Pub Sign Photo Study - The Carrion Crow – Oldham

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The Carriion Crow name was already used for cottages of the same name that were demolished to make way for the pub. The cottages were certainly there in 1796. The pub was not officially licensed until 1836. In 1844 the pub was criticised for offering overnight accommodation despite lacking stabling yards and lavatories. Adjustments were made to amend this right away. A music license was granted in the 1870’s. The pub had no stables or rear yard area in the early 1890’s but stables for two horses were added by 1894. Though the pub offered overnight accommodation it had no bathroom facilities in those days. The licensees of the Free House in those days were The Watson family, who are commemorated in a local street being named Watson street in their honour. The pub became tied to the Tetley’s Brewery in 1967 and underwent renovations in 1982. The Pub extension work meant knocking through another cottage next to the pub. It was this development work that seems to have woken up the pub’s ghost, known as George, who dresses in working class clothes complete with flat cap, who walks past the pub clientele and into the gent’s toilets passing through the door without opening it. About six people claim to have seen George, but no record of who he might be exists. Interestingly, the pub name itself refers to a bird noted as being a harbinger of death, a close relative of Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven. Arthur Chappell