THOMPSONS - Beetham Milnthorpe Warton

[frian]

According to Roger Bingham's book, the Bull's Head and the White Lion were two different inns.  They certainly both existed at the same time.....he comments on pages 58/9 that the White Lion was later Daffady's shoe shop.  He identifies it as the building immediately next to the Cross Keys on the south side.  There is also a very early photo of Milnthorpe showing this (but all you can see of the White Lion is the roof and the chimney!).
page 118 ' after William Thompson left for the Cross Keys in 1847...,, the inn closed for the last time in 1873'....

The book also has references to 22 Thompsons.  worth borrowing from the Library or buying via Abe books?

frian

[duckweed]

I had a look to buy but is a bit pricey for me. Not likely to be in my Library either. Maybe some day I can buy it.

[Gillg]

Duckweed

http://www.visitcumbria.com/sl/milnthorpe.htm
Did you see the Milnthorpe website, which has some nice pictures, including for some unaccountable reason a close-up of the Spar shop? 

http://www.thecrosskeyshotel.co.uk/  Here's the Cross Keys, and if the White Lion was south of this it would have been to the left of this picture.  The Cross Keys stands at the main cross roads of the village. 

Gillg

[duckweed]

Thanks. I did think the Bull was frankly too big a place for William Thompson. I don't think he was particularily prosperous. There are a number of the family that went into running pubs and wine merchants though they had all been farmers formerly. There are still relatives in the area so I am told or at least 20 years ago round Silverdale.

I looked for Cross Keys and then got sidetracked into the Levens website reading about the Radish Festival.