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The Custard House Blake Lane

B

Blue Grass

proper brummie kid
I wonder how many couples met at the Friday night dance at this pub. It was once really popular and was a decent alternative to a night in town. I was there one night when someone tied to ride a motor bike up the stairs. Happy days!
 
The Custard House used to be my 2nd local, my 1st being the Coach and horses by the police station.
 
The Custard House
 

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  • Small Heath Blake Lane The Custard House.jpg
    Small Heath Blake Lane The Custard House.jpg
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great picture i used to go there friday nights to the dances also used to fish for them used to get the coaches on a sunday mornings for the fishing matches.many times ive waited for the coaches hung over oh happy days.:)
 
I lived nowhere near The Custard House, but dog shows were held there in the '60s and no doubt before. Lots of pubs did the same quite often in the evening as the entries were miniscular compared to to todays'.
Ted
 
My mate from school (Bordesley Green Tech) used to play the piano there just over 40 years ago to get a bit of pocket money. He lived in Churchill Road, the other side of Bordesley Green Road from Blake Lane. Another school friend lived just down from pub, his father was a doctor.
 
I use to do Disco in the custard house 70s, touch of class was our name.
the iron staircase at the back was our entrance to get the gear up stairs, some good nights was had. the worst was them stairs... Bill..
 
hi bill i remember them steps i used to help Norman(big n disco)we done a few dates there.hope you are well bill.
 
roger a said:
hi bill i remember them steps i used to help Norman(big n disco)we done a few dates there.hope you are well bill.
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Hi Roger yes I remember him, in fact one gig we was booked so we thought at the custard house set the gear up and Big norm came in with his gear, I remember saying its us tonight and he said dont think so we looked at the book to find out we was down the next pub........Happy Days... Bill.
 
hi bill his son now does the discos for him.he sometimes goes and watches but ends up on the mike old dj never die.see you soon.
 
Hope that Dave B sees this! He sent me an IM but as he is only a guest at the moment it seems I can't reply to him other than via this thread.
Dave, send me your email address via another IM, or you can join the Forum and we can communicate that way.:)
 
I was born opposite the custard house in 1955, david handy,son of harold handy at no. 50 blake lane.anybody remember my dad, a regular at the custard house.
 
The Custard House Blake Lane

The Custard House was this it,s real name we used to have some great Saturday nights in the upstairs room back in the early 60s. Dek:cool::cool:
 
Sorry Len don,t know why i put St instead of Lane i wondered about the name bit strange for a pub. Dek
 
dek carr said:
The Custard House was this it,s real name we used to have some great Saturday nights in the upstairs room back in the early 60s. Dek:cool::cool:
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Yep, real name. Used to be a custard apple orchard on the site I think.

Not, as is commonly beleived because of a connection with Bob Monkeyhouse. who's grandad founded, birds and monkhouse custard, and I think maybe actually invented custard powder.

EDIT..Sorry should be Monk & Glass.
 
Re: The Custard House, Blake Lane

I'm very sorry, fatfingers, but I beg to differ on your theory of the orchard.
Attached is a map of the Blake Lane area of Bordesley Green of 1890. One can see that the Custard House - which is halfway down, or up, Blake Lane on the eastern side - was then called the Custard House Tavern.
If you now look at the corner of Green Lane, Blake Lane, Hobmoor Road and Yardley Green Road, on the corner between the last two named roads, you will see a building which was called Custard House. I very much imaging that the tavern - and consequently the pub - took its name from the original Custard House.
Has anyone got any information on the 1890 building?
Might it be just possible that the name is a corruption due to local pronunciation of Customs House? Only a theory. I can't for the life of me imagine why a customs house would be out in the wilds of what was then Warwickshire. db84124

Blake_Lane_1890_28b29.gif
 
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The Custard House, Blake Lane

The_Custard_House.jpg



That's the one, John. Just 50 yards up the road from where I lived between August 1957 and September 1967.
Hope you're well, David
 
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Re: The Custard House, Blake Lane

Definitely remember reading somewhere that the custard house was connected with an orchard, possibly my mistake for thinkint that it reffered to the pub, I wasnt aware of the other building. So maybe half right eh ?

I also remember hearing more than once that the custard house was bob monkhouses grandfathers home; Although, according to his autobiography, which I read years ago, his grandfather did invent custard powder,and did live in the area.
 
Mike

It's not very often that I disagree with you but, Alfred bird might have invented an eggless custard so his wife was able to eat it, but I thought custard was around for a long time prior to that.

Phil
 
.... So why, gentlemen, was that building between Yardley Green Road and Hobmoor Road shown on an 1890 map of Bordesley Green given the name "Custard House"? Is it just possible that the wealthy scientist cum businessman who invented Bird's Custard - because his wife was allergic to eggs - with a factory in Gibb Street, Digbeth had a "country house" at the eastern end of Green Lane?
Any other suggestions or backing for my theory would be warmly welcomed. David (ex-Blakelanian)
 
Sorry Phil, I should have said that Alfred Bird invented Custard powder (which contained no eggs and was thus quicker to make and cheaper, being largely cornflour).
Mike
 
Re: The Custard House Blake Lane

Mikejee, being one of the most prolific contributors as far as commercial interests are concerned, could you not - through your vast knowledge of directories - throw some light on the mysterious original Custard House? Was it ever registered in one of your reference books as having belonged to a certain Sir Alfred Frederick Bird - who would have been 41 years old when the map was published – and who could quite easily have lived in the semi-rural area which Green Lane – as its very name implies – was in 1890? It should be listed at the very beginning of either Yardley Green Road or Hobmoor Road. David
 
The address of Alfred Bird in 1891 was

BIRD, Alfred F Address: The Firs, Alcester Road, Kings Norton, Moseley

I suppose its possible that he could have lived at a Custard House, but somehow I dont think so.

Terry



His household in 1891
BIRD, Alfred FHeadMarriedM411850Manufacturer Of Food Product
BIRD, Eleanor FWifeMarriedF381853
BIRD, Robert BSonM141877Scholar
BIRD, GeoffreySonM131878Scholar
BIRD, OliverSonM111880Scholar
BIRD, Dorothy FDaughterF91882Scholar
BIRD, Christopher ASonM61885Scholar
BIRD, LelsieSonM41887
BIRD, Eleanor MDaughterF31888
JENKINS, MaryHousemaidSingleF291862Domestic Servant
GREGORY, MaryCookSingleF301861Domestic Servant
COOPER, Elizabeth AHousemaidSingleF201871Domestic Servant
 
Thanks, terryb18, very useful information. Have you any means of carrying out an inverted research, i.e. finding out who lived in a house which could possibly have been numbered - no idea when numbering was introduced - 1 or 2, Hobmoor Road or 1 or 2, Yardley Green Road? I am assuming the two roads already bore their present names.
By the way, I believe BIRD, Christopher A(lfred) Son M 61885 Scholar set the record time for pedalling from Land's End to John O'Groats by tricycle that is unbroken to this day.
David
 
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