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Fox and Grapes - Digbeth

i agree viv cant change it now and we all have our opinions on HS2 most know mine from ages back..i cant be sure but i dont think the pub had much in the way of massive rebuilding especially compering the 1867 drawing and how it looked recently but did have a few 19th alterations... my bricks came from the very front and they are original so maybe a few inside changes...it did have a cellar so yes i would like to think that it will also be excavated...actually its quite exciting now to think of just what maybe found in that area...:)

lyn
 
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The excavations and what is discovered should be quite interesting to read about. After all that part of the city has witnessed many changes over the centuries.
 
In a slightly different direction, are any of the previous landlords still about and do they have any interesting tales to tell? Just a thought!

Maurice
 
hi maurice i would like to think the last landlords are still about...they closed the doors for the last time in 2005 but do not think we have any as forum members..well not yet anyway which would be great of course
lyn
 
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For those interested in this thread it is worth reading from Post1
It is also worth noting the comments made in posts 33 - 37 of this tread. More or less what has happened was predicted by guilbert 53 in his posts. It became obvious early in the thread that the pub was not going to survive.
As for the interior there are quite a few photographs scattered through the thread plus photos of people connected with the pub at closure date 2005.
Post 61, by Simon, mentions him being born there and living there for six years in the 1970's so that is also recent occupants that may still be in the area.
 
quite correct alan even i thought deep down that the pub would not be retained despite the false hope we were given at one point during the meetings with HS2 and i only threw the towel in when its demise was rubber sealed... but one thing is certain in my mind and that is the passion i have for our historical buildings will never dwindle and this is what spured me on to put my money where my mouth was and at least try to save it and boy did i try..i think there are about 12 or so interior shots of last day of orders and a couple with landlady and customers outside..all should be on this thread... but as said earlier we must now move ahead and look forward to seeing what finds come out of the ground:) PS i had completely forgotten about simons post so thanks for the reminder
lyn
 
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ahh bless you alan..just as an aside simon who was born in the pub has not been on the forum since he made that first post in 2012...i may send him a private message

lyn
 
unfortunately i cant seem to find member simon who posted on post 61 on the members list now so cant send him a private message..hopefully he may visit us again and give us some insight into living at the fox and grapes in the 70s..fingers crossed

lyn
 
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They have now dug out the bricks from the cellar, to show the cellar, I have yet to edit the rest of the photos , in one of them you can see where they would have lowered the beer barrels into the cellar, the Barmpot I was with said that I had taken far too many photos of the cellar, his view of photography is to take one shot of the subject and the move on to the next subject, my view is to take as many photos a possible and from different angles, the other thing is the about 50 people have seen his photos where as Have some 5 Million hits of my photos on Flickr (I do not get any money for these hits) just the kudos any road this is a wide shot of the now open cellar more to come soon
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/44062393554/in/dateposted/
 
Stout fellow Horsencart. Yes, you you will have provided far more evidence than just one shot which he took and probably it was not a good one. Now as far as a 'Barmpot' is concerned then I recall that is an appellation used often in 'Last Of The Summer Wine'. :D
 
Would love to have a poke around the cellar. Thanks horsencart for recording the process. Agree, take as many photos as possible. We can never have enough records. Viv
 
Alan, I was thinking the same re Barmpot. My mum used it, she was a Yorkshire lass. Don’t know if it’s an exclusively northern expression. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Alan, I was thinking the same re Barmpot. My mum used it, she was a Yorkshire lass. Don’t know if it’s an exclusively northern expression. Viv.
Click to expand...
I always thought it was a Northern expression, not common south of the M4 corridor. Except of course by those who choose to retire to the south and south west:eek:
 
Vivienne14 said:
The cellar looks like it had arched ceilings. Viv.
Click to expand...
It does; it is not unusual for old buildings to have an arched cellar roof, especially if it was designed to take a significant weight above it. Dwelling houses mostly had timber joists with a timber floor but a commercial building needed more strength.
 
And worryingly the article sows a seed of doubt in readers minds about these two other pubs.....

“The Woodman next to Eastside City Park and The Eagle & Tun, made famous by UB40's Red Red Wine video, at the nearby corner of Banbury Street.” (from the Birmingham Mail).

We need to keep those two pubs on the radar. Viv.
 
viv i would need to check as it was a few years back now but i think at one of the meetings i attended it was suggested that they may have to take the roof off the eagle and tun to retain it..not heard anymore about that since though so i assumed the roof would stay put...who knows though how things could change in the future as i dont trust anything i hear these days

lyn
 
Was in the Eagle & tun on monday of last week, and asked barman if he knew anything. He said he had not heard anything
 
thanks for the updated photos horsencart...dont take long to erase so much history does it less than a week and there it is gone as if it never existed...yes i said a while back i cant see the old cobbles lasting much longer:mad:

lyn
 
Hopefully, they might be carefully removed and re-used in the area when it is nearing completion.
Hopefully, more than wishful thinking. Anyway a word in the right persons ear might prove useful.;)
 
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