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the acorn..wheeler street

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
acorn pub wheeler st.jpg the acorn wheeler st....

acorn20pub20wheeler20st.jpg
 
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Is this the same Acorn I that introduced you to the Daily Mirror archive with some months ago, Lyn?

It looks quite huge from the outside!
 
acorn1958-1.jpg yes richie thats the one...i agree that it looks a very large pub..as some of you know already it used to be a morgue and you could enter it in wheeler st or wilton st as both were linked by a long passage that was called the hall of memory...here is that pic of our dad sitting in the acorn in may 1959

acorn1958.jpg
 
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hello chelle and welcome to the forum...ive been hoping for a long time now that someone may recognise the landlady valerie fortnum...i would imagine she pulled our dad many a pint..

lyn
 
hello chelle and welcome to the forum...ive been hoping for a long time now that someone may recognise the landlady valerie fortnum...i would imagine she pulled our dad many a pint..

lyn

yes I bet she might have. wot was ur dads name ill ask her if she remembers him. they both work so many pubs around Birmingham. x
 
hi chelle dads name is george harrington and drank in many pubs in the area..hes the one in the photo sitting down checking his horses he sadly passed away this may but please show the photo to your nan as she may just remember him..dad used to do a lot of window cleaning in the area including the pubs...and just for a bit of extra info that your nan may already know.. the bar where the pic was taken used to be a mortuary...i have tried to find out more about this but so far have not had any luck

lyn
 
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Lyn
If you haven't seen it , regarding the mortuary you might like to look at the first snippet in post 1049 at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=39848&page=70



no mike i missed that snippet...so do you think that a few pubs including the acorn were used as mortuarys...what i have been trying to find out is was the building a morturary and then became a pub later on but reading that snippet i looks like pubs may have served two purposes...

thanks mike
 
Certainly, from the reports in the birmingham post, most inquests were carried out in pubs. I had not before realised that the bodies were sometimes also kept there. That wasn't always the arrangement, as I have also seen mention of pubs nearby the General hospital being often used because they were nearby to the hospital where the body could be stored. Unfortunately I don't think I saved any of those snippets regarding the latter, so can't give you an actual reference.
I would think that the fact that here it was not regarded as unreasonable for the room to be a condition of the licence means that such a room must have been a fairly common occurrence.

A search does seem to indicate that it was quite common. The following is from "Bodies of Evidence:Medicine & the Politics of the English Inquest, 1830-1926" by Ian A Burney ., The extract is courtesy of Google.

Bodies_of_EvidenceMedicine___the_Politics_of_the_English_Inquest2C_1830-1926_by_Ian_A_Burney.jpg
 
mike thats great info and explains it all...like you i knew that inquests were held in pubs but not that in some cases bodies were also kept there..

many thanks mike

lyn
 
that's my nan val behide the bar.. she used to run it with my granddad tony. my mom was born in the pub

Yes, I worked at the acorn 1963 as a doorman. (Downbeat club) with Tony and Val. Also moved with them to the Custard House Blake Lane, work upstairs on the door. Their son Les played drums in a group called the Bobcats. Great couple great times. George.
 
afraid not BB the acorn went before i was old enough to go into pubs but i have just reposted my lost pics on posts 1 and 3

lyn
 
afraid not BB the acorn went before i was old enough to go into pubs but i have just reposted my lost pics on posts 1 and 3

lyn
My grandparents lived in Wheeler Street from 1939 to the '50s. Bet my Grandad enjoyed many a pint in there!;)
Nice looking pub wasn't it?
 
What about acorn wilton street

bit late in the day to reply but i will anyway....the acorn wheeler st and the acorn wilton st were one and the same pub..the frontage to the pub was in wheeler st and a passage ran right through to wilton st where you could still enter the pub

lyn
 
bit late in the day to reply but i will anyway....the acorn wheeler st and the acorn wilton st were one and the same pub..the frontage to the pub was in wheeler st and a passage ran right through to wilton st where you could still enter the pub

lyn
I don't see a late reply as an issue Lyn, particularly if it puts correct information on BHF for future readers as it does in this case.
After all "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow". :D
 
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Yes, I worked at the acorn 1963 as a doorman. (Downbeat club) with Tony and Val. Also moved with them to the Custard House Blake Lane, work upstairs on the door. Their son Les played drums in a group called the Bobcats. Great couple great times. George.

hi george..i have sent you a private message...see inbox top right of the main page

lyn
 
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