Preston’s Castle Hotel through the centuries

I had an email recently from someone wanting information on one of Preston’s lost ‘gems’: the Castle Hotel which used to stand overlooking the Market Place. It’s been much written about by Preston’s historians, and has been dated to before 1623.

The evidence for the 1623 date comes from the first edition of Peter Whittle’s History of Preston published in 1821, where he provides a description of houses in the Market Place at that date:

‘These houses are after the fashion of King Charles the First’s reign, and are postern, painted, built in 1649. But the Castle Inn, and the house occupied by Mr. Thos. Milner, are of more ancient date. as may be seen on examining the carved chimney piece in the room right over the entrance to this inn, bearing the date of 1623. Relics of houses built during this era are now standing, via—The Grey Horse, in Church-street; Mr. Baldwin’s house, opposite the Bull Inn; and some houses situate in Brldge-street [now Marsh Lane], leading to the 0ld Barracks.’

The date might refer to the chimney piece rather than to the building itself, which other evidence suggests was much older.

The first reference to the building as an inn found so far was discovered by Steve Halliwell in researching the history of the Castle Hotel, or Castle Inn as it was then called, for his Preston pubs website. He found an advert in a 1785 issue of the Manchester Mercury that named the inn.

When I went looking for earlier mentions of the Castle Inn, I came across one buried in a footnote in the Victoria County History of Lancashire, which suggests the building, or an earlier structure, might have dated from the 16th century or earlier:

‘In 1608-9 Oliver Breres of Hamerton, Mary his wife, Thomas his brother and Bridget his wife conveyed to Roger Langton of Preston a burgage in the market-place with 1½ acres appurtenant, the house of the Friars Minors or Grey Friars and lands therewith, with right of turbary in Penwortham Moss, and a windmill in Preston; Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xiv, 73. From other deeds (p. 74) it appears that the burgage referred to was the Castle Inn.’

What isn’t clear here is when the building became an inn. I think when the Piccopes, writing in the 19th century, refer to the Castle Inn they could be using the inn at that time to identify the burgage plot. Perhaps the only way to find out is to visit the Chetham Library in Manchester where the 22 volumes of transcripts of civil and ecclesiastical documents collected by John and George Piccope are housed.

There is no mention of a Castle Inn in the Court Leet records, nor in the Bellingham and Rawstorne diaries of the late 17thcentury. I’ve found nothing at Lancashire Archives before the 19th century.

On the 1732 Poor Tax Survey a William Langton had three properties together on the west side of the Market Place. He lived in one, which I think was probably the property mentioned in the Piccope reference above, and rented out the others.

When it ceased to be an inn, the building became the Castle Chambers, providing offices for solicitors. It was demolished in the 1990s and the site developed for shops.

It is quite likely that for much of its life the Castle Inn/Hotel property was a private residence when many of the properties in the Market Place were the homes of Preston’s gentry, and became an inn sometime before 1785.