Market Row
Market Row, off Moor Street, Ormskirk was, until the 1980s, much wider than we see it today. Through its long history it has been home a thriving community of shops, businesses and dwellings selling everything from fish and poultry to hats, boots and tobacco. Longstanding Ormskirk business Hesford's started here in 1903 when Charles Martin Hesford established his agricultural engineering firm.
Market Row did not exist before 1870, it was created when the building that had been the ancient inn the Legs of Man, leased by Butcher Thomas Sharrock, was pulled down after his death in 1870 and his family moved the shop to Aughton Street. Sharrock called his building The Shambles, a name that was then used for the Butchers market in Church Street under the Town Hall and also the same name Thomas Sharrock's widow and son used for their new Butchers shop in Aughton Street.
The Market Row sign is still in situ. When the Prudential Assurance Company gave the space we know as Wheatsheaf Car Park, to the Council after the Wheatsheaf Hotel and the Ormskirk Hall were demolished in the mid 1960s, a legal codicil was signed by both parties agreeing that any access to Moor Street from the new car park would be closed off. The Prudential owned the new Wheatsheaf Walk development and wanted foot fall to pass through their new precinct. The Council delayed the inevitable for over 4 years but then had to build a wall at the top of the Row. Bibby & Wareing owned Market Row up until their closure in September 1985. After that date due to apparent instability of the buildings, the plan was made to rebuild and narrow the gap considerably.
7 Moor Street
In November 1870 the Misses Murphy advertised their new general drapery business at 7 Moor Street (the corner of Market Row). The premises had been lately occupied by Mr. Wignall, tea dealer. Amongst the many items of clothing offered for sale were wool shawls, crinolines, stays; funerals and family mourning were completely catered for.
9 Moor Street - Swift's Cafe
Let’s go East from Market Row, starting at the property which was Swift’s Cafe, 9 Moor Street.
Swifts bakery and confectioners was originally started by Liverpool-born Mary Swift in the 1890s. Mary was widowed in December 1886 when her husband, Bickerstaffe farmer Robert Swift, did aged 55. Mary left the family farm at Clock House and took a small house on Wigan Road, opposite what was the Ropers Arms.
When her husband’s estate was settled, Mary was left a considerable sum, £3,488. With this money Mary took the property at 9 Moor Street and opened a restaurant and confectionery business, her two youngest daughters, Margaret and Ada, helped her in the business along with several apprentice bakers and confectioners.
Swifts was later taken over by Henry, Nora and Phyllis White; the Swift name was retained by the business.
The White siblings came to Ormskirk around WWI, their father having been a baker and confectioner in Leeds.
Phyllis was the youngest of seven children born to Frank Stewart White and his wife Francis,
In 1927, Swifts bakers of Moor Street, Ormskirk, made a huge model of the Parish Church.
The cake weighed 7cwt and a prize draw took place to guess how many eggs were used for the baking.
At 1d a go, £9 10 shillings was raised, the winning guess being 1,083, which was just one egg out!
The cake contained 1,082 eggs.
13 - 15 Moor Street
September 28th 1904, an early view of the Moor Street shops demolished in 1985, number 13, where Archie Clucas opened his first shop and number 15, the River Plait Argentinian Meat Co. owned by the Vestey family. 'Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World” touring show passed through town that day, Lakota Sioux, Argentinian Vaqueros and Cossacks strolling by on their way to Southport.
The British & Argentine Meat Co. butchery business took over number 13 Moor Street in the early 1920s. Previously the River Plait Meat Company had their sign over the door but they were taken over by the Vestey company who became the biggest retail butchers in the country with over 2000 shops, Dewhurst being one chain they owned. By the 1960s it was Pearson's butchers, It was this store at 13 Moor Street that was in such a bad state structurally in the early 1980s that it was taken down.
This photo is full of interesting buildings. On the left is the Old Boat Inn beerhouse, then the gentleman’s clothing store owned by the Charge of the Light Brigade survivor, one of the 600, Sgt Major James Ikin Nunnerley. To the right is the old Black Bear Hotel, later it was bought by Archie Clucas and he added another floor. Now it is B&M just so you have your bearings.
Sad occurrence at the Old Boat Inn
The Old Boat Inn was a feature of Moor Street, Ormskirk for many years, and like other pubs and beerhouses in the town, licensees have come and gone, all with their own story to tell. In February 1899 the family of landlord James Anderton, were stunned when without warning or explanation he took his own life in the saddle room of nearby Holt's Yard, Moor Street. The deceased, who was employed as a yardman for Messrs. Greenall, Whitley and Co., appeared cheerful when he was last seen at 5pm, but was found dead two hours later. A verdict of suicide was recorded by Coroner Mr. S. Brighouse. Later the same month Mrs. Anderton was given temporary authority to sell alcohol at the premises, one of many examples of the widows of deceased landlords carrying on in the family business.
13 Moor Street - J.L. Clucas
John Lewin Clucas came to Ormskirk from Everton in the 1880s to open a seed merchants store at 13 Moor Street. His son Archie Atkinson Clucas took over the business when John Lewin retired and Archie took over the former Black Bear premises at 31 Moor Street. He was very successful and rebuilt much of the building to accommodate his seed packing operation. The building dominated the North side of Moor Street until the 1970s.
The House of Clucas
Situated in the passageway leading to B&M Bargains from Moor Street, this unassuming plaque acts as a reminder of the distinguished and longstanding seed merchant business of J.L. Clucas Ltd., a company which traded in Ormskirk for almost 100 years. Photographs of the Clucas building taken before is demolition show the plaque in pride of place in the middle of the four storey premises. The impressive building was backed by large warehouses, stock rooms, packaging and dispatch departments, a staff canteen, garages and transport offices.
15 Moor Street was for many years between the 1880s and early 1900s, the offices of Edmund C. Stretch, auctioneer, later it became the premises of William Light, auctioneer and valuer, estate agent and insurance broker.
