Oldham pub used by Moors murderers features 'Banksy mural'

Photographs inside the former Horse and Jockey Pub show the remains of the site with a suspected Banksy 'butterfly' mural on its walls.

It has been more than 50 years since killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were said to have spent their time drinking in the pub before carrying out their murders on children and burying them on Saddleworth Moor.

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While the pub was abandoned in the early 2000s, the building is somewhat still standing after years of neglect and even a fire that tore through the building in 2007.

Speaking to The Mirror, urban explorer, Kyle Urbex, said: "The Horse and Jockey situated alongside the main A62 road from Huddersfield to Oldham, constructed in the 1930s and opening in 1937, the pub served many locals travelling from Oldham to Huddersfield and vice versa. 

"One of the most known people to visit this public house were the infamous couple Myra Hindley and Ian Brady who often drank at The Horse & Jockey.

"They carried out a total of five murders between July 1963 and October 1965.

"They were both arrested in 1965 and were convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of their life in prison with no chance to ever be released until the day they died.

"The Horse & Jockey remained open until around the early 2000's and in 2007 a blaze ripped through the derelict pub causing irreparable damage to the entire structure leaving it deemed unfit and unsafe.

"Shortly after the fire, the iconic graffiti sprawled across the front of the building appeared."

The explorer said although it is unknown who is responsible for the art, some believe it is Banksy but this has never been proved.

The artwork is a suspected Banksy mural, though this hasn't been confirmed (Image: Kyle Urbex)

Describing the mural, there is graffiti of Red Amiral wings alongside the respective roses of Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as the butterfly.

The graffiti reads: "The welcome of a real fire 'put another log on the fire actually put them all on.'"

Kyle Urbex added: "The pub has remained in a state of disrepair ever since and has now been taken over by nature and left to rot.

"I was really looking forward to this one although it is nothing but ruins and bricks with no more internal features after the fire.

"The history behind this speaks more than the exploration.

"The former drinking hole of the infamous Moors Murderers.

"Not to mention the well-known artwork sprawled across the front which I found amazing.

"After spending around 15-20 minutes inside wondering how it could be left to fall into such a state of disrepair, I was done."

Of the Moors murderers' victims, five were children aged between 10 and 17, including Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans.

In graves dug on Saddleworth Moor, the bodies of two victims were discovered in 1965 followed by a third in 1987.

Keith Bennett's body is thought to be buried there but despite repeated searches, including a recent search in September last year, his remains have never been found.

Brady and Hindley were taken separately to the moors to assist in the search for undiscovered graves.

The evil pair were only charged for three of the murders and received life sentences under a whole-life tariff.

After serving more than three decades in prison, Hindley died in 2002 in West Suffolk Hospital at the age of 60.

Brady was declared a psychopath in 1985 and confined in a high-security hospital before he died in 2017 at the age of 79, having served 51 years of his sentence.

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