Whilst I am here...just found a fabulous print of the old
Nelson Inn in Line and Baggett's lovely book on Georgian and Early Victorian Brum....it goes nicely with Braddon's early, perhaps better known, print of the Nelson Inn and the stagecoach leaving....and I've added this nice resume of it's history by Joe Mc Kenna from his Central Birmingham Pubs book...hope you enjoy...it is, of course earlier than the other pubs featured in this Thread, hope the bailiffs are kind to me...this being in the 1840s not the 1940s...
"Officially the Bull Ring is bit a short stretch of road between Moor Street and Park Street. To many though, it was that funnel-shaped area between the parish church and the junction of New Street and High Street, including Spiceal Street. Here was situated at 3-4 Spiceal Street another ancient inn. Its original name was
the Maiden's Head, its inn sign depicting a painting of the Virgin Mary, patron of the Mercers' Company. The house is first referred to in a Guild Rental of 1524: 'Thomas Cowper heir to John Cowper butcher for his tenement in the Market place called the Maydenhead.'
In a deed of I550 the house is described as the 'Meydenhedde nighe the high cross, tenantedby the above, "Thomas Couper'''. Following the Reformation the name of the house was changed to
the Talbot, but because of its inn sign it was more popularly known as
The Dog.
View attachment 88036 View attachment 88037
The Talbots were Earls of Shrewsbury, who gave their name to a species of large white hunting dog, depicted on the board. By 1625 the house was in the keeping of the Lea family. On 1 January I680 the inn was described as
'scituate or being in a certain street called Spicers Street, commonly called or known by the signe of the Talbot'. By then the building had been divided into two tenements, one of which was let in 1679 to 'Thomas Bird, saddler, for £3 10s per annum, and one fatt goose at Christmasse'.
The tenancy of the inn itself passed from John Cooper to Jonathan Rowe, who paid £25 per annum, and in 1700 to Richard Halfpenny, whose annual rent was £34 10s. In 1709 the tenant was John Hargrave, in whose lease the inn was described as
the Talbot alias the Dogg, in Spicers Street alias Mercers Street.
It would appear that about this time the house was faced in brick. John Brown is listed in the trade directory of 1779 as its landlord, though the house is not named. He is referred to as innkeeper, 3-4 Spiceal Street. Richard Garnett was landlord from 1780 until his death on 28 July 1787, a fact recorded in Aris's Gazette two days later. His widow Margaret took up the license, but in September 1791 she sold the premises to Samuel Wyer. Very kindly she inserted the following advertisement in the Gazette:
DOG INN, Birmingham
M. Garnett respectfully returns her grateful Acknowledgments to
Her Friends and the Public in general, for the Favours received
During the Time of her occupying that House, and begs leave to
Recommend Mr Wyer as her Successor, for whom she particularly
Solicit's a Continuance of their favours.
After the death of Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805, a statue was erected to the Admiral on the site of the old Market Cross, and the Dog Inn was renamed
the Lord Nelson Inn. This old house, whose history dated back some 400 years, was demolished for the building of the Fish Market, which opened in I869·"
