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Bulls Head Meriden

Heartland

master brummie
There is clearly some artistic license in this engraving of the Bulls Head at Meriden. It was on the main road to London, hence the stage coach. But the pool for Meriden Hall has grown somewhat !

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Right...a bit of a mystery wrapped in a conundrum.....I live quite near one of our favourite eating places, the Bulls Head, Meriden....and have gathered a few pics of this place over the years....and understand that it changed identity and postion over the years..starting out as Darlaston Hall, then moving further along the road, nearer the village green...to it's present location....and obviously changing the building form somewhat.....
So that was OK....BUT, yesterday, my old mucker Graham Knight posted this first print of The Bulls Head....and it looked nothing like the previous two!!! I am very puzzled....especially by the lovely little church like building with little spire next to this ;new mansion-like house....anybody help me here???

This is a bit of the story from the history books...
But the most famous of the Meriden inns in the 18th century was the 'Bull's Head', 'called by the country People The Handsomest Inn in England'. Guide-book writers of the period frequently remark on its magnificence, though that captious traveller, the Hon. John Byng, found it in 1789 'a most blackguard stop'. Queen, then Princess, Victoria stayed there in 1832. The original Bull's Head was the large Georgian mansion now called Darlaston Hall, which is said previously to have been a seat of the Earl of Aylesford. It ceased to be an inn about the middle of last century, though another inn in the village continues the name.
The London road, turnpiked in 1821, enters the parish down a steep hill from the east. Its original course, which was still steeper, can be traced in the fields to the right and comes out at the beginning of the village, by the Queen's Head Inn. It was probably abandoned soon after 1785 when the Inclosure Act empowered the Earl of Aylesford to divert the road. From the same Act dates the straight line of road from the west end of the village towards Hampton in-Arden and the present course of the road to Berkswell as far as Four Oaks.
 

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No ideas Dennis as to your strange print. To be honest , it looks a bit to me like one of the illustrations that appear in modern books pushing hotels and pubs. I see no reason to think it is a genuine illustration
 
The whole area around Meriden is interesting particularly with it being considered the centre of England.

The Bulls Head appears to have changed significantly over the years.
 
Interesting that John Byng, in 1789, calls it "a most blackguard stop.” In 1792 the Woodmen of Arden held a meeting there and it was attended by the Gentry. The ladies dined together there.

In 1846 AC Cave informs he has opened the premises as a hotel.
(Coventry Standard, December 1846.)


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This thread brings back some memories from the late 60’s to mid 70’s. We used to travel to The Bulls Head in Meriden for a different night out. The short drive there was so picturesque and the steak meal at the end of the drive was very much a treat, can smell and taste it now, Mmmmm.
Jen
 
Theory open to falsification...

Heartland's post shows that Darlaston Hall was known as the Bull's Head in 1752.
At some time after that date the Bull’s Head became a private residence.

In 1834 Mr Blakesley retired from Bull's Head putting his nephew in. (C Blakesley ?)

1842 Mr Blakesley dies.

AC Cave opens the Bull’s Head Hotel in 1846, a little to the West of Darlaston Hall. Did he resurrect the old name ?

Mr. C Blakesley in 1846 he advertises Coach House, stable, garden and pastureland to let.

1845 C. Blakesley resides at home formerly known as the Bull's Head. “The vicissitudes and alteration ocassioned by the railways had changed that which was a public into a private House.”

The Question then remains if and when the Bull’s Head Hotel/Inn returned to the site of Darlaston House ??
 
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The picture posted by Dennis, and the bell tower at Darlaston Hall (Coventry Herald March 1940.)
 
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