manchester, it was,

so this was the mill district of the city.

And what was life like in those days for the workers?

It was difficult. I mean, Manchester in about 1801,

the population of the city was something like 70,000.

By about 1851 that would double to something like 300,000,

so lots of people moving into the city.

So you had people who were looking for work,

so coming out from the countryside, wanting to get that,

the sort of bright eyes and the big city, and work in those mills.

Yes, yes. Did the working-class people have any leisure time and what did they do with it?

Remember you're in those mills for many, many hours.

However, there was the demon drink, of course,

and pubs were open long hours.

There was a pub on every corner of these working-class districts.

That lure of drink was everywhere around us to spend your money.

'The pubs split opinion.

'Some viewed them as a perfectly acceptable escape for workers,

'others saw them as a scourge.

'What can't be disputed is the poverty in the area.

'This building, ironically now a pub,'

was a mission, providing refuge for the needy.

So why was there a mission here?

There was a mission because this was a really, really poor area.

-Ragamuffins.

-Ragamuffins!

-Aw!

Look at them with their clogs on. Poor children, with nothing.

In here, this is where they prepared the food,

and you would have gone through here, through a corridor,

and it would have led you into a night shelter and they would

have slept on the floor, and they would've been given meals as well.

-Right.

-And clothes and clogs.

We've got some books that I can tell you a little bit about

why it was needed and what the area was like at the time,

so this is a book called Ten Years In The Slums by Alfred Alsop,

our philanthropist, and he describes that the three curses of the city

are gin shops, pawn shops and brothels.

So he describes particularly the pubs in the area,

which he describes as "flaring gilded palaces of Bacchus".

Those would be the gin palaces, obviously.

They're found on every corner with this crowd of "ragged worshipers",

he describes people who come into the pubs,

and he describes the landlord as "the chief priest".

So what did the government do to sort out the gin problem?

Well, they hiked up taxes on the spirit and made it easier

to brew ale and, hey, presto, we became a beer-drinking nation...

..which is why I've come to Robinsons.

They've been making beer and running pubs in Manchester for over 175 years.

-Watch your head.

-Thanks. Thank you.

Wow, Oliver. What a great building.

So, look, tell me about Robinsons Brewery and the family history.

Well, I'm sixth generation of the Robinson family and,

it was actually my great-great-great grandfather

who decided to start running a pub in 1826.

He actually ran that until 1850,

and really that's where it started. I think in those days

most pubs brewed their own beer, and, you know, it grew from there,

that's where it all started, going back to 1826.

So, what was the drinking culture at the time

when William, your ancestor, decided,

"Right, I'm going to buy a pub and I'm going to brew some beer"?

A lot of people drank gin,

and certainly a lot of the poor people drank gin as well,

and going out to the factories, they were going in drunk,

when in actual fact the employers wanted people who were sober.

And, it was going back really into the 1850s, if you have

and can produce something like beer at a lower strength,

people could still drink and have an enjoyable time,

but perhaps they were a bit more sober to work the following day.

These days Robinsons Brewery owns over 300 pubs

and brews over 13 million pints a year.

To think it all started with one little public house

in the town of Stockport, just outside Manchester.

Can we make a comparison, then, between

the beers that we drink now and the beers that they drank then?

Is there a massive difference or are they pretty similar?

From a brewing process, not at all. You know, there are four core ingredients in beer.

You've got your water, you've got your malt, you've got your hops and you've got your yeast.

That's not changed over hundreds of years.

Now, all this talk about pubs and brewing is all well and good...

-Made you thirsty.

-I am. I would slightly like to wet me whistle.

-Let's go to the fermenting room and try some wort.

-I'll follow you.

This batch of lovely liquid is called the wort.

'And, no, I'm not going fishing, I'm sampling a batch.

'It hasn't finished fermenting yet

'and still contains the sugar that will eventually turn to alcohol.'

It's only been fermenting for about sort of three days.

It's going to be in here for about another three days,

so it's going to be quite... Throw that back in.

It smells fantastic, to be fair.

So there's still a nice sweetness on there.

You can feel this wortiness on the back of the palate.

Throw that back in.

Pop the glass there, I don't want that falling in.

' "Wortiness." I've never heard that one before, but I like it.'

Oliver, this is fascinating.

So, another three days, and that'll be close to the final product, then.

Be ready, yeah.

'And here's some Oliver prepared earlier.

'Three days earlier, to be precise.'

-Oh, fantastic.

-There you are.

Thank you so very, very much.

-Look at that.

-Cheers.

-Cheers. Your very good health.

It was a great pleasure to show you round the brewery.

Well, it's been a great pleasure to be in receipt of it. Thank you.

'And you know what great beers go hand-in-hand with?

'Great boozers!'

But pubs would be nothing without their passionate punters,

so let's meet some locals who love their local,

so much so that they bought the place!

The Star Inn is a traditional backstreet boozer.

It's been serving the people of Salford since 1856.

In 2009 this band of loyal locals saved it from certain closure

by clubbing together to buy the freehold and form a cooperative.

A bold and brilliant venture Jim, here, was part of.

Since about 1975 I've been coming here,

since I was a student.

It's got a very strong sense of community,

probably even more so now that we've all bought it.

When we heard it was up for sale three or four people decided to

call a meeting to see whether there was any enthusiasm to save the pub.

The place was packed out.

People pledged money to bid at the auction.

'And what a nerve-racking experience that was.

'None of them had been to a property auction before.'

'But guess what?

'One tip of the hat and it was theirs for 80 grand.

'Genius!'

'Once theirs, the lasses, including Lorraine, were keen to fix

'a long-standing issue of gender inequality as a matter of urgency.'

The ladies' toilets are outside.

It was the top priority to bring the ladies' toilets indoors,

so we didn't have to trek out across the yard in winter, and

we raised enough money to be able to bring the ladies' toilets inside.

Ah, relief! The ladies loos are re-LOO-cated!

Aye, and The Star Inn is, well, shooting for the stars.

Hopefully it's got a bright future.

Pubs are generally the centre of the community.

It is where people from different walks of life come and meet and

they wouldn't...their paths wouldn't cross unless they came to the pub.

Manchester's locals have a long tradition of supporting the punters they serve.

And this was especially true in the 1800s when there was

little government help for people who fell on hard times.

So once again Mancunians got it together...

..down the boozer!

The Kings Arms.

You know, there are over 200 pubs in Britain that bear that name.

But this Kings Arms is all about the common man.

Yes, and I do hear, it's very...

BOTH: Friendly.

'The Kings Arms in Salford has been a pillar of the community

'and a haunt for local groups since 1807.'

'Aye, and one group, The Salford Friendly Anglers Society,

'has been meeting here for over a century.

'We're here to meet Adam, to find out what on earth

'a Friendly Society is when it's at home.

'Or, indeed, when it's down the pub.'

-Hiya, how are you?

-Good to meet you, thank you very much.

-Good to meet you, lad.

-Good to meet you, Dave.

Thanks for coming to see us, that's brilliant.

So this pub is the meeting place of the Salford Friendly Anglers Society.

That's right, it has been since the 1890s.

Can I ask you a question? What is a Friendly Society?

It's about people coming together

and providing a bit of financial security, in case of problems,

and also sharing a common passion, a common interest,

and having a focus point for that.

So in a practical way, how does the Friendly Society help people?

Well, back in the 19th century, you know,

we didn't have a welfare state,

so, one of the key roles of the Friendly Societies

was to be like this financial security net for people.

There was two parts, there was an angling club

and then there was a sick club.

Been a member of the angling club for 12 months,

you're part of that community, you can then join the sick club.

In the event of your death -

which in those days, Salford, life expectancy round here was 37.

-Gosh!

-Wow!

-So if you died,

then there was a levy of one shilling on all the other members,

which would then go to your widow, your children, your next of kin,

so they had that safety net.

So what did the pub have to do with it, then, Adam?

One, as a meeting place.

-Secondly, landlords, they were pillars of the community.

-Yes.

-Think back in those days, Victorian times...

-Yes.

-Yes.

..you needed someone you could trust so you've got people chipping in the

money, the landlord would look after that, and you had a safe centre of

the community where they would look after the money, they would bank it

and then when money needed paying out, they'd pay it out for you.

It's amazing, isn't it, that from pubs, when there was a social need,

from pubs, people met, realised that there was that need,

and then kind of reacted to it and that's just fabulous.

So the Anglers, still going, it's still going strong,

so, how do you benefit your members now?

What we do is we work with

a whole range of stakeholders, community groups.

It's about getting people involved.

Cross-generational from old people right down to kids.

We're working on some National Lottery funding at the moment,

so that we can get kids into their wellies, into the river with a net,

and find out actually what's in there and start to take ownership

of their river and enjoy it, so it's not just seen as a dumping ground,

but something that we can be proud of here in Manchester.

It's wonderful, I think, that the pubs still play a big part in this.

You know, the pubs promote camaraderie, talk,

friendship, caring for one another.

I'll drink to that!

But it's not just anglers,

this pub's been a meeting place for all sorts.

From the North Of England Irish Terrier Club,

to a sword dancing group!

The Kings Arms knitters get together here every Monday night.

Knitting down the boozer? That sounds like a laugh.

Yeah, Kingy, it'll have you in stitches, all right!

Lindsey Boothman and her band of merry knitters love it down here.

-ALL:

-Hello.

-Hello. How are you all?

-Good.

Oh, look, it's knitting.

I love knitting.

-And we've got some for you to do.

-Have you?

-Oh, champion.

So what is it you like about this pub?

What is it that you like about knitting, more to the point?!

Oh, knitting's brilliant.

I mean, you have good company, you have a pastime, a hobby

and then you can wear it.

It's amazing, though, that you guys come to the local pub

and is this your way of kind of supporting the local community?

I mean, it's a bit of a solitary pastime, knitting.

-Of course!

-You sit at home, you do your knitting

and you're on your own, but if you come out,

you get to meet other knitters.

Whether you're an expert knitter like me,

or a novice like Kingy, everybody's welcome.

What is it you love about this pub?

It's a fantastic pub. There are so many, so many groups meet here.

We meet on a Monday night, you've got a wine club meeting tonight,

there are theatre spaces upstairs,

it's just a really good community space.

But I think it's nice, isn't it, because we begin to live,

in the modern world, insular lives, don't we?

And it's great to be able to get out, do what you do,

and just sit and just have a craic.

It's about having a chat with each other and meeting folk, isn't it?

And that's what the pub's good at.

Do you know, I think this pub sums up a lot of things I love about pubs.

It's a completely level, egalitarian pub, isn't it?

Doesn't matter who you are, there's something for you.

And once you're here, you're part of a family, you never need to

be alone when you've got a pub like this round the corner.

And I think that's a service the pub has been providing

for a thousand years in this country. And I'm very proud of that.

MUSIC: Roll With It by Oasis

Well said, mucker,

and it certainly tightly knits the loose ends of our pub crawl.

From politics and protests to pulling together,

Manchester's boozers are all about the people.

-Interesting pub fact.

-What?

The longest scarf ever made was knitted in Oslo

and it came in at a whopping, 4,565.46 metres.

-Really?

-Yes.

-How long did it take?

Well, as long as it took.

Dropped a stitch here.

# I think I've got a feeling I'm lost inside

# I think I've got a feeling I'm lost inside

# I think I've got a feeling I'm lost inside. #