In 1588 a local magistrate complained that the town had an "excessive number of ale houses".
The following old pubs are mentioned and illustrated in Thomas Ashworth's Sketches of Old Manchester and Salford (1877): the Wellington Inn, Market Place; the Vintner's Arms, Smithy Door; the Seven Stars, Withy Grove; the Rover's Return, Shudehill; and the Bull's Head, Greengate, Salford.