Hello, my brother Chris Bill has already added a post, but my mum Pat thought you might like a bit more information about the pub itself. My parents took over the Clifton Hotel in 1968 - they bought the tenancy from Len and Nan Gill. Before that they believe it was owned by the Anderson family. They sold the tenancy of the Clifton Hotel in 1971 to Councillor Peter Talbot. At the time my parents bought the tenancy, the property was owned by the Devenish Brewery.
In 1968 the Clifton had 2 bars, 24 bedrooms and an enormous ballroom overlooking the railway station.
As Chris mentioned, the long alleyway ran right the way through from Crescent Street and I remember barrels of beer being rolled along it into the stockroom. There were also very old fashioned tiled ladies and gents' toilets with the old brass "penny" locks.
Although the Clifton Hotel as I remember it was very Victorian with a beautiful tiled hallway, it is probably much older. In fact when my parents decorated the dining room, my dad discovered that room had previously been the stables and actually found the horse troughs. They also found lots of items for silver service such as soup tureens and huge platters as well as maids' uniforms with mop caps.
After my parents sold the Clifton Hotel in 1971, it was changed into flats by the new owner, with just the bar remaining open to the public. As far as they can remember, the Clifton was renamed the Railway Tavern probably only within the last 10 years.
