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Pub Names

  • Thread starter Thread starter glaciermint
  • Start date Start date
Bob

Whilst researching "The Vine" for your other thread I came across these two local names for two Aston pubs. Anybody got any idea why?

The first one is The Royal Oak (Bosted Boot)

The second one is our old friend The Vine (The Clock)

With the second one straight away you think, Ah! they had a large clock outside on the wall. Only looking at the photo's we have gathered old and new I see no clock.

Phil
 
Unfortunately not Phil but I'll keep my eyes and ears open though I'm sure somebody reading this might know. Its funny but although I started this thread looking for the derivation of the proper pub names these nicknames are just as interesting , if not more so

Bob
 
Bob, I have been told this story but can't verify it about The Custard House, in Bordesley Green. Apparently the family of a WW1 soldier promised him when he got back he would have a slap up dinner and pudding with custard, I don't know whether the family lived at the pub or not, but I'm told whatever its original name it was changed to the Custard House.

My own thoughts were that its name was somehow connected to Bird's custard.
 
A pub called 'the Vampire' used to be in Great Hampton Street, Newtown. Any ideas how this unusual name came about?

I don't know when it was built but 'Dracula' was published in 1897 and started a craze for the supernatural and all things involving ghosts and ghoulies so perhaps the brewery were just cashing in on a trend. Anybody ever heard or read anyhting?

pic attached - at least a real vampire would have plenty to feed on
 

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Doh! Why didn't I think of that? Mind you it doesn't seem as if the reason behind the name is recorded. Much more exciting than the 'Red Lion' or 'White Swan' though don't you think

Bob
 
Phil,
I think "The Vine" that stood on the corner of Newtown Row and Theodore Street had a clock on wall above the door that was on the corner of these two streets.
Maurice.
 
Wouldn't recommend anyone of a sensitive disposition googling "vampire pub". Seems ( insofar as my non-withit brain can understand) to be associated with some rather peculiar online practices:skull::skull:

mike
 
Sylvia, I've done a bit of checking on Custard House though I have limited literature so this will benefit from some embelishment.
1. I can't substantiate the post WW1 change of name but I'm sure somebody reading this can check a Kelly's pre and post war for Blake Lane to see if there was a change of name.
2. I had also thought it must be in some way connected with Alfred Bird like the Custard Factory but I think that's just a coincidence. Although Alfred Bird developed an egg free powdered version, custard had been made since the middle ages, perhaps even back to Roman times. The word custard derives from 'crustade' meaning tart with a crust which is how custard was traditionally used what we would now call a custard pie.
3. I understand that in the early 19th century near the site of the present pub there was a Custard House Farm in the district of Little Bromwich (this name for the district doesn't seem to be used much these days does it?). It seems almost certain then that the pub was named directly after the farm
4. So why was it called Custard House farm in the first place? Perhaps the farm building had originally been used as a Custard manufactury. The term Custard House is obviously of great antiquity because if you look at Joseph Hill's conjectural map of Birmingham in 1553 (survey of Birmingham in 1553 by Bickley & Hill) you will find Custard House Lane. This was not in the Little Bromwich area but off what became Bell Barn Road, probably near what is now Ryland Road off Lee Bank. On Kempson's map of Birmingham 1810 the Custard House is marked as such on that site.

In summary I'm sure the pub name was given simply because it was on or near the site of an earlier Custard House (whatever that was)

Bob
 
hi bob. brillient photo of the vampire gt hampton street. im just trying to figure out where about on the street it was situated. bet you have noticed it was run by holts brewery. which leads me to think that the vine inn (also holts) was probably situated around that area. (well maybe) wales.
 
Dangerous assumption!! Like the other Aston breweries such as Ansells, Atkinsons, Fred Smiths etc they had plenty of pubs outside the Birmingham boundary, especially into the Black country. The Vine is obviously a 'bogey' for us name but somebody will come up trumps sooner or later.

Bob
 
Bob

I can confirm from the 1903 Kelly's directory that there was a Custard House PH in Blake Lane prior to WW1.

There was a Custard House at Little Bromwich marked on the 1885 map of Birmingham. I assume this would be the farm you refer to. As it looks to be in the grounds of what became Little Bromwich Hospital, which is only a stones throw away from Blake Lane. I agree that the pub was probably named for this farm.

Phil

BirminghamStreetPlan18854.jpg
 
hope your right bob. anyway ive got enough on me plate sorting out my vine and i know everything about that. lol wales
 
Bottle of Sack - Sutton Coldfield

While we bemoan the loss of many of the old boozers credit should be given to Wetherspoons who have bucked the trend in recent years by opening pubs, often using old delapitated buildings and doing an attractive redevelopment. Usually they try to name them after a local notable, e.g. the Charlie Hall in Erdington, Bishop Vesey in Boldmere.

One I use sometimes is the Bottle of Sack in Sutton, at first glance a strange phrase. The connection is that sack is an old name for a drink which today would be close to a sherry, a drink that would have been known in Shakespeare's time. In Henry IV Part 1, one of the leading characters Falstaff, who liked a tipple, says "Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack. Our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Suton Co'fil' tonight"

Hence the name with local connection
 
hi all. just had my brother round. he reckons the vampire pub was called so because it opened at midnight and only ever sold bloody marys ha ha what a joker. wales.:)
 
Send him back home Wales!

Well found Mike. Sounds feasible doesn't it?

Bob
 
Anyone remember Jack Mackenzie, gaffer at the Diggers some time ago the best licencee i ever met. R. I. P.
 
Hi Folks
I am trying to trace the name of a pub that was in Lee Bank in the early-mid 70s. It was on the patch of ground surrounded by Lee Bank Middleway, Spring Street and Bristol Street. It was built in the very late 60s or very early 1970. As you walked in the main entrance the bar was about 15 yards down on the left.
Please help me with this, it is driving me and a few friends mad trying to remember the name. I lived on Bell Barn Road and used the pub many times, but the name has just gone out of my head.
Thanks.
Gummy
 
Gummy said:
Hi Folks
I am trying to trace the name of a pub that was in Lee Bank in the early-mid 70s. It was on the patch of ground surrounded by Lee Bank Middleway, Spring Street and Bristol Street. It was built in the very late 60s or very early 1970. As you walked in the main entrance the bar was about 15 yards down on the left.
Please help me with this, it is driving me and a few friends mad trying to remember the name. I lived on Bell Barn Road and used the pub many times, but the name has just gone out of my head.
Thanks.
Gummy
Click to expand...

Lee Bank Tavern I think
 
THAT'S THE ONE!!!
Thank you. Gummy and Sam can now regain their sanity!!!
Gummy
 
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