Cross Lane in Salford was not always the characterless thoroughfare you see today.
In 1965 the whole street was alive with music, 18 pubs, shops, cinema halls and entertainment – and not an American fast-food outlet in sight.
Cross Lane was particularly busy at weekends, especially when coach parties from Liverpool would come to Salford to enjoy the extra 30 minutes drinking time and to listen to live music – often ending in massive punch-ups with the locals.
On the evening of Saturday 14 July 1965, police rushed to the Craven Heifer pub on Cross Lane after receiving reports of 150 people blocking the road, some breaking out in fights while others cheered them on.
The brawling centred around a band of Warrington ‘beat group’ musicians who had been playing at the pub and were out on the street hurriedly trying to load their equipment into a van.
In the ensuing brawl PC Anthony Pilling from the Salford Crescent police station was felled by a kick to the shin then booted twice in the face.
A large number of people were arrested at the scene and detained at the local police station to appear at Salford Magistrates Court on the Monday morning.
Two 17-year-old Salford youths, who shall remain nameless, were charged with police assault.
PC Pilling appeared in the dock with bruises and scratches on his face, telling the court that he and his colleague PC Partington arrived at the scene at 11.40pm to find a large groups of youths outside the Craven Heifer pub, shouting and swearing.
He said that both teenagers were swearing at the ‘beat group’ and threatening violence, with one of them heard to shout: “You’d look better with that ******** drum around your neck.”
PC Partington told him to calm down and move on to which the youth replied: “We are mob handed, come and get us, we’ll soon sort you ***** out.”
PC Partington tried to arrest the youth and a fight broke out which involved PC Pilling getting punched and kicked in the face, to make matters worse the other youth joined in and booted the unfortunate officer in the face.
Police reinforcements were called and the two main protagonists were arrested after a lengthy struggle.
In his defence one of the youths said that PC Pilling must have scratched his face when he fell to the floor during the scuffle and protested that he had been given a good hiding by the police at the Crescent police station when he was kicked and punched by several officers.
The other accused youth also denied the offence saying that he was at home in bed at the time and even brought a witness who told the court that he hadn’t seen the youth on Cross Lane but saw the other youth getting a ‘hammering’ from police officers there.
The Stipendary Leslie Walsh, famed for his lack of leniency when ruling over youth cases, said that he didn’t believe either the witness or the two youths, and sentenced the two youths to be remanded in custody until the next Quarter Sessions.
Ten other men also appeared in the dock accused of being drunk and disorderly and hampering the police in the course of their duty, they were each fined £5.
The two youths appeared at the Quarter Sessions the following month are were given prison sentences for police assault and being drunk and disorderly.
Cross Lane is a lot quieter these days no doubt due to the absence of public houses, but if you look through any of the Salford City Reporter pages especially the sadly missed Before the Bench column (probably the only reason most would read the local paper) you could guarantee court reports of fighting outside pubs on Cross Lane, for some reason the Red Rose pub seemed to attract the more boisterous customers.
Interestingly enough the Craven Heifer pub which changed its name in the 1970’s to the Golden gate is now the Windsor Supermarket and still standing.
If you want to actually see what Cross Lane looked like 50 years ago, we’ve got some incredibly rare exclusive colour footage donated to SalfordOnline.com by the Lamb family on our archive site.
