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Illey Fields Pub

goldy

goldy

proper brummie kid
Hi Y'all,
I was recently reminiscing with another ex-pat Brummie about some of the pubs that I used to visit when I lived in Kings Norton in the 1970's.
For some reason or other this pub sprang to my mind, but my mate (who used to live in Northfield) just couldn't recall the name.
As far as I recall it was located in a housing estate that had several multi-story blocks of flats. The district was somewhere around the borders of Northfield, Weoley Castle, Frankley, or Woodgate - I just cannot remember the exact place!
Can anyone please confirm that the place did/does in fact exist (plus any other details) - I have searched the Interweb, but cannot find a trace of the place, other than Illey Lane, Bartley Green.
Many Thanks:)
 
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Thank you very much for your rapid responses pjmburns & brummy-lad.
However, B17 is a bit out of the area that I had in mind and delving into the depths of my (albeit ageing) memory, my recollection is that the pub was a typical 70's housing estate pub i.e More or less single storey, built basically from concrete with some brick and wood cladding and was on a side street off a main road. (Bell Lane/Shenley Lane???)
I'm as sure as I can be that the name of the pub was Illey Fields, rather than Hilly Fields.
I hope this may be of some help
 
Hi CliveF,
I did a search for this pub and came across a really interesting website : closedpubs.co.uk.
This has a pic of the Merritts Brook pub, but it doesn't look like the building I remember, and it certainly wasn't on a roundabout. (Pity no mention of the 'Illey Fields' pub though! And, quite sad to see many of the watering holes that I used to frequent no longer exist.))
Still, thanks for your response.
Perhaps the 'Illey Fields' phrase stuck in my brain and the pub was actually a different name? After all, it was something like 50 years ago!
Tempus fugit.......
Cheers
 
The description of being on a housing estate with lots of blocks of flats and being single-storey matches up with the old Athol Social club that was on Monmouth Drive, off Cromwell Lane. It has long since gone - been replaced by a "neighbourhood office" and the surrounding high-rise flats have also gone. At its height of popularity, the place had a distinct "pub" feel and people used to come from all over to visit it, including quite a "young" crowd. When the group of residents who had originally raised the money to build it got older and it passed into other management it went downhill and eventually closed. I wonder if that is the place you could be remembering?

I should add that for its weekend "discos" you didn't need to be a member, or even be signed in by a member, there was just a small charge (50p) on the door. It was at the peak of its popularity in the mid to late 1970s. - What3words location fluid.flight.trim. - Just checked and the neighbourhood office has long since closed but the building still stands (although heavily vandalised). The neighbourhood office building was not the Athol social club building, although it was built on the same "footprint". The Athol Social club was a single-storey building.
 
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When a lad, I lived in Hasbury Road Bartley Green, and every Sunday summer and winter, my dad would walk us all to the Black Horse at Iley, I don't remember any other pub, as a wayward youth I did like to drink, and visited most pubs in the area detailed in #1. Cannot recall a pub of that name. !!
 
pjmburns said:
From Sunday Mercury Dec 1988
Athol Social club as named in post # 8
Not very good but...
View attachment 181243
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting the picture - very evocative. I had no idea it had fallen into disuse as early as 1988. It was a real shame, because it was started with the best of intentions, to be a youth club for the Athol Farm estate as well as providing a community hub. For a couple of years it was just that - it had a side room with ping-pong tables and a "junior disco" on Monday nights. For the older residents of the estate it provided a place to meet up and play cards and dominos. They used to organize coach outings to the seaside which were very popular. Then it became more of a "workings man" club with cabarets at the weekend. Then it started to attract a younger set, especially at weekends. It began to get a bit of a reputation for being rowdy, the summer nights when the fair was on Senneleys Park were particularly notorious. The residents nearby started to complain about the noise levels and parking became an issue with cars parked up on Monmouth Road at weekends. The "old guard" who had started the centre with the best of intentions gave way to a new set who just wanted it as a cheap place to drink. It became known for its "lock-ins". A lot of the "old guard" got themselves membership at the nearby Bartley Green sailing club (even though they never set foot in a sailing boat in their life) and used that instead.

A couple of pubs not far away had a very similar "look and feel" to the Athol Social club. Although not single-storey the way they were built gave the impression they were single-storey when you walked into them (both had the landlord accommodation built in a smaller block on top of the pub). Both had flats or tower blocks nearby. One is the Highlander at Bangham Pit at the top of Ley Hill, still going strong although the blocks of flats that used to face it have long since gone. The other is the Woodcock at the corner of Moors Lane and Hillwood Road, still standing and used as a children's nursery. I wonder if the attributes of all three might have merged into one in memory? Especially if visited one after another on a pub crawl. I remember the Woodcock of the 1970s as more of an "Old Man's" pub. Whereas in the 70s the Highlander was widely regarded as a pub to be avoided because of a perceived connection to the "Ley Hill Mob" - although that was probably unfounded.
 
For Ref: Aerial view of part of the Athol Farm Estate showing the Athol Social Club and the Tower blocks that used to surround it. - I'd guess this is about 1980. What looks like a second floor on the rear of the club is just a raised roof over the main room.
 

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