Description:The 1911 census lists that Annie Tipper was running a tobacconists and confectionery shop here at the Coffee Tavern. Her husband was working at the nearby copper works as a wire drawer. The Tipper family had been at The Tavern in 1901. Annie died in 1947, still owning the premises.
The building was originally a reading room in the late 19th century. The earliest mention in a newspaper article that we have found is 1897 but parts of the building may have been older. The Admiral Jervis had an alcohol licence in 1861 but it was not renewed soon after, said to be the influence of the local mill-owning Methodist Bolton family. The Coffee Tavern may have been established an an alcohol-free social facility in the so-called 'dry village'.
This postcard was posted in 1910.