The Old Rover's Return
Despite its reputed status as Manchester's oldest licensed house, I have been unable to find it marked on any old maps.  It is said that the Rover's Return dated from 1306.   It is known that it sat close to the point where Withy Grove becomes Shude Hill.  It was at this point that the Shude Hill Market used be located.



Photographs in the collection at Manchester Central Library show it in 1873 looking much as it does in the image above.  Another photograph dated 1958 shows it is still there thirteen years after the end of WWII and eighteen years after the devastating bombing that destroyed many buildings in the city centre.

At least one of the images in the library collection shows the Rover's Return next door but one to the Mosley Arms Public House.
If you click on the link below you can see the building in 1949.

Rover's Return 1949
The Mosley Arms Hotel can be seen on the 1845 map of Manchester (see below) on the corner of Watling Street near the Shude Hill Market.  That means that the Old Rover's Return must have been the building I have indicated with an arrow.
 
Once again in 1888 the map of the time did not have the Rover's Return named on it.  My version of that map is shown below and I have used a red arrow to indicate its likely position.
The image below was taken in 1953.  The Old Rover's Return was still there at that time.  The red arrow points to its location.



The site has changed out of all recognition, as you can see in the image below.


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