The Scarisbrick Arms
When writing this article, I didn’t know what title to choose. The public house opposite St. Cuthbert’s Church in Halsall has been known by a variety of names over the years – The Halsall Arms, Scarisbrick Arms, Sumner Arms Ale House, and The Loggerheads but the one name that any local knows is, of course, ‘Dicko’s’ – after one-time publican, Harry Dickinson.
However, I chose the Scarisbrick Arms because it was called this for longer than any other name. To this day, the building still bears the family crest of the Scarisbrick family, one time owners of the Scarisbrick Estate which included Halsall.
Edward Baines, in the History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster, 1836 (Volume 4) states that in 1821, Halsall had three public houses listed – The Saracen’s Head, The White Horse and The Loggerheads. Although some detective work is needed to work out who was the publican of each.
On the 1841 census, we can see that Edward Pilkington was the innkeeper at the Saracen’s Head.
Also living in the centre of the village was James Pye who is mentioned as being the publican of The White Horse in 1821 by Edward Baines in his 1836 publication (as above) and also by Peter Nodin in his book, ‘These Charming Acres’. However, Pye’s occupation in 1841 was recorded as a farmer – perhaps he farmed and sold ale at The White Horse – which was not unheard of at that time.
The other publican listed in Halsall in 1841 was Thomas Williams who is proving quite elusive – he and all his family members were born out of the county of Lancashire but no information is given as to where exactly they were all born. Williams is not exactly a rare name either – research is ongoing! The public house that Thomas Williams was the innkeeper of wasn’t named, although it looks as if it was in the village centre. This could mean it was either the Scarisbrick Arms or The White Horse.
The Loggerheads, I suspect, was in fact, The Scarisbrick Arms – Baines mentioned Richard Norris as being the innkeeper in 1821 and Richard Norris was living in the village at this time. There are various documents to show his connection with the Scarisbrick Arms which will be addressed below and will go some way in proving that the Scarisbrick Arms was ‘The Loggerheads’ prior to 1851 Census.
In 1851 and 1861, John Thompson, a grocer, was the innkeeper at the Scarisbrick Arms.
Innkeepers of the Scarisbrick Arms listed on the Census records from 1851 until 1939.
Census Name Born Died Occupation Family Search Ref.
Richard Norris 1796 1877 Wheelwright/Innkeeper KHVR-GYH (when it was called Loggerheads?)
1851 John Thompson 1805 1883 Innkeeper/grocer LCZX-8CW
1861 John Thompson 1805 1883 Farmer
1871 John Watkinson 1843 1891 Innkeeper/farmer K4L3-P3J
William Thompson 1841 1879 Farmer/Innkeeper KJGW-4BG
1881 Mary Thompson 1843 1924 Innkeeper GJ3C-LC5
1891 Mary Sumner 1843 1924 Innkeeper
Richard Sumner 1847 1884 Farmer/Innkeeper MGDZ-861
1901 William Tebbutt 1860 1934 Footman/Butler/ GV8P-Y9D
1911 William Tebbutt 1860 1934 Innkeeper
1921 William Tebbutt 1860 1934
1939 Harry Dickinson 1908 1971 Publican GJL7-9PX
Some individuals were publicans in intervening years, not recorded on a Census.
Landlords of Scarisbrick Arms
Richard Norris (1796-1877) was born in Burscough to Jane Martlew and John Norris, a wheelwright and farmer.
Baines (1836) lists Richard Norris as living in Halsall and running the Loggerheads Inn (entries marked with a ‘2’ = Halsall).
Richard married Ann Hughes at Halsall church on 19th September 1822 and their first child, Ellis Norris was born in April 1823. The baby was baptised on 24th April of the same year at St. Cuthbert’s, Halsall. At the time, Richard’s occupation is described as a wheelwright. That was his occupation all his working life and he lived with his wife and children in Rose Cottage, New Street, Halsall from where the business was run.
A couple of months after the birth of his son Ellis, Richard is mentioned in The Lancashire Courts of Quarter Sessions 1583-1999 under the Recognizance Rolls 1823. It describes a Recognizance concerning Richard Norris to keep the True Assize in ‘The Grapes’, Halsall. This is dated 5th June 1823. His surety was William Sherlock, a saddler from Ormskirk.
Richard and Ann went on to have seven more children: Jane, Ellen, William, Alice, Ann, Elizabeth and Richard. Various documents show that Richard senior also held the lease for the Scarisbrick Arms for the duration of his own life and that of two of his daughters, Jane and Ellen.
On 1st July 1831, Richard Norris’ name appeared again in the Recognizance Rolls. This time he was ordered to keep the peace towards John Blundell of Halsall, also a wheelwright and a neighbour who lived on New Street. On the same day, John Blundell was ordered to keep the peace towards Richard Norris. Maybe they were quite literally at loggerheads!
Ann Norris died in 1863, aged 66 and was buried at Halsall on 16th September of that year – the date happened to be their wedding anniversary.
The lease held by Richard is mentioned in advertisements in the Ormskirk
Advertiser in connection with the sale of the Scarisbrick Arms in 1870 and
again in 1876. Perhaps when he was the innkeeper of the Loggerheads and the
Grapes at Halsall, it was on the site of what was to become the Scarisbrick Arms. He could have run his wheelwright business from this site initially as well and then moved to Rose Cottage, New Street with his family to continue working as a wheelwright, with a different person taking over as innkeeper at the
Scarisbrick Arms.
Richard Norris died in December 1877 and was buried on the 12th December at
Halsall. His eldest son, William took over the wheelwright business at Rose
Cottage until 1884 when he passed away. Then younger son, Richard took over
until he died in 1892. Daughter Ann continued to live and run the business, still
from New Street, with the help of her nephew, William Brown (daughter of
Ellen Norris). Ann Norris died in 1912, she never married or had children.
John Thompson (1805-1883) was born in Lydiate on 19th July 1804 to Elizabeth and James Thompson who had their son baptised at Maghull on 5th September 1804.
John married Julia Denton at Melling on 12th May 1830. They lived in Halsall and had five children – James, Elizabeth, Alice, Martha and William. Initially John was a grocer, however by 1851 he was listed as the innkeeper of the Scarisbrick Arms Hotel and in the 1861 census, he was mentioned as being an innkeeper and farmer of 70 acres.
In Mannex’s History and Directory of Mid Lancashire 1854, he is described as being a victualler, farmer and grocer – a very busy man!
His wife Julia died in 1875 and was buried at St. Cuthbert’s Halsall on 5th April 1875. At this time, John and Julia were still living and working in the village and even at the age of 76, John was listed as being a farmer when the 1881 census was taken.
John Thompson died in 1883 and was buried on 7th March next to his wife, Julia.
John Watkinson (1844-1891) took over the running of the Scarisbrick Arms in 1870 from John Thompson.
John Watkinson was born in Barton in 1843 and baptised on 22nd October of that year. His parents were John and Margaret Watkinson who were farmers. However, John senior died at a young age leaving Margaret with 4 very young children and a farm with 223 acres of land in Altcar. Margaret then married John Threlfall, a farmer from Altcar and John Watkinson was living with his mother and step-father according to the 1861 census records.
On 30th December 1862 John Watkinson married Margaret Owen, daughter of Henry Owen, another farmer from Downholland. The young couple lived in Ormskirk but the marriage did not last long as Margaret died in 1866 aged 21. She is buried at St. Cuthbert’s church, Halsall.
John married again on 7th June 1870 – this time to Mary Mercer from Bickerstaffe. At the time of the marriage, John’s occupation was that of innkeeper and when the 1871 census was taken, he was still at the Scarisbrick Arms in Halsall. In fact he was the tenant in 1876 when the public house was advertised for sale in the Ormskirk Advertiser. We are given a detailed description of the premises: to be included in the sale were outbuildings and the attached garden plus 1 rood and 13 perches of land. (Roods and perches are subdivisions of an acre. There are 4 roods in an acre. 1 rood contains 40 perches. An acre is the size of half a professional football pitch. A rood, being a quarter of an acre, is approximately the size of two tennis courts.) The Scarisbrick Arms contained a bar, 3 parlours, a tap-room, four bedrooms, large club-room, kitchen, pantry, cellar for 30 barrels and a wine cellar. The outbuildings consisted of stabling for 6 horses, a coach house, a washhouse, piggeries and sheds.
However, by 1881, he had left the public house and was farming again – this time in Haskayne. He and Mary also had five children by that point – Margaret, Elizabeth, Catherine, John and Mary (and Thomas made six in 1882). Finally, in 1881, we can see that the life of an innkeeper was too much to resist and he had taken over the running of the Buck I’th Vine public house in Ormskirk. This would have been a very busy inn at the time as it was situated on the Liverpool to Preston turnpike road. It had a courtyard with a brewhouse and even had a theatre with a minstrel’s gallery at one time.
John Watkinson died on 1st December 1891 in Ormskirk and was buried at Halsall Church. Mary, his second wife, was buried with him two years later on 8th May 1893 as well as their youngest child, Thomas in 1913.
Mary Thompson (1843-1924) was the next innkeeper of the Scarisbrick Arms, Halsall according to the 1881 census taken on 3rd April – only a few weeks after the first Boer War had ended.
Mary Thompson was in fact born Mary Hesketh, the daughter of Jane Aspinwall and Henry Hesketh, a farmer. She was only 7 years old when her mother died. She married William Thompson, son of John Thompson, (a previous innkeeper of the Scarisbrick Arms) in 1863.
The couple moved to Upholland where they farmed at Moss Side Farm and had 4 children – John, Jane, Julia and Henry. However, in the 1870s they had moved back to Halsall and were living and working at the Scarisbrick Arms. William died on 20th August 1879, aged only 38 years and was buried on 24th August at Halsall. Mary continued to run the public house with the help of her daughter Jane who was listed as a barmaid, aged 14 in the 1881 census records. She had a general servant, Emma Howarth, aged 15 who also worked for her. Her two younger children were scholars at the Old School and her oldest son, John, was a farm servant for his grandfather John Thompson (the previous innkeeper). At the same time as Mary was running this public house, her older brother, James Hesketh was the innkeeper at the Saracen’s Head just down the road.
Then, Mary married Richard Sumner on 26th October 1881 – and in December 1881, the licence for the Scarisbrick Arms was transferred from Mary to Richard Sumner’s name.
In 1894 she applied for and was granted a licence to rebuild the public house. Unfortunately, this was to be her undoing as Mary was forced to give up the Scarisbrick Arms only two years later, having been declared bankrupt.
It has been said that the Scarisbrick Arms was referred to as the Sumner Arms Ale House, no doubt after Mary Sumner who had been connected to this public house for some 20+ years.
However, on an invoice to ‘The churchwardens’ (of St. Cuthbert’s, Halsall) dated 29th July 1896, the name ‘Scarisbrick Arms’ still appears.
In 1898 the licence for the Scarisbrick Arms was transferred to Mr. William Tebbutt.
After this, Mary seemed to move from house to house: she lived with her son Henry and family in Carr Moss Lane and then moved in with her daughter Julia and family in Scarisbrick. She died in 1924, aged 81.
William Tebbutt (1860-1934) was born in Littlethorpe, Leicestershire in 1860 to Ann Broughton and George Tebbutt, a cattle dealer. William was working for his father as an agricultural servant when he was only 11 years old in 1871. The farming life must not have appealed to him however, as he became a footman at Braunstone Hall, Leicestershire for Ralph Pochin, a retired Naval Officer and his family.
Promotion beckoned and William moved to Halsall to work for Canon Thomas Blundell as his butler at the Rectory.
He met Mary Barlow and they were married in 1896. Mary was the daughter of Margaret Marshall and Henry Barlow of Renacres Lane, Shirdley Hill.
From 1898, William and Mary Tebbutt ran the Scarisbrick Arms together until Mary’s death in 1924.
William continued as landlord for another 10 years until he passed away at the Scarisbrick Arms on 13th August 1934 aged 74 years.
They are buried together across the road in St. Cuthbert’s churchyard.
William and Mary had no children but the tenancy of the public house passed to their nephew, Harry Dickinson.
Harry Barlow Dickinson (1908-1971) is the reason we call the Scarisbrick Arms, Dicko’s!
Harry was born on 30th August 1908 in Liverpool to Francis Maud Scarisbrick (from Shirdley Hill) and Joseph Dickinson, a farm produce dealer. The couple also had two other sons, George and James. They all grew up in Liverpool, but eventually the three brothers ended up living in Halsall.
Harry had been living with his uncle, William Tebbutt for many years at the Scarisbrick Arms. When William died in 1934, Harry took over as licensee. Before he did so however, he married Alice Wilson, a local Halsall girl who was the daughter of Annie Critchley and John Wilson, a saddler from Bangor’s Green Lane (now Summerwood Lane).
Co-incidentally, both Harry’s brothers, George and James, married sisters Marjorie and Margaret Gradwell, daughters of the local wheelwright John Gradwell also from Bangor’s Green Lane.
When the Register for England and Wales was taken on 29th September 1939, just after the outbreak of WW2, Harry and Alice were still at the Scarisbrick Arms. In fact, during the war years, the Scarisbrick Arms and the people of Halsall were visited by none other than the Hollywood actor, Clark Gable!
Harry Howard, who was a resident of Carr Moss Lane talks about this in his memoirs:
‘My father liked an occasional drink, but only rum for medicinal purposes was kept in the house, and during the war wrote to me in Algeria to tell me that he had met Clark Gable at the Scarisbrick. The famous American film star from Hollywood joined the US Air Force, who initially were based in Southport, presumably for action in Europe.’
(Thank you to Alison Newnham, Harry Howard’s daughter, for providing this information)
William Clark Gable (1901-1960), more famous for ‘not giving a damn’ in the classic film, ‘Gone with the Wind’, served in the United States Air Force from 1942 until 1947, reaching the rank of Major. He was signed up to the 18th Army Air Force Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit). It was the first military unit made up entirely of professionals from the film industry including actors such as Ronald Reagan, William Holden, Clayton Moore as well as Clark Gable. This unit produced in excess of 400 training and propaganda films which were well known for being informative and also entertaining.
William Clark Gable was born in February, 1901 in Ohio, USA. His mother died of a brain tumour when he was only 10 months old so he was brought up by his father and step-mother. He was married five times and had a son named John Clark Gable with his fifth wife. The baby was born in 1961, four months after Clark Gable’s death of a heart attack, aged only 59 years.
During his 37 years as the publican of the Scarisbrick Arms Hotel, Harry Dickinson was known for his collection of miniatures which he kept on display in the bar in a special showcase.
He was one of the first landlords to serve coffee in his public house, predominantly to women initially who did not always want to drink alcohol.
He became the chairman of the Ormskirk Licensed Victuallers’ Association in the 1960s and donated a trophy, to be known as ‘The Dickinson Trophy’ for the annual bowling match – still competed for up until the 1990s.
Harry Dickinson passed away on 23rd November 1971, whilst still living at The Scarisbrick Arms. His wife, Alice died in 1988. They are both remembered as a likeable, popular couple.
The pub is still known as Dicko’s to this day even though there have been many other licensees on these premises since and even though the pub closed down for good in 1997.
