The Noggin Inn & The New Noggin, Risley

The Noggin, but which one?

I purchased this old photograph recently and assumed it was a view of the Noggin in Risley. However, when i compared the building with what is there today I realised that it couldn't be the same place. 

Which Noggin Inn is Still Standing?

I know from past research that there have been two Noggins, but I had always assumed that the 'Old' Noggin Inn was long gone and the one we see today is the newer one.

Thanks to the available maps of the district I realised that the one still there is the original 'Noggin Inn'. The 'New Noggin' was across the road on the corner of Cross Lane (Now Cross Lane South).

Map of Risley in 1849

Map of Risley in 1907

Which Noggin Inn is on the Old Photo?

The photograph is from between 1900 and 1910 (estimated). I went through all of the maps with enough detail through the years to find something that hasn't changed.

If you look to the right of the photo, you can just make out a wooden fingerpost or guide post. This is marked on every map with enough detail and is on the crossroads, to the left of the Old Noggin Inn, if you were stood facing it to take a picture.

I realised that if you were to stand at Cross Lane Farm looking at the New Noggin, the post would be on the right as it is in the photo.
Therefore, I believe the photo is of the New Noggin, which no longer stands. 
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The below newspaper extract confirms further details on the two Inns.

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Warrington Examiner - Saturday 13th July 1872

Valuable Freehold Estate at Risley and Rixton-with-Glazebrook, in the County of Lancaster.

A Valuable FREEHOLD ESTATE, commonly known as the Risley Estate, late the property of Richard Watson Marshall Dewhurt, Esq., deceased, consisting of the manor or reputed manor of Risley, with numerous farms, a licensed inn or public-house, a beerhouse, and several cottages and gardens, comprising in the whole 1,274a. 0r. 25p. statute measure, or thereabouts, nearly all in a ring fence, situate in Risley, in the township of Culcheth, parish of Newchurch, and county of Lancaster, except the part described as lot 9, which, with the exception of one field, is situate in the adjoining township of Rixton-with-Glazebrook.
 
The whole estate will in the first instance be offered in one lot, but if not sold the same will immediately afterwards be put up in the
following or such other lots as may then be determined, namely:-
 
Lot 1. All that Old and Well-accustomed PUBLIC HOUSE, known as the Noggin Inn, with the Farm Building and excellent Farm Land adjoining thereto; together with a Public Weighing Machine, comprising in the whole 17a. 3r. 36p. in the occupation of Mr. John Sankey, as tenant thereof.
The house is situate at the junction of the highways from Warrington and Winwick to Leigh, and with the land is enclosed within a ring defence. The house possesses the only spirit license within a considerable distance.

Lot 2. TWO COTTAGES and GARDENS, with additional land allotted thereto, adjoining the highway from Warrington to Leigh, and near to the Risley schools, in the occupation of Mr. Richard Bate and Catherine Ryley, respectively, containing 30 perches.

Lot 3. All that PUBLIC BEERHOUSE known as the New Noggin Inn, with the Shop, Bakehouse, Shippon, Piggeries, Garden, Orchard, and Pasture Land adjoining, situate at the junction of the roads
from Warrington to Leigh with that to Winwick, in the occupation of Mr. Hamblet Jackson, and containing in the whole 2a. 2r. 33p.

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When Did the New Noggin Open and Close?

The simple answer is that I don't know for sure. The earliest detailed map is the one above from 1849, on which they are both present. There is a lovely older map from 1786 which refers to the whole area as 'Noggin Hillock'. Unfortunately, not many buildings are shown.

Map from 1786

There is a similar newspaper article to the one above in 1841. The whole estate is offered for sale, quoting slightly less acreage, but only mentions The Noggin Inn as a public house.

This makes it possible, though not certain, that the New Noggin opened between 1841 and 1849. I have not yet found any earlier references to the Noggin Inn (old or new) among newspaper articles.

The inns are referred to in the following years as 'The New Noggin' and either 'The Old Noggin Inn' or 'The Noggin Inn'. From around 1910, none of the articles mention the New Noggin. The building is still shown on maps, right up until the construction of the M62 in 1971, it just doesn't have the 'Inn' label.

Sadly, The Old Noggin Inn now too faces demolition.

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