Scotch Piper, Liverpool

Claimed to be the oldest inn in Lancashire, this is a whitewashed, thatched medieval cruck-framed building: dendrochronological dating after a thatch fire in May 1985 indicated timbers going back to c.1550. It is claimed to have been in pub use since the C15 (it may have been but there is very, very little detailed information on any individual pubs at this date, so this is probably more a matter of speculation than fact!) The brick walls encase a three-bay cruck frame and you can see the massive timbers inside. The central chimney is brick-built. In the C18 the north (right-hand) bay was added and the big sloping buttresses are C20. There was a thatch fire in 1985 after which the central gable was remodelled to its present shape. When the pub was sold to the then tenant in 1922 it had five acres of land and a number of animals were kept. It was therefore typical of many where inn-keeping was combined with other economic activity to provide a living. (Source:B. and R. Yorke, The Scotch Piper; a short history of the 'Oldest Inn in Lancashire' (1996) - available at the pub).

The Moorcroft family sold the pub to Burtonwood in 1945 and it was run by the same family until June 2014. The brewery ownership led to some important changes which are very evident today – that is the brick fireplaces and the concrete ‘half-timbering’ over the fireplaces in the left hand and middle rooms. There is a sequence of rooms running the length of the pub with a very traditional public bar including the servery on the left. The old servery with small window panels around it has been there for many years. Prior to 1997 the glazing covered the whole of the servery and service was only via the hatch over the doorway. There were no handpumps as beer was fetched from the cellar. All the bar back shelving was added in 1997. There is a good deal of old, simple woodwork in the left-hand room, including some very basic benches attached to an old partitioned wall and baffles around an old table with drawer and originally 8 legs! Changes made in 1945 here include replacing the ceiling, a new screeded floor and installing a brick fireplace.

A screeded passage runs to the right and the middle room has more old, simple woodwork, an original beamed ceiling, standing timbers, old benches re-upholstered around the room, a brick fireplace added in 1945 situated under an inglenook with a cosy seat on the left side. The wall on the passageway side has been reduced from ceiling height to half height. The far right room is an addition at some point and was originally a storage area/animal shed then the landlady's living room. It still retains working bell pushes from the days of table service and old benches but the brick fireplace of 1945 has recently been replaced by a new cast iron one in 2010. Outside loos - gents', ladies' and even the disabled toilet!

The Scotch Piper is venue for one of the largest biker meets in the country on every Wednesday evening having built up from a dozen some 30 years ago to about 500 bikes on a sunny summer evening. To cater for them, a tea shed serves tea and coffee and the Scouts run a barbecue. In December 1999 Tony Blair popped in for a pint of Burtonwood Bitter in between official engagements in Merseyside. Then licensee Fred Rigby recalls: 'We didn't have any warning. Three cars pulled up and men in suits came over to check the place out. I thought the Mafia had arrived.' Mr Blair was the perfect customer - he posed for a picture and promised to sign and return a print if it was sent onto him in London when the film was developed. He was as good as his word.

The pub re-opened in April 2017 after suffering the fifth roof fire since the 1920s and second this century. There is now a fourth room - at the rear of the room with the servery is a door that leads to a small room converted from living quarters. It has a red tiled floor laid diagonally, an old brick fireplace with a log burner (not working) and two corner pews.