The White Lion Team of the Darts League"

White Lion Public House, Mold Road, Buckley

1947

This is taken in the upstairs room at the White Lion and the cup is probably the trophy presented by Roland Ratcliffe to the Darts League.

Roland Ratcliffe is in the front row, third from the right, landlord of the White Lion.

Alice Ratcliffe is back row second from the left, landlady of the White Lion

Brenda and Eunice Ratcliffe, their daughters, are back row third and second from right respectively.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this information but the two men on the back row are probably the landlords of the Horse and Jockey (far left - Alf Shone) and the Rose and Crown (far right - Billy Bevan). The woman at the centre of the back row is Mary Mayhall (?) who worked at the White Lion. The local manager for the Northgate Brewery is in the front row, third from the left: and Len Astbury (?) who worked at the White Lion and played in the darts team, is in the front row far right.

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White Lion

Buckley (written January 2012)

My memories of life at the White Lion are limited given that I was born in 1953 but my mother, Brenda Ratcliffe, lived there from around 1942 with her father and mother, Roland and Alice Ratcliffe and sister Eunice. Roland was the tenant landlord of the White Lion until his death in 1952 and Alice took over the tenancy and ran the pub with the two daughters and sons-in-law until the family sold up and moved to West Kirby and later Chester in 1958. So, I lived there for a while. The White Lion was owned by the Northgate Brewery based in Chester and Roland, who was originally from Rochdale, sold his milk business in Chester to take up the tenancy.

The pub had a lounge, bar, snug and bagatelle room. There was also an upstairs room that was used for a period by the Buffalo lodge for fortnightly meetings. The Buff room as it was known had a hatch built into the door. The licensee was required to furnish and maintain the interior of the pub at his/her own expense and therefore had to negotiate a price for the furniture on leaving the pub.

As with most pubs in Buckley at the time, there was a range of teams organised for bagatelle, darts and dominoes. The teams played in local leagues against both Buckley pubs and others in places such as Connah's Quay and Shotton. On a league night all three teams (darts, dominoes and bagatelle) would compete. The White Lion also had, at one stage, a ladies' darts team. There was a fair degree of rivalry between pubs with talk of players being paid to turn out for particular pubs. At the White Lion darts was seen as the premier activity and Roland Ratcliffe paid for a cup to be provided for the darts league which the White Lion won on several occasions. On Friday nights the lounge was used by the Tontine with regulars paying in their contributions to be drawn out at Christmas.

I recall playing dominoes with the men in the bar and also bonfire night with the fire in the garden on the side of the pub - now a car park. There was also a field behind the pub. One November, I managed to end up with both my hands in bandages having cut the left hand on a piece of glass and a firework exploded in my right hand. I also remember sitting on the kitchen sink while the doctor sewed me up after receiving a glancing blow on the head from a car while attempting to cross the road outside of the White Lion.

Author: Peters, Tony

The White Lion Team of the Darts League"

White Lion Public House, Mold Road, Buckley

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