Top Drum

The Top Drum was a pub in Weatherfield. Before the 1970s it was down-at-heel and Harry Hewitt used to say if ever stranger walked in there, the landlord used to ask him for his bloodgroup.

By January 1971 Dodo Williams was the landlady of the refurbished establishment and employed a man called Bernard behind the bar. It was there that Stan Ogden overheard villainous Newton & Ridley drayman Arthur Burrows boasting that he had set up Annie Walker and a few days later Len Fairclough and Ray Langton went to the pub where they forced Burrows to confess that he had watered down the gin in the Rovers to get Annie in trouble with the police.

The pub still seemed to have problems though as in May 1971 a man was stabbed outside the premises. The incident was reported in the press, frightening Hetty Thorpe who was considering taking the position of caretaker in the nearby Community Centre and was put off by this event and others which were painted in a lurid light by Ena Sharples who wanted the job herself.