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The Great Stone Northfield

Thank you for posting these photos of the Great Stone, Michael. One of our oldest pubs, this pub deserves greater recognition.
Shirley
 
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
 
We used to say "it was the only pub where you could buy beer by the pound!!"
My mom worked there years ago.
 
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 John & Jean Smith, in their book "Northfield Past & Present" report that the Inn is 17C, but do not cite their source.
 
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.
 
Photograph on ebay from what looks like the 50's showing "The Great Stone"
 

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dwilly said:
Photograph on ebay from what looks like the 50's showing "The Great Stone"
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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/
 
October 1829...

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

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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.
 
Vivienne14 said:
I like the Pound, surprised it still exists. The gate and window bars could be original. Nice find Ell.

Viv.
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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.
 
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.
 
I've lived near here for years but had never heard of "glacial erratics". I now understand that these remarkable large rocks or boulders have been transported by moving glacial ice and deposited in a completely different location to the one in which they were formed.. They are called "erratics" because their rock type does not match the native bedrock of the area where they eventually come to rest: https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glacial-geology/glacial-landforms/glacial-depositional-landforms/glacial-erratics/ and so seem randomly placed.

Roland Kedge seems to have been the key local individual whose interest in these stones led to recognising the origin of the Northfield Stone (see: https://erraticsproject.org/project-origins/).

There is a local Birmingham geological trail which runs from the Great Stone in Northfield to the boulder on the campus of the University of Birmingham and is said to be the first designated glacial boulder trail in the country. (see: https://erraticsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Trail_1_2nd_Edition_web.pdf ).

There is also an account of other similar stones in the area ( see: https://erraticsproject.org/the-erratic-boulders/some-of-our-best-known-stones/ ).

Charles Lapworth prepared a map of how the Ice Age flows affected Birmingham (his interest was the stones in Cotteridge) in 1913:​
1787497005446.png
(Bournville Works Magazine, August 1913 p. 263 : Roger Cadbury Library & Archives , Bournville Village Trust )
Edited 23/08/26 to show ice map​
 
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I went to all three St. Laurence schools in the 1960’s, the original church school opposite the church, the new school up on Bunbury Road and the Institute which is now the Northfield Adult Education Centre on Church Road.

As a kid I seem to recall the grey stone boulder on the corner by the Inn and its polished surface from all those clambering over it, so I am somewhat surprised to read that it was moved in 1954… the same year I was born. I also recall that after the Inn there was a house which had a Crabapple tree whose branches overhung the sidewalk and we would pick a few when in season before reaching the Nailer's cottages that stood on the corner of Church Road and Bunbury Road.

Where the stone is now was known simply as the Pound, a place where local stray live-stock would be impounded if found wandering without a keeper. I also worked as a barman at the Stone, as it was known in the 1970’s when it was managed by Alan Jackson and his wife Jill. Alan was the vocals for the Birmingham pop group The Applejacks in his younger days, a real nice guy, pleasant and amusing to work for, unlike the publican who followed him, the patrons took a dislike to his manner and opposed his licence in Birmingham Law Court's when it came up for renewal.
 
GMP said:
I went to all three St. Laurence schools in the 1960’s, the original church school opposite the church, the new school up on Bunbury Road and the Institute which is now the Northfield Adult Education Centre on Church Road.

As a kid I seem to recall the grey stone boulder on the corner by the Inn and its polished surface from all those clambering over it, so I am somewhat surprised to read that it was moved in 1954… the same year I was born. I also recall that after the Inn there was a house which had a Crabapple tree whose branches overhung the sidewalk and we would pick a few when in season before reaching the Nailer's cottages that stood on the corner of Church Road and Bunbury Road.

Where the stone is now was known simply as the Pound, a place where local stray live-stock would be impounded if found wandering without a keeper. I also worked as a barman at the Stone, as it was known in the 1970’s when it was managed by Alan Jackson and his wife Jill. Alan was the vocals for the Birmingham pop group The Applejacks in his younger days, a real nice guy, pleasant and amusing to work for, unlike the publican who followed him, the patrons took a dislike to his manner and opposed his licence in Birmingham Law Court's when it came up for renewal.
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How interesting! The house on the other side of the Pound from the pub is Rose Cottage, also a listed building, but outside whilst I couldn't see a Crabapple tree today I can well imagine how these could have overhung the garden wall when we were children! . As for the Applejacks, I don't remember much about the band but do recall some of their songs which bring back memories. Apparently John Lennon gave them one of their songs:

1787222647449.png

( https://www.beatlesbookstore.com/meet-the-applejacks-like-dreamers-do/ )

As they say (see post #18) "Northfield beer is sold by the pound and the stone"!
 
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Vivienne14 said:
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.
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I agree with you - there seems more to discover here. Unfortunately the now retired Northfield Conservation Group ( as in your newspaper cutting) produced their articles as printed pamphlets and I think the only way of accessing the relevant one now is by a trip to the Library of Birmingham who I think have a collection of them. However there is an online account of medieval pounds in general HERE.

It does seem that breaking into a village pound illegally to take back your livestock without paying the fine was a serious medieval crime known as pound-breach (or parco fracto). It was, apparently, considered an offense against the Lord of the Manor's authority.
 
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Vivienne14 said:
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.
Click to expand...
This article (#18) is very interesting, Viv. Elias Clarke (recorded as Elias Clerke, pbr.) was instituted as Rector of Northfield on 17 March 1438 but I can't find any reference to his having broken into the Pound although struggling with manorial records is confusing! Wouldn't that have been a bit scandalous for a rector? Did rectors typically own livestock?? I wonder if anyone can resolve this because it's perfectly reasonable to suggest that the Pound was originally late medieval in origin (like the neighbouring original building that became the Stone pub) and that it was later modified in the 17th century as opposed to being first built then. (https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101343382-village-pound-ward suggests c 17th century origin)
 
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