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Liverpool’s oldest pubs come under the microscope

A NEW project has unearthed unseen photographs of Liverpool’s oldest pubs.

Liverpool Historical Society president Glen op den Brouw with an original photo of the Crossroads Hotel in Casula. Picture: Carmela Roche
Liverpool Historical Society president Glen op den Brouw with an original photo of the Crossroads Hotel in Casula. Picture: Carmela Roche

A NEW project has unearthed unseen photographs of Liverpool’s oldest pubs.

The Tooth and Co. Hotel Digitisation Project, led by the Australian National University’s Archives Centre, has uncovered new information about some of Australia’s oldest pubs, including longstanding establishments in Liverpool.

ANU archivist Catherine Ziegler will delve into the rich history of those that have prevailed — including the Collingwood and Crossroads hotels — at an event hosted by the City of Liverpool and District Historical Society on Saturday from 1.30pm.

Tooth and Co. was a major beer brewer in NSW for 150 years, supplying pubs across the state.

An example of Tooth and Co's yellow cards. This one profiles the Collingwood Hotel, one of Liverpool's historical pubs. Picture from the collection of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University
An example of Tooth and Co's yellow cards. This one profiles the Collingwood Hotel, one of Liverpool's historical pubs. Picture from the collection of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University

The company kept records of hotels it owned or supplied from the 1920s to the 1970s on ‘yellow cards’ — index cards containing the hotel name, location, owner, licensee and a graph with the number of barrels or bottles of Tooth’s beer supplied to the hotel.

The cards, updated roughly every decade, also contained a photograph of the hotel.

They have now been digitised and the hotels mapped as part of an online interactive tool.

Society president Glen op den Brouw said the project was a “revelation” as it had uncovered never-before-seen photographs of pubs such as the Railway Hotel in Liverpool, first constructed in the 1850s.

The Collingwood Hotel in the 1930s.
The Collingwood Hotel in the 1930s.

“It had three versions and I’d never seen a photo of the second version,” he said.

The talk will take place at the Crossroads Hotel — the oldest hotel site in Liverpool, dating back to the 1830s.

Once known as the Talbot Inn, it is unclear when it became known as the Crossroads.

Mr op den Brouw said the hotel would have been an ideal pit stop for travellers back in the day.

“It was a place to stop on your journey either coming into Sydney or heading south,” he said.

“Definitely in the early days it was a place to stay and stable and to drink and they also had a racecourse there,” he said.

What: History of Liverpool pubs

When: Saturday, 1.30pm

Where: Crossroads Hotel

Details: facebook.com/events/260396921202761 for details on this Saturday’s talk.

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/liverpool-leader/liverpools-oldest-pubs-come-under-the-microscope/news-story/dd5f44967d2bb2f89c4f0637eae5306c