Sorry this is lengthy. I have edited it from my 'Castle Bromwich in the reign of George III ' published as a booklet by the Chelmsley Local History Society in 1977. I used the Bradford/Bridgeman archive at Staffordshire County Record Office.
VILLAGE INNS
At different times four inns are mentioned in the records - White Lion Inn (later New Bradford Arms Inn), Bridgeman Arms Inn (later Bradford Arms Inn), Castle Inn and the Coach and Horses. Although we might expect them to be prosperous throughout our period as Castle Bromwich was situated on a major trunk route, in fact many changes in them reflect a far from stable inn trade.
In the 1770s all four inns were probably open for business, the major inn being the Bridgeman Arms near the Hall. However, the estate records only mention two by name, the Coach and Horses and White Lion. The absence of any reference to the Castle Inn is not surprising as it was not part of the Bradford estate. Between 1769 and 1791 James Knight was the tenant of the White Lion Inn for which he paid £55 in rent at first but by 1791 this had increased to £76. For this he occupied the Inn and its adjoining farm buildings, garden, bowling green and fields. Twice a year Knight entertained the Bridgeman tenants on the days when their rent was due to be paid. Disaster struck James Knight in 1791. That year the estate accounts stated….
"James Knight failed and his stock etc were sold for the benefit of his creditors soon after Lady Day 1791 when his farm was divided. The House (White Lyon Inn), Gardens and two meadows could not be let to advantage for this year".
We gain various insights into the Inn in 1791 from the sale notice previously quoted .
Castle Bromwich
"To be sold by auction on the premises by Thomas Warren and Son on Monday 20th June and the two following days, all the Household Furniture, Linen, Plate, Brewing Vessels etc of Mr. James Knight at the White Lion Inn in Castle Bromwich, consisting of several four post bedsteads with various linen and stuff hangings; 21 fine Goose and common Feather Beds, mattresses, blankets and bed-quilts; 28 pairs of sheets, sundry damask and diaper table linen, pier and dressing glasses; great variety of good cabinet furniture, two eight day clocks, a considerable assortment of china and glass-ware; kitchen furniture of all kinds; a hogshead CopperFurnace, a smaller Ditto, mash tubs, coolers and iron bound casks of numerous sizes, dairy utensils and an extensive variety of other articles".
The number of beds provided was around 28 so the White Lion was a large coaching inn for long distance travellers. The Inn closed down in 1791 and its pewter sign was removed. According to Hitchcock the extensive buildings became 'White Lion Tenements' and, some of them remained a farm for several years.
The first mention of the Coach and Horses in the estate records is January 1776 when Pearson and Rollason were paid a bill for advertising the inn to be let. From late 1776 to the autumn of 1777 nearly £80 worth of building work and repairs were carried out. About this time William Ward took over the Coach and Horses as a tenant of the Bridgeman estate. It also appears that the inn was a busy centre where post-chaises could be hired and an hostler was employed.
Mysteriously the Coach and Horses is not referred to again, either in the estate records or in the key to Hitchcock's map of 1802. From the Hitchcock map it is likely that the Coach and Horses was one of the six dwellings owned by Mrs. Thornton on the edge of Seven Acre Green.
In 1787 James Barton became the tenant of Bridgeman Arms Inn. The rentals for that year comment that ' the Inn has been untenanted about three years'. Although there must have been considerable competition within the village for the coaching trade it is surprising that this important property should remain unoccupied for so long.
The new tenant prospered enough to take over the White Lion property in 1793 although at was no longer an inn. The presence of blacksmithing facilities on the premises gives some hint of the importance of the Bridgeman Arms as a coaching inn. William Hawkes Smith writing in 1836 has commented on one aspect of the trade of inns like the Bridgeman Arms and the White Lion.
"....the Birmingham manufacturer or merchant, instead of selecting a conveyance for his goods from among a numerous body of competitors, was want to send his packages to Castle Bromwich, there to await the vehicle which should convey them towards London or Chester as the case may be".
The Castle Inn (described as on alehouse in the 1775 court roll) receives no mention at all in the estate records but we learn from the Hitchcock map that this inn was owned by Samuel Thornton in 1802 and James Smith was the tenant. There does survive, however, a valuable document of one aspect of life at the Castle Inn – namely the Castle Bromwich Friendly Society.
Let us now return to the other inns of the village. The 1813-1820 period saw great changes in this aspect of the village scene. In 1813 James Barton was still the tenant of the Bridgeman Arms Inn. Its name could have changed by then to the Bradford Arms Inn as a belated recognition of the Bradford baronetcy of 1794. On the other hand the nane could have changed with the creation of Orlando Bridgeman, Earl of Bradford, on November 30, 1815. In 1814 or 1815 Joseph Bridgewood took over the 'Bradford Arms Inn’ and with it the job of arranging the entertainment on rent days. At this time the White Lion is described as 'White Lion Farm’.
Sometime during 1817 Joseph Bridgewood applied to Lord Bradford for a decrease in his rent ‘partly on account of the times and the slack business of the Inn’. Lord Bradford agreed to a decrease of £52, the new rent being £260. But by Lady Day 1818 bad trade must have been too much for Bridgewood for he gave up the Inn to start the train of events which led to "major changes” in the local inn trade. The 1820 accounts contain the infomation below which gives several clues as to the changes.
"Paid Zachariah Twamley the difference between the valuation of furniture and fixtures at the time Joseph Bridgewood quitted the Inn at Lady Day 1818 and what they were sold by auction for at Michaelmas 1819 when it was shut up.
N.B. No eligible tenant could be found to immediately succeed Joseph Bridgewood at Lady Day 1818. Mr Twamley purchased the fixtures and furniture and kindly undertook to keep the Inn open so as to retain its custom in the hope of meeting with a good tenant, but none offered until it was decided that the old Inn should be shut up and that formerly the White Lion opened in its stead, and, as this was done without view to profit on Mr Twamley’s part it was thought proper that he should be indemnified against any loss by taking the fixtures and furniture which has turned out as stated above."
The same set of accounts also state...
"Paid Zachariah Twamley for fixtures left at the Old Bradford Arms Inn at Michaelmas 1819 when that house was shut up”
We have details of the 1819 sale at the (old) Bradford Arms Inn from Aris's Birmingham Gazette…
Castle Bromwich
SALE OF HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, BEER MACHINE, SEASONED CASKS ETC.
To be sold by AUCTION on the premises, by Henry Jacob, on Tuesday and Wednesday 19th and 20th October, all the neat and genuine Household Furniture and Effects at the Bradford Arms Inn, at Castle Bromwich, comprising Mahogany and Oak Eour-Post and Tester Bedsteads, with Moreen and printed cotton Hangings, good Feathcr Beds, Mattress, Blankets, Sheets and Counterpanes, Damask Table Linen, Floor and Bedside carpets, handsome Pier and Dressing Glasses, Mahogany and Walnut double and single Chests of Drawers, Basin Stands, Mahogany Dining, Pembroke, Card and Pillar Tables, neat Mahogany chairs, strong Ash Chairs etc. with the usual articles of Kitchen Furniture, Pewter Measures, plated Tankards and Cups, Glass and Earthenware, a three motioned Beer Machine, with extra piping, a 300 gallon Ale Cask, several seasoned Hogsheads, half Hogsheads and snaller barrels etc. etc. The Sale to begin each day at half past 10 o'clock”.
Overall, the Inn appears to have been a high-class coaching Inn.
These changes led to a great deal of building and repair work. Between October 1818 and October 1819 the Estate paid about £1075 for repairs and alterations at the "New Bradford Arms Inn" i.e. the 'White Lion Farm’. The accounts sometimes also call it the "Castle Bromwich New Inn". This figure, it should be noted, is only an estimate because bills paid to workmen for repairs often also relate to work done elsewhere on the Bradford Estate.
The Old Bradford Arms Inn, i.e. the former Bridgeman Arms Inn continued to trade until Michaelmas 1819 thanks to the public-spirited help of Zachariah Twamley. One of his busiest days must have been July 24th 1819 as the accounts show …..
October l 1819 Paid Zachariah Twamley for treating the tenants on the 24th July last in commemoration of Lord Viscount Newport having a son and heir born on the 24th April 1819
The new Bradford heir was to become the Third Earl, Orlando Bridgeman,.who married Lady Selina Forester in 1844. The tenants had turned out for a sadder occasion in 1800. Sir Henry Bridgeman, the first Earl, died in London and on Friday June 13th his funeral procession left for Weston via Dunstable and Daventry. We learn that ........
"At Castle Bronwich the tenants (omitting cottagers and very small tenants) were awaiting the hearse about a mile from the village, hat bands and gloves being distributed according to custom. They afterwards attended the corpse to the Inn (Bridgeman Arms) where Refreshments, usual on such occasions, were provided for them".
After the old Inn had been shut up in 1819 a great deal of repair work took place, costing about £450 in the following year. During 1820 Zachariah Twamey was able to give up the Inn, although he retained the lands that went with it, because a new tenant had been found for the New Bradford Arms Inn - Joseph Lees. Within three years the old Inn had been re-let. Five different tenants took over ‘a house part of the old Inn", "a cottage part of the old Inn, two stables and a part of the Inn used as a Farrier's shop. The Bridgeman Arms Inn itself later became a private school and is now a private house called'Wayside'.
