Phil
Gone, but not forgotten.
The Golden Lion Inn is a Grade II listed building built around 1520 and is described thus, “The timber frame of the two-storey inn is filled with plaster and the ground floor is faced with brick. The main facade features three gables above herring-bone studding, a painted pub sign (1725) (photo1) and two rows of early 18th century casement windows; there are two early 18th century bay windows on the ground floor and two original unglazed wing lights on the first floor. (Photo 2)
The building had in its time been used for housing for the clergy of nearby St John’s Church, a schoolhouse and of course an Inn. Someone who may have taught at the school was John Rogers born in Deritend who worked on translating the bible into English and was burnt at the stake in 1555 at Smithfield for his protestant beliefs by Queen Mary
The building was dismantled and removed from its original position on Deritend High Street over 1910/11 by Birmingham Archaeology Society because it was in danger of demolition due to modernisation and road alterations it was purchased by the Society and offered to the parks department. It was gratefully accepted and the Society then had it reconstructed in its present position. (photo3)
Sadly it seems that Birmingham Council in 1911 had a different attitude than today, because it seems that after the building was listed in 1952 there has been very little maintenance work to it, and it has been allowed to fall into that bad a state it has been fenced off from the public and support scaffold fixed to help keep it standing but I note no protective scaffold or covering to protect it from the weather. There have been talks on and off over the last few years on removing it back to near its original site in Deritend, but I fear it will be a load of rubble before that happens.
Phil
The building had in its time been used for housing for the clergy of nearby St John’s Church, a schoolhouse and of course an Inn. Someone who may have taught at the school was John Rogers born in Deritend who worked on translating the bible into English and was burnt at the stake in 1555 at Smithfield for his protestant beliefs by Queen Mary
The building was dismantled and removed from its original position on Deritend High Street over 1910/11 by Birmingham Archaeology Society because it was in danger of demolition due to modernisation and road alterations it was purchased by the Society and offered to the parks department. It was gratefully accepted and the Society then had it reconstructed in its present position. (photo3)
Sadly it seems that Birmingham Council in 1911 had a different attitude than today, because it seems that after the building was listed in 1952 there has been very little maintenance work to it, and it has been allowed to fall into that bad a state it has been fenced off from the public and support scaffold fixed to help keep it standing but I note no protective scaffold or covering to protect it from the weather. There have been talks on and off over the last few years on removing it back to near its original site in Deritend, but I fear it will be a load of rubble before that happens.
Phil
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