Hi to all following this thread. Much of the searching you all have done has been confirmed by Kieron of
www.midlandspubs.co.uk. He emailed me the following:
"In my humble opinion I think around 1890 is not too far off the mark. I think I can see the name of Barker, a grocer at No.231 at this time. I am not sure when Fox & Co. first operated the Villa Cross Inn - they were certainly listed in 1879. They were brewers/wine & spirits merchants. Their interest was eventually acquired by the Holt Brewery Co. which you can see on the later photograph. John Ogden was the licensee in the mid-late 1890s. By the way, Entire is a type of strong ale popular in the 19th century, though some breweries still produced a type of Entire Ale. At the time of your query the gaffer of the Villa Cross was Thomas Hale. The coffee and tea dealer William Graham was also trading on the other corner in the in late 1870s."
All the evidence supplied proves that the first photo posted is the earliest c1890. It was at a time when the Villa Cross Inn was owned by the brewers Fox Co, who were wine and spirits merchants and they were advertising an ale called 'Entire' on the front of the inn. At this time there was no street lamp in front of the Inn. In 1874 the manager was Thomas Hale. The cab stand was there by 1882 (Prof Carl Chinn). Looks like the photo could be some time between 1882-1893.
My attention now must be concentrated on the three street lamps shown at Villa Cross. IF they were there in 1874 then one of them, almost certainly the one on the left at the top of Heathfield road, IS the original Founders Lamp of Aston Villa Football Club.
It occurs to me there may be a line of investigation.
We can search for the year in which gas lamps have been erected at Villa Cross prior to 1874 ( the year of the meeting ) and up to 1894 (when the Inn was a Holt Co property ). If we find a date for the erection of the lamp post in front of the Inn it means we can limit the latest date for the photograph to that year or perhaps one year before. If lamp posts erected before 1874 were not replaced by the dating of the photograph then one of them is the original Founders lamp. (I just don't see four Methodists using the lights of an inn in preference to a street lamp).
Perhaps newspapers reported the erection of street lamps in those days. It might have been a big thing I guess.
Perhaps there are municipal archives that show the details.
If anyone has a different photo of Villa Cross during the Fox Co brewery's time, please post.
Any help very, very gratefully received.
