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Passages, Alleyways Gulletts and Snickets of Old Brum
- Thread starter Dennis Williams
- Start date
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
OK Lyn, know the feeling too! Bit more on the LEASE LANE and the Grand Turk, which you can see the corner of in the Bell Lane workmen shot of 1910. Much earlier, in the days of Peck Lane. and the Unitariian Meeting Houses and riots, the area was very well to do, and the Taverns and Inns of the gentry and politicians were the Anacreontics from the Eagle and Ball in Colmore Street, and the Jacobean Club of the Leicester Arms, John Freeth's famous meeting house in Leay's Lane.
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
This is duplicated below...sorry
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Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
...and here's one of the two pubs before Hitler and his boys rearranged it. And Edgbaston Street must have been a right old boozer's paradise....the other side of that junction housed two more side-by-side pubs, although not necessarily in the same era...
In fact there were others too on the other side on the street....The Golden Fleece and The Criterion at the corner of Worcester Street...map from 1889 though...
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Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Superb quality photo bernie. Thanks for sharing. Yes, we did a bit on the infamous Green's Village some time ago. Carl Chinn has it named after a colourful character Beau Green. "A dandy and eccentric who lived nearby at Hinckley Hall, also called Rag Castle". It was reputed to be an Irish ghetto by all accounts. According to John Thackray Bunce, the emergence of New Street Station and later John Bright Street "did away with a series of narrow streets, close courts, and confined passages, shut out from fresh air, imperfectly lighted, fetid with dirt, ill-supplied with water, and so inhabited that at one time - in the flourishing days of The Inkleys and Greens Village and the like - the police would not venture into them single-handed; while no family could dwell there without destruction to the sense of decency, or peril to health and life". It was demolished and rebuilt in 1880 for £31,000.
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Was looking through Old Maps trying to locate a relative's house at 37 Moor Street, and to do this is largely hit and miss. Then I spotted this oddity. York Passage. Never heard of it, and would have no idea how to get to it, even if I had! Any comments folks? And I though Nelsons Passage was a cul de sac affair, never realised it came out in Moor Street?
Dennis
Where there is a X across a hatched area of a building , it means there was an opening underneath, and York passage would be accessable from high st, round a corner and also from Castle St. There are a lot of references in the press, usually as part of an advertisement for the York Passage Tea Warehouse.
Where there is a X across a hatched area of a building , it means there was an opening underneath, and York passage would be accessable from high st, round a corner and also from Castle St. There are a lot of references in the press, usually as part of an advertisement for the York Passage Tea Warehouse.
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Cheers mike, I knew about the crosses but was wondering if anyone had inadvertantly caught the openings on High Street or Castle street photos of the day?
Phil
Gone, but not forgotten.
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
What would a chap do without you two stars? Thanks boys. That third old photo shows the covered Castle Street alley brilliantly, and the entrance would be down there on the right....cracking shot Phil. Another one bites the dust...now, Poultry passage, anyone...?
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Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
The passage was still there in 1900, as it is given in an address in a classified add in the Birm. Post. However, knowing your interests Dennis, I thought this slightly earlier advert from the Post on 20.8.1894 might be of interest
Music to my ears and drinking arm mike...but just as you solve one...another comes along...last gasp of cutting...The King of Prussia, Newton....presumably Street...? Presumably a pub? Presumably Phil might have a picture?
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Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Out up Town yesterday to see John Myatt's Art Exhibition and noted this...NEW CANNON PASSAGE...is this a new one?
How nice that someone has mentioned LEASE LANE and to see a picture of it, as I was born at no 8, Lease Lane in 1948, I have many happy memories of the Wholesale and Retail Markets and all my family worked in the Bull Ring. The well known character Percy Moseley and his family lived next door but one.
I hope that being born so close to the Bull Ring and St Martin's Church that I can call myself a true 'Brummie'.
Smiler
I hope that being born so close to the Bull Ring and St Martin's Church that I can call myself a true 'Brummie'.
Smiler
This old road sign suggests New Cannon Passage isn't all that new Dennis. Or maybe you meant is New Cannon Passage new to his thread!!?
I don't know if this passageway has been mentioned before as I don't know it's name. But what a lovely passageway. So bright and well maintained. It's from B'ham and Worcs canal onto Gas Street. Viv
I don't know if this passageway has been mentioned before as I don't know it's name. But what a lovely passageway. So bright and well maintained. It's from B'ham and Worcs canal onto Gas Street. Viv
yes union alley from temple street became under the moderisaion of the city and later years of yester years became union street
and the taxation office for your returns and variuos records was openend up there as well just after opening you sent your self asesment forms there as welll;
they knocked down the old 1800s buildings and went wider passage and built the moderen shops of the day ;and called it union street as we all know of it today ;
best wishes to you all astonian;;
and the taxation office for your returns and variuos records was openend up there as well just after opening you sent your self asesment forms there as welll;
they knocked down the old 1800s buildings and went wider passage and built the moderen shops of the day ;and called it union street as we all know of it today ;
best wishes to you all astonian;;
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Thanks alan mate, you are bang on. I went there a few times when I went 'private' and had to declare everything except my shoe size...painful memories...
But may I tell you the tale of the birth of Union Street and an old Pub that might have been built for you to manage...we have to go quite a ways back though...? And it's in two parts...
PART 1
The Date: 1879
The Place: The Union Inn, Union Street.
The Words: Mr Eliezer Edwards – from his ‘The Old Taverns of Birmingham".
“As Mr Daniell the auctioneer stood, hammer in his hand. in the yard of the Union Inn, selling the materials of the old hostelry, one could not but regret its final scene. With the falling of the hammer came a close to an interesting chapter of local history. The old landmarks are fast disappearing, and Birmingham is becoming so metropolitan, that one now–a-days does not know one’s next-door neighbour. It is a sign of progress I suppose, and so one ought to throw up one’s hat and rejoice. I, however, who am one of the old-fashioned sort, can only say that although the new way of doing things may be far more magnificent and imposing, it isn’t half so friendly and sociable.“ Stop me if you have never heard that before in these pages. So let’s hear the full story.
In 1729 Cherry Street was originally a footpath cut through Walker’s Cherry Orchard from St Philips Churchyard in a direct line towards Welch End (High Street). About half way down it made a bend, later to become Crooked Lane, to exit at the corner of Bull Street and Welch End. At this point there was also a much narrower passage leading from Cherry Street to High Street, which was known as Corbetts Alley. The left side of this passage was partially built upon, and now forms the east side of UNION STREET. The other side being the fence of the bowling green and a “large area surrounded by trees and having many pleasant arbours”.
This is nicely shown in Westley’s 1731 map of the area, and Bradford’s 1750 version, although some twenty years later, Corbett’s Bowling Green survives as Packwood’s Bowling Green, and Crooked Lane is now clearly marked as a thoroughfare, and the Cheery Orchard fields are all built upon.
At the end of the straight part of Cherry Street, but fronting to the south, there was an old Tavern known as “The Coffee Pot”. The grounds and gardens of this house extended westwards to Cannon Street. The freehold to this tavern, and of Corbett’s bowling green, was then the property of William Withering, who lived at Edgbaston Hall (now a Golf Clubhouse). He was one of four physicians of the General Hospital, with a huge local practice, and from his studies of native plants, the discoverer of digitalis, and a contributor to other notable medical advances of the day.
In 1786, the house at no 30 Cherry Street, standing nearly opposite Cannon Street, was the home of a Mr Edmund Goodbehere, and near this house, he built The Union Inn. The details of this construction were told to Eliezier Edwards by Mr Goodbehere’s son, some 95 years after the event in 1879, ironically, just as the builders were demolishing it for the Corporation Street project. The Inn was completed in 1790 and demolished in 1879.
Here is a map dated 1778, Inn not marked though yet...
He mooted that the Inn stood precisely opposite the Lancashire Fire office, and the adjoining premises originally built for Smith and Gibbins Bank, but now occupied by the Corporation Treasurers Office. Edwards recalls “Mr Goodbehere retains a perfect recollection of the locality as it existed in 1790, and offered to draw a plan for me upon a slate”.
Seen here both marked in Pye's Map of 1791 a year later..
The materials for the Inn, and several adjoining premises were sold on 21 Aug 1879, and fetched the princely sum of £165.
But may I tell you the tale of the birth of Union Street and an old Pub that might have been built for you to manage...we have to go quite a ways back though...? And it's in two parts...
PART 1
The Date: 1879
The Place: The Union Inn, Union Street.
The Words: Mr Eliezer Edwards – from his ‘The Old Taverns of Birmingham".
“As Mr Daniell the auctioneer stood, hammer in his hand. in the yard of the Union Inn, selling the materials of the old hostelry, one could not but regret its final scene. With the falling of the hammer came a close to an interesting chapter of local history. The old landmarks are fast disappearing, and Birmingham is becoming so metropolitan, that one now–a-days does not know one’s next-door neighbour. It is a sign of progress I suppose, and so one ought to throw up one’s hat and rejoice. I, however, who am one of the old-fashioned sort, can only say that although the new way of doing things may be far more magnificent and imposing, it isn’t half so friendly and sociable.“ Stop me if you have never heard that before in these pages. So let’s hear the full story.
In 1729 Cherry Street was originally a footpath cut through Walker’s Cherry Orchard from St Philips Churchyard in a direct line towards Welch End (High Street). About half way down it made a bend, later to become Crooked Lane, to exit at the corner of Bull Street and Welch End. At this point there was also a much narrower passage leading from Cherry Street to High Street, which was known as Corbetts Alley. The left side of this passage was partially built upon, and now forms the east side of UNION STREET. The other side being the fence of the bowling green and a “large area surrounded by trees and having many pleasant arbours”.
This is nicely shown in Westley’s 1731 map of the area, and Bradford’s 1750 version, although some twenty years later, Corbett’s Bowling Green survives as Packwood’s Bowling Green, and Crooked Lane is now clearly marked as a thoroughfare, and the Cheery Orchard fields are all built upon.
At the end of the straight part of Cherry Street, but fronting to the south, there was an old Tavern known as “The Coffee Pot”. The grounds and gardens of this house extended westwards to Cannon Street. The freehold to this tavern, and of Corbett’s bowling green, was then the property of William Withering, who lived at Edgbaston Hall (now a Golf Clubhouse). He was one of four physicians of the General Hospital, with a huge local practice, and from his studies of native plants, the discoverer of digitalis, and a contributor to other notable medical advances of the day.
In 1786, the house at no 30 Cherry Street, standing nearly opposite Cannon Street, was the home of a Mr Edmund Goodbehere, and near this house, he built The Union Inn. The details of this construction were told to Eliezier Edwards by Mr Goodbehere’s son, some 95 years after the event in 1879, ironically, just as the builders were demolishing it for the Corporation Street project. The Inn was completed in 1790 and demolished in 1879.
Here is a map dated 1778, Inn not marked though yet...
He mooted that the Inn stood precisely opposite the Lancashire Fire office, and the adjoining premises originally built for Smith and Gibbins Bank, but now occupied by the Corporation Treasurers Office. Edwards recalls “Mr Goodbehere retains a perfect recollection of the locality as it existed in 1790, and offered to draw a plan for me upon a slate”.
Seen here both marked in Pye's Map of 1791 a year later..
The materials for the Inn, and several adjoining premises were sold on 21 Aug 1879, and fetched the princely sum of £165.
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Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
PART 2.
The first shop built on the West side of Crooked Lane, after the widening of the Street, was occupied by a book and music seller named LOWE, who moved there from Carrs Lane. He should be remembered as the first man in Birmingham who had London Newspapers on sale at his shop. It became the offices of Birmingham’s first newspaper - our own “Birmingham Post and Mail”.
The Union Inn was built on the site of the old Coffee Pot, and a “slice from the Bowling Green”; as Edmund Goodbehere had the idea that Corbetts Alley might be transformed into a Street, which would connect Cherry Street with High Street in a direct course. There was plenty of land at the back for the increasing numbers of stagecoach travellers, and “outriders” and “bagmen” (what we call today commercial travellers), which were becoming the vogue then.
With Birmingham’s increasing population and reputation, there came an influx of young men of the Town called “Swells’ or “Dandys” or “Bucks” and the Bucks, who had formed themselves into a ‘Bucks Society’, must have heard about this new Inn going up, and contacted the management with a view to securing this venue as their ‘Headquarters’. The Society had modelled them selves like the Freemasons Lodges, as the chief Buck was known as “ the Most Noble Grand”. So, at their expense new rooms were agreed and furnished for them whilst the build was progressing, which was completed on Friday 14 May 1790. Here's the lettert that sealed the deal...and an Advert flyer for the place...
Of course, a month after the opening of this fine establishment came the Priestley Riots in July 1791. Young Mr Goodbehere said thet that Inn was “carefully closed when the crowds of furiously excited and noisy men filled the streets”. He was locked in the house with his mother (he was five years old), whilst his father and a friend called Henry Birkett, were sworn in as special constables, and they duly confronted the rioters. His father died in the November of that year and was buried in St Pauls Cathedral. A few months after that, his widow married Mr Birkett and he took over as landlord of the Inn. Ooops...
Mr Birkett was a memberof the ‘Military Association’, the forerunners of the Volunteeers of Bonaparte’s time, and of the ‘Rifle Brigade’ of our own. They wore a handsome blue unifrom and met for exercise at the back of the pub on the Bowling Green, just opposite the top of the present Warwick Passage.
Birkett kept the house until 1813, it later being taken over by a John Machin, the licensee from the White Horse, Steelhouse Lane, whereupon he drastically re-modelled it. He transformed it from a “rather plain and unpretending character” by building a wing over the gateway, extended it, and adding new windows, cornices and fancy brickwork, and completely remodelling it’s interior to add new function rooms and bed chambers. An altogether now rather grander and “commodious hotel”.
Machin and his wife were extremelly popular and the perfect ‘mine hosts’, Edwards used it for thirty odd years and he notes that Mrs Machin always sat in the same seat, "doing the accounts", and welcoming one and all with couteousness and kindness - “motherly care” he dubbed it. It seemingly thus attracted the most influential men and women of the day, and had many famous and influential factions and societies besides the aforementioned ‘Bucks Society’.
The WHIST CLUB (known as The Royal Society), was a society of very prominent Brummies, including John Wilkes Unett , Samuel Amphlett and Henry Van Wart to name a few.
The IRON MASTERS ROOM was an important meeting place for Industrialists before the exchange was built in Stephenson’s Place. Business worth “millions” took place there every Thursday, followed by the ‘weekly dinner’, which was a shared expense that even these wealthy chaps “would not care for their wives to know of”. Was it ever thus I wondered?
The low ceilnged SALE ROOM was for fifty years, where regular auction sales of property and land, which over three decades probably “amounting to the value of the fee-simple of half Birmingham” took place.
And being close to St Phillips, where Music Festivals were first heard, there was much music made in the Music room, upon a “spindly legged, old fashioned, square pianoforte’ by a succsession of notable singers and musicians of the day – Camillo Sivori, Maria Malibran and Henry Philips to name but a few….
This is a map showing the Corporation Street cut through, the Inn seems to me to have been situated in Union Street, somewhere before Union Passage crosses it... where the Arcade was built?
A really sad loss to Mr Edwards… and I know precisely how he felt, as I was there when they closed the Richmond and the Broadway a hundred or more years later…plus ca changes...
The first shop built on the West side of Crooked Lane, after the widening of the Street, was occupied by a book and music seller named LOWE, who moved there from Carrs Lane. He should be remembered as the first man in Birmingham who had London Newspapers on sale at his shop. It became the offices of Birmingham’s first newspaper - our own “Birmingham Post and Mail”.
The Union Inn was built on the site of the old Coffee Pot, and a “slice from the Bowling Green”; as Edmund Goodbehere had the idea that Corbetts Alley might be transformed into a Street, which would connect Cherry Street with High Street in a direct course. There was plenty of land at the back for the increasing numbers of stagecoach travellers, and “outriders” and “bagmen” (what we call today commercial travellers), which were becoming the vogue then.
With Birmingham’s increasing population and reputation, there came an influx of young men of the Town called “Swells’ or “Dandys” or “Bucks” and the Bucks, who had formed themselves into a ‘Bucks Society’, must have heard about this new Inn going up, and contacted the management with a view to securing this venue as their ‘Headquarters’. The Society had modelled them selves like the Freemasons Lodges, as the chief Buck was known as “ the Most Noble Grand”. So, at their expense new rooms were agreed and furnished for them whilst the build was progressing, which was completed on Friday 14 May 1790. Here's the lettert that sealed the deal...and an Advert flyer for the place...
Of course, a month after the opening of this fine establishment came the Priestley Riots in July 1791. Young Mr Goodbehere said thet that Inn was “carefully closed when the crowds of furiously excited and noisy men filled the streets”. He was locked in the house with his mother (he was five years old), whilst his father and a friend called Henry Birkett, were sworn in as special constables, and they duly confronted the rioters. His father died in the November of that year and was buried in St Pauls Cathedral. A few months after that, his widow married Mr Birkett and he took over as landlord of the Inn. Ooops...
Mr Birkett was a memberof the ‘Military Association’, the forerunners of the Volunteeers of Bonaparte’s time, and of the ‘Rifle Brigade’ of our own. They wore a handsome blue unifrom and met for exercise at the back of the pub on the Bowling Green, just opposite the top of the present Warwick Passage.
Birkett kept the house until 1813, it later being taken over by a John Machin, the licensee from the White Horse, Steelhouse Lane, whereupon he drastically re-modelled it. He transformed it from a “rather plain and unpretending character” by building a wing over the gateway, extended it, and adding new windows, cornices and fancy brickwork, and completely remodelling it’s interior to add new function rooms and bed chambers. An altogether now rather grander and “commodious hotel”.
Machin and his wife were extremelly popular and the perfect ‘mine hosts’, Edwards used it for thirty odd years and he notes that Mrs Machin always sat in the same seat, "doing the accounts", and welcoming one and all with couteousness and kindness - “motherly care” he dubbed it. It seemingly thus attracted the most influential men and women of the day, and had many famous and influential factions and societies besides the aforementioned ‘Bucks Society’.
The WHIST CLUB (known as The Royal Society), was a society of very prominent Brummies, including John Wilkes Unett , Samuel Amphlett and Henry Van Wart to name a few.
The IRON MASTERS ROOM was an important meeting place for Industrialists before the exchange was built in Stephenson’s Place. Business worth “millions” took place there every Thursday, followed by the ‘weekly dinner’, which was a shared expense that even these wealthy chaps “would not care for their wives to know of”. Was it ever thus I wondered?
The low ceilnged SALE ROOM was for fifty years, where regular auction sales of property and land, which over three decades probably “amounting to the value of the fee-simple of half Birmingham” took place.
And being close to St Phillips, where Music Festivals were first heard, there was much music made in the Music room, upon a “spindly legged, old fashioned, square pianoforte’ by a succsession of notable singers and musicians of the day – Camillo Sivori, Maria Malibran and Henry Philips to name but a few….
This is a map showing the Corporation Street cut through, the Inn seems to me to have been situated in Union Street, somewhere before Union Passage crosses it... where the Arcade was built?
A really sad loss to Mr Edwards… and I know precisely how he felt, as I was there when they closed the Richmond and the Broadway a hundred or more years later…plus ca changes...
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Thoroughly enjoyed that too Dennis. Such a lively and detailed account you've given us of the area. Also fascinated by the documents and maps. Interesting to see that the map dates the various stages of the cutting of Corporation Street. Thank you for taking the time to compile it. Viv.
Teddy Fan
master brummie
Great detail, Dennis, it was totally absorbing - you are bringing life into the history of streets we all are familiar with.
I have been following this thread with fascination; I just wish I had something of my own to contribute.
I can only offer my admiration for all the research everyone does and their generosity in sharing it.
I have been following this thread with fascination; I just wish I had something of my own to contribute.
I can only offer my admiration for all the research everyone does and their generosity in sharing it.
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Thanks for your encouraging comments girls, it's my pleasure. Now, another old narrow Street that has made an appearance on these pages some time ago is BUCK STREET...this time with a story of yet another famous old Tavern...THE SEA HORSE...read on..
“Not a long way from St Bartholomew’s Church is a small and dingy thoroughfare known as Buck Street. In this Street there is a gaudily painted gin-shop, which thrusts itself into notice by its garish colouring. Some elborate lamps project from the heavy cornice, the glass sides of which are painted with representations of some monstrous animal, certainly like nothing in the the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. It is a firm belief however, amongst the innocent dwellers in the immediate locality, that the works of art are faithfiul delineations of the form and structure of a Sea Horse. “
Elizier Edwards “Inns and Taverns of old Birmingham”
1879
This ancient pub was known for more than a century before, but had obviously been rebuilt to a far more mundane appearance when Edwards wrote about it. He was mourning the changes when some forty years before he, and he claimed everyman in Birmingham, entered the low entrance and small door to that parlour and sampled what was known as 'Digbeth Water', in a extraordinary clean and well scrubbed room. Resplendent with oil paintings and fine dark oak tables polished to within an inch of their lives. What caught his eye even more though, was a curious sliding panel over the door, which had been converted by that well known Brummie snuff box poainter Samuel Raven (he who did the famous portrait of John Baskerville that everyone knows) with a painting of Lord Nelson, encircled by the inscription in gilt letters “England expects every man to do his duty” October 21st 1805”. The back yard had a curious array of “Barons of beef” ( or the bones from such) nailed to the wall as reminders to annual festivals of music held at the Inn, and the delights of the cuisine, but some went missing when "some local youths broke in and destroyed them... " Plus ca changes...
The source of the Digbeth Water, the best ale in the world by all accounts - 'Nectar of the Gods', was “the Farm”, which was down the cellar steps. This opened up to "a vast room" where the ale was “grown”. There were four enormous barrels, the largest of which could seat a small dinner party by Edwards account. Each had a capacity of 1000 gallons. The trick to the quality of the ale, was that the drawing tap was half way down the barrell, not at the bottom, and as ale was drawn off the middle, it was immediately topped up with ‘new’ ale, thus the casks were always full and the ale left to blend and ripen, always in glorious condition...
This place also became one of the favourite meeting places of The Musical Amicable Socity, after 'Cooke’s' in Cherry Street, and Joseph Kempson and his fellow singers and musicians used the place frequently, and launched the Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals from there....
There were many more tales about the exploits of the landlord Mr Marrian, candle rituals at closing time, and "The Birthday Society", but all good things must come to an end, and in 1891 the Sea Horse closed its doors to the drinking fraternity and reopened as a temperance religeous Institution - the Brimingham Central Mission. Talk about chalk and cheese...still two hundred years of history ain't bad for a tiny back boozer in Buck Street is it?
Map 1881
Map 1889
Pub now demolished...
A Baron of beef
“Not a long way from St Bartholomew’s Church is a small and dingy thoroughfare known as Buck Street. In this Street there is a gaudily painted gin-shop, which thrusts itself into notice by its garish colouring. Some elborate lamps project from the heavy cornice, the glass sides of which are painted with representations of some monstrous animal, certainly like nothing in the the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. It is a firm belief however, amongst the innocent dwellers in the immediate locality, that the works of art are faithfiul delineations of the form and structure of a Sea Horse. “
Elizier Edwards “Inns and Taverns of old Birmingham”
1879
This ancient pub was known for more than a century before, but had obviously been rebuilt to a far more mundane appearance when Edwards wrote about it. He was mourning the changes when some forty years before he, and he claimed everyman in Birmingham, entered the low entrance and small door to that parlour and sampled what was known as 'Digbeth Water', in a extraordinary clean and well scrubbed room. Resplendent with oil paintings and fine dark oak tables polished to within an inch of their lives. What caught his eye even more though, was a curious sliding panel over the door, which had been converted by that well known Brummie snuff box poainter Samuel Raven (he who did the famous portrait of John Baskerville that everyone knows) with a painting of Lord Nelson, encircled by the inscription in gilt letters “England expects every man to do his duty” October 21st 1805”. The back yard had a curious array of “Barons of beef” ( or the bones from such) nailed to the wall as reminders to annual festivals of music held at the Inn, and the delights of the cuisine, but some went missing when "some local youths broke in and destroyed them... " Plus ca changes...
The source of the Digbeth Water, the best ale in the world by all accounts - 'Nectar of the Gods', was “the Farm”, which was down the cellar steps. This opened up to "a vast room" where the ale was “grown”. There were four enormous barrels, the largest of which could seat a small dinner party by Edwards account. Each had a capacity of 1000 gallons. The trick to the quality of the ale, was that the drawing tap was half way down the barrell, not at the bottom, and as ale was drawn off the middle, it was immediately topped up with ‘new’ ale, thus the casks were always full and the ale left to blend and ripen, always in glorious condition...
This place also became one of the favourite meeting places of The Musical Amicable Socity, after 'Cooke’s' in Cherry Street, and Joseph Kempson and his fellow singers and musicians used the place frequently, and launched the Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals from there....
There were many more tales about the exploits of the landlord Mr Marrian, candle rituals at closing time, and "The Birthday Society", but all good things must come to an end, and in 1891 the Sea Horse closed its doors to the drinking fraternity and reopened as a temperance religeous Institution - the Brimingham Central Mission. Talk about chalk and cheese...still two hundred years of history ain't bad for a tiny back boozer in Buck Street is it?
Map 1881
Map 1889
Pub now demolished...
A Baron of beef
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Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Oh dear...censored? That's odd as they are obviously OK for some folks mike, and they are all present and working fine on my system? I can easily repost the errant ones...which posts are affected for you?
Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Whacko! I know how it feels mike. I have those as well...and speaking of wells...some time back we discussed Ladywell Walk, a delightful meander when The Markets were up and running...all virtually gone now...
OUR LADY'S WELL
O GLADLY men go on Our Lady's Day,
Through Our Lady's wood to Our Lady's well.
Her shrine is decked with trophies. Way
For the cripple's crutch and the blind man's bell.
The blind, the lame, and the sick, they tread
The path of the wood, nor ask for alms ;
The eager cripple, the blind man led,
Singing Our Lady's praise and psalms.
Who bows at Our Lady's shrine the morn,
And drinks of Our Lady's well ; for him,
The healing hand and the joy newborn.
Gladness and wholeness of life and limb.
O priests, who stand at Our Lady's shrine,
And pray at Her well ; men bring me these -
Hearts that leap at the name divine.
And stricken bodies and bended knees,
The lame, the blind, and the sick, they kneel
At Our Lady's well, and drink and call
On Our Lady's name, that shall haply heal,
And lo ! Her hand hath mended them all.
They throw their crutches ; they freely roam ;
They see, are whole. There are trophiesnew
At Our Lady's shrine, and they haste them home.
And lo ! the wood is a-blossom through.
by Brummie bard Ernest Marston Rudland ... who apparently came into this vale of tears in 1875 ... ... here is an extended edition of Ballads of Old Birmingham
Note —Mention is made in a document dated 1347 of a dwelling in Egebaston Strete leading towards "God well field," and there can be no doubt that this alluded to the Lady Well, possessed of wonderful healing virtues, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and close to the Priest's House, afterwards called the Rectory or Parsonage of St. Martin. The overflow from the well helped to sustain the moat round the Parsonage, and joined by other waters from the neighbourhood of Holloway Plead and the hill above Pinfold Street, passed into the Manor House moat. The Lady Well Baths were historically famous. Hutton says they were the finest in the kingdom. The Holy Well of the Blessed Virgin, towards which mediaeval pilgrims wended their way through the Hurst and Lady Wood, still exists, covered over, its miraculous waters turned into the drains, Lady Well Walk being the only reminder left to us of the name. Exhibit 'A' M'lud...
1921
1953
1999
Ladywell Walk...over time...
OUR LADY'S WELL
O GLADLY men go on Our Lady's Day,
Through Our Lady's wood to Our Lady's well.
Her shrine is decked with trophies. Way
For the cripple's crutch and the blind man's bell.
The blind, the lame, and the sick, they tread
The path of the wood, nor ask for alms ;
The eager cripple, the blind man led,
Singing Our Lady's praise and psalms.
Who bows at Our Lady's shrine the morn,
And drinks of Our Lady's well ; for him,
The healing hand and the joy newborn.
Gladness and wholeness of life and limb.
O priests, who stand at Our Lady's shrine,
And pray at Her well ; men bring me these -
Hearts that leap at the name divine.
And stricken bodies and bended knees,
The lame, the blind, and the sick, they kneel
At Our Lady's well, and drink and call
On Our Lady's name, that shall haply heal,
And lo ! Her hand hath mended them all.
They throw their crutches ; they freely roam ;
They see, are whole. There are trophiesnew
At Our Lady's shrine, and they haste them home.
And lo ! the wood is a-blossom through.
by Brummie bard Ernest Marston Rudland ... who apparently came into this vale of tears in 1875 ... ... here is an extended edition of Ballads of Old Birmingham
Note —Mention is made in a document dated 1347 of a dwelling in Egebaston Strete leading towards "God well field," and there can be no doubt that this alluded to the Lady Well, possessed of wonderful healing virtues, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and close to the Priest's House, afterwards called the Rectory or Parsonage of St. Martin. The overflow from the well helped to sustain the moat round the Parsonage, and joined by other waters from the neighbourhood of Holloway Plead and the hill above Pinfold Street, passed into the Manor House moat. The Lady Well Baths were historically famous. Hutton says they were the finest in the kingdom. The Holy Well of the Blessed Virgin, towards which mediaeval pilgrims wended their way through the Hurst and Lady Wood, still exists, covered over, its miraculous waters turned into the drains, Lady Well Walk being the only reminder left to us of the name. Exhibit 'A' M'lud...
1921
1953
1999
Ladywell Walk...over time...
