Recent content by Mark Wilson

There was one 'Monkey Run 'near Abbey Road Bearwood.

This is a saying my mom still occasionally uses. It has been talked about on a You Tube channel recently, where two women from the US 'react' to a Black Country interview. Obviously when rain clouds are building. My mom 'bay a Brummie', being a Black Country woman , from West Brom, but I'm sure...

It is fantastic to see it. It is aligned West to East, as you may work out from the geographic layout. I took a photo of this section in Warwick Museum. This map covers a lot of what is now the West Midlands. It goes as far north as Stafford. I will try and get to the Bodleian to see the other...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_tapestries

Has anyone come across this before? This is 1 of 4 woven Tapestry Maps commissioned by Ralph Sheldon for his house in Weston, Warks. They were produced in the late 1580s. This has North Warwickshire on it (East Brum/Solihull ). They were originally 4 of these woven together , but they got split...

I'm interested in the area known as Smith's Wood (areas 10-13). I wondered if anyone on the Forums had any old photographs; preferably the area prior to the estates being built, but it would be good to see some photos in the 70s & 80s too. I know the pubs have all but gone bar 2 (Toby &...

It does go back to the Middle Ages (1447 as pointed out) and the Bacons were landed Lords in the Manor of Coleshill. The Dugdale Society records of Coleshill book, published in 2019 has these records. The area which we know as Bacons End, was the south westerly limit of their land owning. It...

Yes, it did on matchdays. I think it did through the week as there are a lot of warehouses and factories nearby- or at least there were in the 1980s & 90s. So I think business was better away from matchday too.

Yes, on a crawl last year around Oldbury there was live music in two of 5 pubs and we probably walk 1.5 miles in between first and last pub. The Est Brum/North Solihull area around Kingshurst and Chelmsley Wood is a desert, for pubs, let alone good pubs.

Ha ha! There does seem to be a difference in the Black Country, where quite a fe wlocal pubs are doing fairly well. Cultural difference, maybe? . I am from Tipton, but live in Solihull now and lived in Chelmsley Wood until a few years ago. In that part of the world, as I pointed out, there are...

This is a pretty historic thread going back 16 years! I lived in Chelmsley Road for a few years and the Greenwood seemed to be the only pub in that side of the Wood. But I can say that the area has lost a lot, as many on the thread will know. Myself and a few friends have been having 'First...

Yes, Lyn, very sad to see it gone. Like I say, I'm not sure it was the original building, but possibly was and would have been extended or partially rebuilt. Probably easy enough to find out.

I'm not sure if this is the original building as it looks like a 20/30s construction. The Albion bought it off the Brewery and it was demolished in 2004. I'm an Albion fan and I often went in there pre or post match in the 80s and 90s. A sad loss really, many fans wanted it incorporated into the...

I think that the Punchbowl closed around 2 years back and the site is now empty as the building was demolished in early 2023. It is a shame as there are no pubs close by, bar the Toby Jug, just inside the parish boundary. As an aside, myself and a few friends have been having 'First Friday'...