Caleb Foden was born in Erdington in 1805, the year of the battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic wars. He was the son of John, a hay trusser.
In 1841, Caleb describes himself as a publican and in 1851, as a market gardener and retail brewer. The readily available farm products, such as barley and hops, made beer making an easy and profitable business. It was, in fact, healthier to drink alcohol as at that time water could be quite unclean to drink. In some places in Britain, one in every three houses was licensed to manufacture and sell alcohol. A license was purchased from the Crown. You could then legally make and sell ale, beer or cider. Taverns in the towns sold wine as well and might also have spirits, while inns sold alcoholic drinks and offered rooms for travelers.
When he was 24 years old, he married Elizabeth Wells from the village of Edgbaston which was 7 miles (11 km) away. They may have met at a fair or market in their area, or perhaps they already knew each other through their respective families. He and Elizabeth had 5 boys, William, George, Henry, John and Charles who all followed in their father’s footsteps; they also had 2 girls called Emma and Harriet.
In 1881, all of Caleb’s family is found only a handful of miles from Erdington, in or around Perry Barr and Kingstanding, where the Fodens had become well-known as tenant farmers of the Perry Bar estate.
Daughter Emma married in 1863 with Jeremiah Cutler. The Fodens and the Cutlers, another farming family, knew each other well, so well that Emma’s sister Harriet married Jeremiah’s brother, Linnaeus, in 1871. Both couples also worked as licensed victuallers.
In 1891, Emma and Jeremiah were at the Golden Cross Inn on Shortheath Road in Erdington, while Harriet and Linnaeus Cutler were the tenants of the Old Irish Harp Inn, which still stands to this day on Chester Road, in Aldridge, Walsall.
John, a market gardener, also married into the same Cutler family in 1870. He and Ellen Cutler were the tenants of the Hare & Hounds in Handsworth, then the Bush Inn at New Oscott.
William, Caleb’s eldest son, had 8 children and worked 60 acres on Kingstanding Farm. At 32 years old, he became tenant of the Royal Oak in Perry Barr, also known as the Parson & Clerk, and where he remained for 23 years until his death.
George had 9 children. When Caleb retired to Kettlehouse farm in 1881, George took over the 180 acres of Blakelands farm, Handsworth, from his father.
.../...