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The Custard House Blake Lane

dek carr

gone but not forgotten
The Custard House Blake Lane

The Custard House was this it,s real name we used to have some great Saturday nights in the upstairs room back in the early 60s. Dek:cool::cool:
 
Sorry Len don,t know why i put St instead of Lane i wondered about the name bit strange for a pub. Dek
 
The Custard House was this it,s real name we used to have some great Saturday nights in the upstairs room back in the early 60s. Dek:cool::cool:

Yep, real name. Used to be a custard apple orchard on the site I think.

Not, as is commonly beleived because of a connection with Bob Monkeyhouse. who's grandad founded, birds and monkhouse custard, and I think maybe actually invented custard powder.

EDIT..Sorry should be Monk & Glass.
 
Re: The Custard House, Blake Lane

Please see following post. db84124
 
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Re: The Custard House, Blake Lane

I'm very sorry, fatfingers, but I beg to differ on your theory of the orchard.
Attached is a map of the Blake Lane area of Bordesley Green of 1890. One can see that the Custard House - which is halfway down, or up, Blake Lane on the eastern side - was then called the Custard House Tavern.
If you now look at the corner of Green Lane, Blake Lane, Hobmoor Road and Yardley Green Road, on the corner between the last two named roads, you will see a building which was called Custard House. I very much imaging that the tavern - and consequently the pub - took its name from the original Custard House.
Has anyone got any information on the 1890 building?
Might it be just possible that the name is a corruption due to local pronunciation of Customs House? Only a theory. I can't for the life of me imagine why a customs house would be out in the wilds of what was then Warwickshire. db84124

Blake_Lane_1890_28b29.gif
 
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The Custard House, Blake Lane

The_Custard_House.jpg



That's the one, John. Just 50 yards up the road from where I lived between August 1957 and September 1967.
Hope you're well, David
 
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Re: The Custard House, Blake Lane

Definitely remember reading somewhere that the custard house was connected with an orchard, possibly my mistake for thinkint that it reffered to the pub, I wasnt aware of the other building. So maybe half right eh ?

I also remember hearing more than once that the custard house was bob monkhouses grandfathers home; Although, according to his autobiography, which I read years ago, his grandfather did invent custard powder,and did live in the area.
 
Mike

It's not very often that I disagree with you but, Alfred bird might have invented an eggless custard so his wife was able to eat it, but I thought custard was around for a long time prior to that.

Phil
 
.... So why, gentlemen, was that building between Yardley Green Road and Hobmoor Road shown on an 1890 map of Bordesley Green given the name "Custard House"? Is it just possible that the wealthy scientist cum businessman who invented Bird's Custard - because his wife was allergic to eggs - with a factory in Gibb Street, Digbeth had a "country house" at the eastern end of Green Lane?
Any other suggestions or backing for my theory would be warmly welcomed. David (ex-Blakelanian)
 
Sorry Phil, I should have said that Alfred Bird invented Custard powder (which contained no eggs and was thus quicker to make and cheaper, being largely cornflour).
Mike
 
Re: The Custard House Blake Lane

Mikejee, being one of the most prolific contributors as far as commercial interests are concerned, could you not - through your vast knowledge of directories - throw some light on the mysterious original Custard House? Was it ever registered in one of your reference books as having belonged to a certain Sir Alfred Frederick Bird - who would have been 41 years old when the map was published – and who could quite easily have lived in the semi-rural area which Green Lane – as its very name implies – was in 1890? It should be listed at the very beginning of either Yardley Green Road or Hobmoor Road. David
 
The address of Alfred Bird in 1891 was

BIRD, Alfred F Address: The Firs, Alcester Road, Kings Norton, Moseley

I suppose its possible that he could have lived at a Custard House, but somehow I dont think so.

Terry



His household in 1891
BIRD, Alfred FHeadMarriedM411850Manufacturer Of Food Product
BIRD, Eleanor FWifeMarriedF381853
BIRD, Robert BSonM141877Scholar
BIRD, GeoffreySonM131878Scholar
BIRD, OliverSonM111880Scholar
BIRD, Dorothy FDaughterF91882Scholar
BIRD, Christopher ASonM61885Scholar
BIRD, LelsieSonM41887
BIRD, Eleanor MDaughterF31888
JENKINS, MaryHousemaidSingleF291862Domestic Servant
GREGORY, MaryCookSingleF301861Domestic Servant
COOPER, Elizabeth AHousemaidSingleF201871Domestic Servant
 
Thanks, terryb18, very useful information. Have you any means of carrying out an inverted research, i.e. finding out who lived in a house which could possibly have been numbered - no idea when numbering was introduced - 1 or 2, Hobmoor Road or 1 or 2, Yardley Green Road? I am assuming the two roads already bore their present names.
By the way, I believe BIRD, Christopher A(lfred) Son M 61885 Scholar set the record time for pedalling from Land's End to John O'Groats by tricycle that is unbroken to this day.
David
 
David
“Commercial interests “ – sounds like you think I’m some sort of Lobbyist !!. It looks like the custard house was demolished between 1888 and 1890. The 1890 date on the map is the publication date, and the survey was probably done 1885-87.
In 1888 it is in hobmoor road was occupied by ;
Badger Rev. Williams Collins M.A.[chaplain of St. John's Church,Deritend]
In 1883-4 the above person is listed as living at the Laurels, Yardley road (now Yardley Green road), but it is the first house , and so I am pretty sure that it is the same house, but listed on a different road (being about on the corner of the two roads). In 1880 the area is not included in the Birmingham directory (at least the streets are not listed separately.) Rerv Badger is still in charge at St Johns, but he is not listed in the private addresses.
So it looks as if it was only called the custard house for a very short time, for some reason. It is possible that Alfred Bird supported the church , as it was close to his factory.
Incidently in 1880 Alfred Bird is listed as living at Park villa , Alcester road. He disappears after 1884

mike
 
Re: The Custard House Blake Lane

Yes Mike, re-reading it I should have expressed myself more 'eloquently'. I have nearly always noted your name alongside reams of information about shops, businesses and companies. I was asking information about a private address; I used commercial as a synonym of trading, i.e. shops, businesses and companies. I hope I didn't embarrass or annoy you.
Thanks very much for the information. Having such a broad and deep interest in Brummagem's local history, could you offer a personal explanation of this weird name for a pub? David
 
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