26 - The Railway Inn
Household 26 was the Railway Inn, right next door to Romiley train station and opposite the Romiley Arms, and was run by John and Esther Booth.
John Booth was born on 20th July 1816 in Werneth and he worked as a hatter. In 1841 he was living, along with his sister, with the Knowles family. It is possible that they were his aunt and uncle as one of their sons was named Booth.
Esther Bramall was the daughter of a farmer named William. She was living on Redhouse Lane in 1841 where her father farmed a number of plots. They lived in a house approximately where St Mark’s Parish Hall is today with a good sized garden. Some of the farm was on the plot where St Mark’s church was later built around 1848 and where Bredbury Recreation Ground is today.
John and Esther were married in January 1843 and their son William arrived a year later. A girl, Mary Ann, was born in 1851. By this time John was still working as a hatter whilst Esther worked on a steam loom. They lived on Stockport Road in Bredbury and had taken lodgers in, a widow named Erminah Hardy and her 2 year old son.
John Booth built the Railway Inn in 1861. The new railway station was in the process of being built and he knew this would bring hundreds of day-trippers to Romiley. A year later he had fierce competition when Lawrence Heyworth of Oakwood Hall planned to build a grand hotel right opposite, as well as a new church, St. Chad’s.
I wasn’t able to find many newspaper articles related to events at the pub. A party of Oakwood Spinning Company minders took place at the pub in November 1877 and there was a hearthstone warming for Thomas Clayton in 1874, who the newspaper described as John’s son-in-law. But the pub didn’t have amenities like a bowling green or stabling like many of the other pubs.
It’s unclear why the article suggested that Thomas Clayton was a son-in-law as I can’t find any marriage for him. He died in June 1886 and it was reported that he lived next door to John Booth.
Esther passed away in April 1885 and John’s son William and his family moved in to the pub. In 1891 John was 74 years of age and still working as a beerhouse keeper, whilst his son William was an unemployed hatter. William’s 19 year old son Samuel was also unemployed, having previously worked as a railway clerk.
John died at the age of 81 in 1897. His son William and daughter in law Ann took over the running of the Railway Inn, but Ann had been unwell with bronchitis and spasms and in 1899 she passed away aged 57. Not wishing to continue running the pub alone, William sold the Railway Inn to Robinson’s Unicorn Brewery and moved into a house a few doors down. He married Ellen Lowe in 1900 but passed away around 1907.