Pub once run by the ‘Middleton Hangman’ could be converted into shops under new plans

A pub that was once run by the ‘Middleton Hangman’ – one of the country’s last official executioners – could be converted into shops.

Harry Allen was landlord at the Woodman Inn on Wood Street for two years during the early 1960s and jointly held the dubious honour of having carried out the last execution in the UK.

His most controversial case was perhaps the hanging of the murderer James Hanratty in 1962. Hanratty went to the gallows protesting his innocence, but DNA profiling carried out 39 years later matched him to the crime scene.

The Middleton hostelry’s macabre past led to suggestions that vodka and whisky were not the only spirits to prop up the bar – and tales abound of flying pots and other spooky goings-on.

The pub closed nearly two years ago and it has fallen into dereliction since last orders were called in February 2019.

Now its days as a watering hole appear to be over after plans to divide it into a pair of shops were lodged with Rochdale Council.

The Woodman stands on a quarter‐acre site and includes a large patio and a car park.

 

 

Under proposals tabled by Razan Karim a partitioned wall would be built in the middle of the pub, creating two new retail spaces.

A design and access statement submitted in support of the application adds: “The main entrance will be closed off and making two new entrances into the two different shops. 

“The shop fronts will be glass and inside both shops will have access to the toilet as shown on the drawings.”

The document adds that the conversion would be in-keeping with the character of the area, but there would be radical change to its appearance.

“The proposed project is designed to aesthetically match the surrounding building and context,” it states.

“The glass store-front will give the area a whole new look from being the traditional brick to glass.”

Rochdale Council will decide on whether to grant the change of ground-floor use and physical alterations to the building.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter