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The Royal Oak, Barn Road

Brummiebell

master brummie
Hello, wonder if anyone can help me. I just found a electoral roll from 1925 which lists my great Aunt Rose as living at a public house in Barn Road Deritend with her husband Henry Grubham however I can't work out if the pub is called the Rose and Crown or the Royal Oak as it says both on the paperwork. Please could someone who knows more about this than me tell me which is correct and if anyone knows if it is still standing or there is a picture I would be so grateful. It was listed as nos 1 and two so must have been quite big? Many thanks Maria
 
maria the transcription which can be wrong says the rose and crown but on the actual electoral register it says the royal oak so i would be inclined to go with that one...however a kellys directory look up would prove conclusive if there was a royal oak in barn st

lyn
 
I presume that you got the electoral roll from Ancestry. although I hav eancestry, I always find the ones available at https://www.midlandshistoricaldata.org/ better. That site only gives Royal Oak. In fact it was the Royal Oak and the building is now a cafe, and can be seen below

old_royal_oak__barn_st_c2014.jpg
 
To Lynn and Mike

Thank you both so much that is fantastic, the only thing I could come up with was the Crown which was in High street so I was going round in circles, I will take a look at the site you mention. How wonderful that it is still there, I must go and visit it when I next get to Birmingham. It still really looks like a pub too and it also looks like its the only building left standing. Thank you so much, I have been looking for information on my Great Aunt and her family for so long (they are a bit of a family mystery) and now it all arrives at once.
Regards Maria
 
HI BLUEBELL AND LYN AND MIKE
It was a pub from the start and yes it was the royal oak way back in 1955 and a year or two later it closed and openend up as
cafe as i recall it as way back in the late fifty it chang to a cafe
i can recall it as my grand parents ran the coffee shop two blocks up on the corner of bordesly street
ajoining tphoo tea factory and i used to walk there dog down and around the streets passing it
and i was surprized it closed down and openend up as a cafe and many years later you tell me its a pub again
but i can assure you it start in life was a pub called the oak pub and i know in the sixty the cafe was up and running and it
a one door exit into the premises for the cafe at the time and it was painted blue
i beleive it could have been late fifty that changed but for years gone bye its statred as the oak pub
and i worked around the corner just on the corner of trent street as an electro plater
my grand parents and mother lived there in the thirtys and forys until 1955 it was a pub before the cafe and obvisiouly
changed back to a pub best wishes Astonian Alan;;;;;;
 
Thank you for that info Alan, I wonder how long my Aunt and her husband ran it for and if they were there until 1955, have you ever heard of the Grubhams by any chance? He went by the name Grubham and they had children one of which, a little girl, was involved in an accident involving a dart and lost an eye. Just on the odd chance that you may have heard something about it. They may well have moved on by the time it closed, I did hear that Harry ran a pub in the centre of Birmingham called the old contemptible or such. But thank you so much for the information.Best wishes Maria
 
Hi mari
sorry i cannot help with the surname because my mother died afew years back and my grand parents died in 1969
they knew virtualy most people especialy in and around the area of digbeth and city centre and around erdington and more
so of aston going back years from there young days and they was connected to the birmingham city council in those days fr
from the early days when it was known as bush house and of course digbeth police station and the courts
on the subject of the old comtempibles pub some old friends of mine in the trade ran it many years later
i know if they was alive they would have known them and the story of the little girl and thats for sure
best wishes astonian,,
 
The online electoral rolls (which only list selected years, list Henry John Grubham in 1920, 1922 & 1925. In 1927 it is an Arthur Bishop. In 1930 there is a Henry Grubham, who I suspect was the same, at The Fountain , 368 Victoria Road
 
I know this isn't your family but in 1950 the Royal Oak is listed to Alfred Godfrey so your Aunt definitely wasn't there then. In 1939 a (Mrs) Rose Grubham is listed in Kelly's directory as running a coffee house at 38 and 39 Miles Street. By 1940 I can't see her listed at all. The 1950 electoral roll lists a family (Henry, Rose, Betty and Hilda) at 56 Farmer Road.

Janice
 
Hello Janice, Mile and Astonian, thank you so much for all your help in my search, I am learning so many new pieces of Rose and Harry's life. It looks as if I can almost plot their lives via the various pubs and establishments they ran throughout Birmingham. I certainly didn't know that Rose ran a coffee house so will check that out and I have just found an entry for Albert Grubham, their son who ran a pub I believe called the Station Inn at 72 Saltley road so it looks like there are three generations of Publicans in the family. My husband is getting really excited at the idea of a pub crawl visiting all their old establishments. A lot of these pubs look like they are close by to other family addresses too such as bloomsbury street and cato street so I wonder if some of the branches of our family actually met up at their pubs. My Nan once mentioned to my brother that she and my grandad used to go for a drink with Rose and Harry, this would have been before they had a huge falling out and the Grubham's were never to be spoken of again for some reason. Maybe they used to visit one of the pubs we have found. I must get hold of an old map of Birmingham and plot all the various addresses on it to see who was living were and when. I am in the process of writting a family history novel at present and it would be lovely to include some mentions of Rose and Harry in amongst it all. Thank you all so much for your help, it is facinating. Ps Janice re the family you mention Rose and Harry didn't have any daughters called Betty and Hilda as far as I know, just Gladys but I will take a look, you never know. Regards Maria
 
Hi maria
There is every chance that they did do that visting them in there pubs that what of publicans still do today visting each other
Either on there day off or go after hours and have a meet up like we used to do
On the subject of the station pub saltley road it was about half mile along the road from cato street and bloombury street
so it was walking distance from there
I do not know whether you was or are familiar with saltly road but the old station pub was more or less facing old crawford street
and at that period there was three pubs very close to each other out of the old three pubs of yester years there is one remaining today
and out of the thre the station was the first of the three under the cleareance of saltley
it was over the viaduct heading towards alum rock way and it would have ben about one hundred yards from the washwood heath road corner
sorry at the moment i just cannot think of this remaing pub on the corner of crawford street as i do not go that way as i left brum
to live but i do travel to brum to my bussines i run in tyseley
and regarding bloomsbury street my grand fathers brother ran a coffee shop down there as well it would be intresting to find out where rose ran a coffee
shop as well ;and i can tell you are correct with your story about the little girl looseing her eye throgh a dart in her eye but where
excatly it happenend may be it was at the station pub or cato street or bloomsbury street
and not far from there that station pub on saltley rd was another station pub about a mile away up the adderly road a block or two
On the adderly park rd railway station that was called the Adderly park hotel pub,
It is a pity that about ten years ago on this forum we had a picture of the station pub on saltley rd alon wih the batch of shops that was there
they knocked down the station pub and the ajoing shops and the pub had a GPO red telephone box right out side its doors
it was next to the cannal that runs along side the old gas works and still runs across the main saltleyroad today
in its place when knocking down the pub it was a probation office that lasted for about two years i think then they decide to build a huge industreal estate
that went far back and around to he washwood heath rd you never know some one may still have the picture of the pub and the few shops that was along it to the corner of wahwood heath road good luck with your book best wishes Astonian;;
 
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