Sadly the first doesn't say which pub is making this claim, the bar at the Plough & Harrow? The Ivy Bush? Could it also be one of the houses that has been knocked down and a bar/restaurant built on the site (there's at least one a mile or less from the Waterworks, IIRC) - thus confusing the bar staff into making this claim?

As for the Lancashire one, that's the Stonyhurst Effect again. Actually someone was saying on the Festival in the Red pages that their next do should be around there.