*click for larger version
Many thanks to Peter Mulville for this rare old photo of the Anchor Inn on Market Street.
Peter writes:
I found this photograph amongst my grandparents’ paperwork and believe it to be the old Anchor Inn on Market Street. The original is mounted on cardboard, as though it has been hanging in a frame somewhere. Why this has been kept for years is a mystery, although my grandmother’s father was a barman / publican in the Liverpool, Birkenhead and Hoylake areas.
His name was Mathew Johnson and I believe he may have been the landlord of the Punch Bowl at some point; his daughter Jane or Janie Johnson may have also been working behind the bar. My family do not know if this is Mathew Johnson in the photograph or not, or why this particular photograph has been kept. My grandfather’s family have a long history in Hoylake – his family name was Ryding – so we wonder if this is a member of the Ryding family?
I wonder if anybody would recognise this photograph, when it may have been taken, and who’s the gentleman in it; or whether anybody remembers a Mathew Johnson, landlord?
The Anchor Inn was in pretty much the same location as The Blue Anchor. In these old Hoylake pub photos you can see the Anchor Inn, just up from what is now the fish mongers and The 3 Sisters with the anchor hung above the door, though the porched entrance and railings have gone. The comments in this post about The Lighthouse pub also indicate that the Anchor was demolished in the 1960s.
Whatever happened to the actual anchor? I can remember it being painted yellow one year!
william woodward was the landlord of the anchor in 1896, it was originally called the anchor vaults
It’s a long shot, but I wonder if the Hoylake family of Ryding had any connection with the Sheffield area. My grandfather, Arthur Dyke, was a partner in the firm of Ryding & Dyke, cabinet makers and upholsterers, who had premises in Granville Street, Sheffield, in the 1920s/30s.
Hi, Steven Dyke, it is certainly probably there is some connection between the Ryding families in Hoylake and Sheffield, although I have not encountered any link to Sheffield in my lineage. The Hoylake Ryding family descend from the Southport area during the last couple of hundred years, but I am not sure where the history goes from there. Peter
Hi Steven, From what I understand the Hoylake Rydings originated from Banks near Southport, haven’t heard on any from Sheffield
Peter which part of the Ryding family was your grandfather?
Hi, Richard Ryding, my part of the family descend from Richard (1865-1934) and Martha Foster (1857-1945). Peter
Same Grandparents as me, my father’s name was George, what was your father’s name?
Peter my name was Ryding from Hoylake my father’s name was George what was your Grandfather’s Christian name.
Hi, Aly Ryding Tornerup, my grandfather was John Richard, brother of George Snr and uncle to George Earnest. I am already in touch with relatives of George Earnest, so maybe you’re both related.
The anchor and fixings seem identical with those in a picture I have from the early 1960s and I think it is almost certainly the Hoylake Anchor, but the windows are very different.