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The Digby Chester Road Erdington

D

Digby dave

New Member
Hi guys

hope some can help. I work at the above pub are have been charged with finding out the history of the place. Any info or pictures would be of great help.
thanks
Dave
 
The only thing I know is that The Digby was a popular watering hole for the workers from the nearby Hardy Spicer factory. There was a family of land owners in the 1700s named Digby and we have roads named after various members of the family especially in Heybarnes/Small Heath.
Way back in 1485 there were Digbys in the Battle of Bosworth and they had links with Coleshill.
What that has to do with your pub I don't know.
 
It appears to have been built on the site of Little Pitts Farm which is marked on maps up to the end of the 50s. I can't tell at the moment when the Digby was built - there is a building on the site from the 1964 map onwards. It would seem that the farm vanished in about 1961 when the building of the new estate began.
 
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As far back as 1913 the land was farmed by John William Hallam who leased (or rented) the land from the Bagot Trustees. I assume that links the land to the Bagot Arms as well. They also lived at Pype Hayes Hall.
 
The first mention, I found, is in the 1945 phone book when it is listed as Digby Club. Then in the 1962 phone book The Digby is listed both give the same number - ERDington 3135. 911 Chester Road is listed in 1940 as Oak Tree Tennis Club and Swimming Pool (Auxiliary Fore Service). I am not sure if is was a club for the firemen or quite what that means. I also don't know when the building was replaced. The dates puzzle me as the farm is still marked up to the 1960s so I think this needs more investigation.
 
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Application by M&B's was made for a sign "The Digby" in 1962 so I assume that was when they took it over.
 
pjmburns said:
The first mention, I found, is in the 1945 phone book when it is listed as Digby Club. Then in the 1962 phone book The Digby is listed both give the same number - ERDington 3135. 911 Chester Road is listed in 1940 as Oak Tree Tennis Club and Swimming Pool (Auxiliary Fore Service). I am not sure if is was a club for the firemen or quite what that means. I also don't know when the building was replaced. The dates puzzle me as the farm is still marked up to the 1960s so I think this needs more investigation.
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hi yes have info about the tennis club from a letter in sutton coldfield observer. i will post a copy of the cutting asap
 
pjmburns said:
It appears to have been built on the site of Little Pitts Farm which is marked on maps up to the end of the 50s. I can't tell at the moment when the Digby was built - there is a building on the site from the 1964 map onwards. It would seem that the farm vanished in about 1961 when the building of the new estate began.
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yes pitts farm estaste is next to and behind pub... see other threads.
 
My husband spoke to a friend who remembers the pub opening in, he thinks, 62 or 64. He thinks the first licencees had the surname Moore.
 
Went there a few times in the late 1960s. At the time I thought it was a fairly modern pub. Remember it being set back off the road with a rough drive approaching the pub. There was a round stone seat in the middle of the drive. Viv.
 
I believe that the 'Digby' started out as an officers mess or similar for the Royal Flying Corps based at Castle Bromwich Aerodrome. Hence the curious cupola on the roof, which is reminiscent of airstrip architecture.

Between the wars the property was acquired by a consortium of managers from Vickers Armstrongs, and it was opened up a as a private leisure club under the name of the Oak Tree Swimming and Tennis Club. The tennis courts were arranged around the front drive, and remained useable into the 1960s, whilst at the rear was an open air lido. The lido did not survive the war, and was backfilled to become the bowling green, and eventually just another car park.

It lay next door to Little Pitts Farm, and it was possible to hear the farm pigs beyond the boundary wall until the farm was developed as Park Close around 1960.

Gradually, the consortium dwindled down to just one man Charlie Middleton, and it was he who is most associated with the 'Digby Club' after the war. The Club was divided into two halves: to the right upon entry was the lounge bar replete with wooden beams and horsebrasses, whilst the area to the left was a dedicated dance floor. Charlie built the adjoining bungalow as a retirement home for his widowed mother, and it looked very pretty in cotswold stone before the effect of decades of pollution. The light in the middle of the car park used to have a wishing well at its base complete with goldfish.

My entire family were members of the Club, and were regular fixtures there. I made my first appearance when only a fortnight old, but the Club was very family friendly, so we used to have the run of the place on high days and holidays. My great gandfather always boasted that he would live for as long as the Club continued; and when Charlie sold out to M&B in New Year 1962, my great grandfather duly died in the February.

I have continued to drink there occasionally over the years, but it just isn't what it was under life as a club.
 
Welcome Moor End. An interesting history, something I would never have realised from regularly visiting the pub in the 1970s. Thanks for posting. Viv.
 
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