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Pub in Key Hill?

dib44

master brummie
Hi Folks...

Had this image for a while now, but lost in the realms of my PC, taken in the 1950s I guess, and now Georges Cafe, but it looks to have been a pub in its earlier years, any one know if it was a pub, and if so its name?

The old guy is standing at the entrance to Cemetery Drive I think ?

Opposite would I guess have been the GPO sorting office.

dibsView attachment 60018
 
Do you mean Cemetery lane or Key hill Drive ? There was the Cemetery Tavern on the corner of Cemetery Lane. With a name like that It would be just the place for a wake
Mike
 
I think Key Hill Drive was further up Key Hill Mike, What a morbid name for a pub Cemetery Tavern, as you say "just the place for a wake"
thanks for that info, brilliant.
 
I posted these on another thread a while ago not sure if it's the same bit of Key Hill.
Norton_s_Key_Hill_1984.jpg
 
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If that's in Key Hill...it couldn't have been the cemetery side, and if it was the other side of the road, wouldn't the hill be going UP towards Gt Hampton Street?
 
Charlie now I look at dibs photo I see what you mean if it was the cemetery side it would have to be at the bottom of the hill. If you look at the second photo I have posted this is at the bottom of Key Hill by Ickneild Street now waste land. You can see the cemetery trees behind the buildings.
 
Wendy
Nothing to do with the pub but at the top of Key Hill on the left hand side looking up was there a window that had a model railway steam engine in it? Only a small window with the engine "high-ish" up. The engine was coloured green. Or is this a memory glitch?
David
Charlie now I look at dibs photo I see what you mean if it was the cemetery side it would have to be at the bottom of the hill. If you look at the second photo I have posted this is at the bottom of Key Hill by Ickneild Street now waste land. You can see the cemetery trees behind the buildings.
 
hi guys
come on lets get your thinking caps on well its the pub at the bottom of key hill
its the corner of ickneild st at the key hill corner which when you walk up the hill to the cemetry you will find
first of all our friend maggie should know also i should know but at thime in moment i just cannot think of it
along time ago i mentioned this on the forum inm fact we have all discussed it on the forum with the name of it
p assed it and drank in it for donkeys years but for love nor money i just cannot at this precice time tell you the name
phil should be able to spit it out the name now he,s like me he knows all the boozers
and to just mention it the side of the pub looking up key hill the out side wall painted white was the gents out side toilets and of a night especialy winter nights
it was wicked to go and enter in the dark and cold and the smell but that his definately the bottom of key hill and corner of ickneild st facing the flat
best wishes astonion
 
hi humprey
many thanks for that jogging my memory yes it was quite true the bulls head
i used to go to ickneild street school and passed it many time and i used to get the number eight bus out side there every day
there was always a gang of kids trying to get on the bus
when i left school we used to drink and play darts there most nights of the week how long was your aunty there
was she there in the sixtys and seventys thats when those gents toilets was out side even before the fiftysif it snowed rained
there was never out side lights to see what you was walking into
it would have been the lateseventys before some one decided to light up the opening of the exit to the bogs it was just a black wall no slabs in those days
and the only other pub with a toilet like that was the saltley gate terrible
thanks for telling us all and reminding me of the name i done a thread on this about three years ago on the forum
when the previouswners owned thesite before postie had taken over
but there is alot of threads they had to cut out which we do not see no more
i have kept a copy of all the threads on the previous site what i had done enjoy the rest of your day humprey best wishes astonion
 
Hi astonian, it was my mother in law who kept the Bulls Head, she would have taken it over I think around 1972/3 and kept it up until Ansells closed it in 1984 so the new road could be cut. The licensees' prior to her were the Cassidy's. Before Mother in law moved to the Bull she kept the Abbey Tavern just over the road from the Bull. This pub was only a beer house and the strongest drink in the house was a Gold label Barley Wine. Best wishes
 
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If that's in Key Hill...it couldn't have been the cemetery side, and if it was the other side of the road, wouldn't the hill be going UP towards Gt Hampton Street?

Charlie, the image is on the cemetery side, going down the hill towards the Flats, if you enlarge the image you can see the the photo that Wendy kindly supplied of the disused pub on the left at the bottom of the hill, in the other image going up the hill (on the right hand side going up the hill) you can see the trees of the cemetery wall in Cemetery Lane, the old pub would have just been out of view on the left of the image.
 
It's great now you have posted the map I didn't even know there was a Cemetery Lane. I have parked there many times. Thanks for the clarification Dib
 
hi humprey
yes i remember the later two managers of the pub very well and also the other pubs you have mentioned
do you remember the fireman pub and the old joe anna blasting away
the picture of the two pics of key hill when i look at it i am pretty sure it was two ajoing building and it was a ware house for an old well know whole salers whom was there for donkeys years they was a food provision whole salers whom supplied nearly all the grocery shops aroud brum and they had another ware house in steward st around the back of the school
there name at the moment escapes me but they are still listed in theold directorys forat least up to 19578 it was an tumbling down place and they had quite afew lorries or should i say the old vans i knew key hill like the back of my hand like wise with the familys around and also friends
does any body remember the fruit and veg shop and the groombridges john was a mate of mind best wishes astonion
 
Not a very good photo ( i have a better one somewhere ) but you can just make out The Bulls Head on the right, photograph being taken from Lodge Rd. Max
 
hi humprey
yes i do beleive it was brown for years and i think there vans was the big morris comercials
 
Just to add another name to the Pub on the corner of Key Hill and Cemetery Lane from the 1881 census.
See attached extract. The Pub's name was "The Cop". Can anyone substantiate this?
I came across this when researching my ancestry, my surname is Bird.
 
It is certainly called The Cop on the original, but no 20 was on the north side of Key Hill between Hadley St and Hockley hill, ot on a corner.
 
Hi Mike,

I've also found this entry in the 1881 census for my great grandmother Hellan Norman who is living at 20 Bartletts Building Key Hill.
Is this different to the number 20 you've found and 20 Cop Inn Key Hill.
Have you got a street map identifying each address?
Phil
 
Phil
Yes they are different. No 20 , which is the Cop Inn, is, i m pretty sure the red building in the 1889 map below. Bartlett buildings seem only to be shown as an outline, so it is likely that they were still being built when the map was drawn, but are named. To make it clear I have coloured them green. 20 Bartlett buildings is an internal numbering within the buildings ( a bit like Flat 20 in buildings today). The addition of the name (Cop Inn) is helpful to us but entirely dependent on the thoroughness of the enumerator of the census. Often the name is not included.
Mike

mapc1889Keyhillno20.jpg
 
Mike,
Your a genius! I think you have just pin-pointed where my Grandfather was born and where he later lived. My Grandfather's birth certificate of 1889 shows he was born at 20 Bartletts Building Key Hill and his parents, my great grandparents, marriage certificate shows them living at 29 Bartletts Building Key Hill.

The attached map is from about 1860. I've show number 20 in red and 29 in green.

Would you agree that the Bartletts buildings shown on your map could refer to these houses and not buildings not yet built?
Phil
 
Yes Phil . I don’t think they just could be, I think they are. Below is a slightly enlarged version of the 1889 map, which is very similar (almost identical as far as the Bartlett buildings houses are concerned) to your 1860 one. I have filled in some of the un-numbered Bartlett Buildings numbers. It was the placing of the name on the map that fooled me. I have found a directory reference to Bartlett buildings being after no 4 Key hill, which would fit in exactly with this layout.
As a matter of interest, what is the source of your interesting map ?
Mike
PS When reposting my map, i have also reposted Phils map from #25 below

mapc1889bartlettsbuildingsKeyhill.jpg


key20hill1860.jpg
 
Thanks Mike,
Knowing exactly where a distant relative lived is very satisfying. All I need now is a photo of Bartletts Buildings.

I've searched my records but I can't find where I got the 1860 map from. I assumed I got it from BHF but I've re-visited my threads and I can't find any reference to it, sorry. If I remember I'll let you know.

By the way do you have any more information on "The Cop Inn", are you satisfied it is number 20 on the north side of Key Hill?
Phil
 
Phil
There was a pub at 20 Key Hill from at least 1867 (but apparently not 1862) till about 1897 (1899 it is not listed in Kellys) . The 1881 census lists the name (The Cop) , the 1891 puts it in, but then heavily crosses it out (but it looks like the same name ), and thew 1871 lists him as a publican, but does not name the pub. The position of the pub I am faitly sure of, as the building on the corner of the street to the left of it on the map (Hadley St) is no 23, and the numbering is going from right to left.
mike
 
Phil
There was a pub at 20 Key Hill from at least 1867 (but apparently not 1862) till about 1897 (1899 it is not listed in Kellys) . The 1881 census lists the name (The Cop) , the 1891 puts it in, but then heavily crosses it out (but it looks like the same name ), and thew 1871 lists him as a publican, but does not name the pub. The position of the pub I am faitly sure of, as the building on the corner of the street to the left of it on the map (Hadley St) is no 23, and the numbering is going from right to left.
mike

Hi Mike,
I've only got a record of the 1881 census for 20 Key Hill Cop Inn as shown on my previous post. You mention the 1871 and 1891 census and I was wondering if you could post a copy of these?

Who do they say is living there? My interest is either John Bird, born about 1867, or a Thomas Bird his father.
Phil
 
I humprey
yes i can recall your dear old mother inlaw at the pub as it was one of our pub runs nightly
and the gold label barley wines was one of my medicatis to get sober which i used to buy at the continental club soho rd handsworth
at 3 oclock in the morning supping it slowly and by the time six oclock came around i was sobber to go to work at averys scales
at 7 30 in the morning before my uncle bill seen me as we both worked in he same work shop
for some reason the pub did not put a inside toilets for the men it was always out side a very victorian one
with no lighting and no shelter either so you stood in the rain doing your bussines it was worst in the winter with the snow and ice and i am sure it was never washed down there was always an oeder and you had to hold your breat but we did play darts there as well for the team
best wishes astonian
 
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