The Great Stone Northfield

[mhemery]

I seen the great stone mentioned a couple of times so i thought as i was passing,

 

[BordesleyExile]

Thank you for posting these photos of the Great Stone, Michael. One of our oldest pubs, this pub deserves greater recognition.
Shirley

 

[BordesleyExile]

Arthur Lockwood made an ink drawing of the Great Stone at Northfield:
https://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1995V171/images/138539

 

[BordesleyExile]

Here is a postcard showing the Great Stone:

 

[mhemery]

great drawing of the great stone and what i believe is an animal compound im sure i,ll be corrected if thats not right, thanks for posting

Arthur Lockwood made an ink drawing of the Great Stone at Northfield:
https://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1995V171/images/138539

 

[BordesleyExile]

Absolutely right, Michael. That is an animal pound & I was fascinated by it as a child. I cannot think of another old pound in Birmingham.
Shirley

 

[ladylinda]

We used to say "it was the only pub where you could buy beer by the pound!!"
My mom worked there years ago.

 

[BordesleyExile]

Whilst British Listed Buildings describe the Great Stone Inn at Church Lane as "18C added to" other writers describe it as being rather older. Does anyone know the age of the brick rebuild? I am just curious.
There was a book / booklet / pamphlet / article published specificaly on the Great Stone, but I cannot find it for sale or online anywhere. John & Jean Smith, in their book "Northfield Past & Present" report that the Inn is 17C, but do not cite their source.

 

[BordesleyExile]

A postcard of the Great Stone & also mention of a Freiendly Society run from the pub in 1837.

 

[ladylinda]

Standing opposite Northfield church is the Great Stone Inn. Although of Georgian appearance, this is a timber-framed hall of the late medieval period. Altered in the 17th century and facaded in brick a hundred years later, it was further extended in the 19th century and modified internally by the brewery in the 1970s.
https://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-n/northfield/

 

[BordesleyExile]

Thank you, Ladylinda. I wonder where the information on build date came from originally?

 

[mikejee]

The Victoria county history states;
NORTHFIELD retains more village character in the area immediately surrounding the churchyard than any of the other parishes which have been absorbed into Greater Birmingham. The buildings are not of great individual interest but include a group of cottages dated 1750 and the Great Stone Inn, a whitewashed brick house of about the same date
From: 'Secular Architecture', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7: The City of Birmingham (1964), pp. 43-57. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22961&strquery=great stone Date accessed: 08 October 2012.

 

[BordesleyExile]

Thank you, Mike. So thats a third date!

 

[dwilly]

Photograph on ebay from what looks like the 50's showing "The Great Stone"

 

[Pedrocut]

Photograph on ebay from what looks like the 50's showing "The Great Stone"

The Great Stone now has a Blue Plaque, and is in the Animal Pound...

“For generations the Great Stone lay at the corner of Church Road and Church Hill and it protected the wall of the Great Stone Inn from traffic. The feet of generations of school children going to and from the church school around the corner have polished the top surface. Then in 1954, for safety reasons, the rock was moved by BCC a few metres along to its current resting place, the 17th century former Animal Pound, within the grounds of the Great Stone Inn.”

https://www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk/great-stone-northfield/

 

[Pedrocut]

October 1829...

At the Court Leet, at the Great Stone, Northfield, Mr John Whitehouse was appointed constable, and Mr Joseph Newell, Headborough.

 

[ellbrown]

Got the plaque photos a few weekends ago.





and The Village Pound.





Behind this gate on Church Road in Northfield. Easy to miss, if you don't look inside the bars!

 

[Vivienne14]

I like the Pound, surprised it still exists. The gate and window bars could be original. Nice find Ell.

Pound was restored in the 1970s. Another article claims there might have been a pound there in the 15th century.


Think it's worth having a Northfield Pound thread. Shall set one up later,
Viv.

 

[Radiorails]

Post 10, of this thread, has a link to Bill Dargue's web site which gives some detail and a photo of the outer pound wall from another direction.

 

[ellbrown]

I like the Pound, surprised it still exists. The gate and window bars could be original. Nice find Ell.

Viv.

I was told by one of the Open Plaques people on Twitter about it (was in Wales at the time). And popped down the first Sunday that I was back in Birmingham! Somehow I missed The Pound when I originally got the Great Stone pub back in 2010!





The Great Stone and The Pound is to the right of the pub.

 

[Dave Ackrill]

I used to drink Snake Bites (half larger and half cider) in the Great Stone. I remember the story about them moving the stone into the Pound as well.

 

[Vivienne14]

The landlord and staff ? At a guess I'd say around 1910-20. A little gem !Viv

 

[Janet Hunt]

This article suggests the Great Stone Inn and pound were built between 1520 and 1588

History of Northfield – Weoley Castle

 

[mikejee]

I rather like the missprint in the article : "Northfield was divided into lots of small forms." Now life in the modern world is divided into a number of large forms