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Vine Inn Villa Street

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
i used to live in villa street hockley almost opposite the vine pub. would anyone out there remember it. i am also looking for photos of it and photos of the old houses in villa street. now sadly demolished
 
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Buried at Key Hill Cemetery

Here are two people buried at Key Hill Cemetery which may interest someone.
WAKELING Mabel of the Vine Inn Carver Street died 12th December 1940.
WAKELING Alfred James Vine Inn Carver Street died 12th December 1940

Buried Section R plot no 1260.
 
could i have a look up please for the addresses of all the vine and vine inn pubs that were in birmingham pre 1934. and if possable the black country as well. many thanks. wales
 
Here we go:
Harriet HARRIS Head W Female 54 Birmingham, Warwick, England Retail Brewer
Frances HARRIS Son U Male 21 Aston, Warwick, England Jewellers Ring Mounter
Helen F. HARRIS Dau U Female 23 Aston, Warwick, England Dressmaker
Ann HARRIS Sister W Female 65 Birmingham, Warwick, England
Dwelling 71 Villa Street (Vine Inn)
Census Place Aston, Warwick, England
 
hi all. although i am still looking for a pic of the vine i thought you may like to see this one i have. its taken in the front room of the vine on the very last day of last orders before demolision in 1978. i only know one person there which is frank brady one of dads best mates who lived next door to us. any one recognise anyone else. ps may not be good quaility as it is a newspaper cutting. wales.

the vine.jpg
 
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Wales,

At least you have that cutting, better than nothing. I went to Yardley Library and they have a few new Birmingham books, but nothing on the Vine, I'm afraid. One must turn up. Could you phone the Carl Chinn show, if he's on this Sunday? I'm sure he could put out a request for a photo of the Vine.

Ann
 
good idea ann. i may do that. ive been thinking the paper cutting prob came from the evening mail or the mercury. i may ask them if there is any way they can find out if the photographer took any shots of the outside. they may have saved them in their archives. dont worry give up is not my middle name. best wishes wales.
 
Wales - wonderful photograph. Look at all those smiling faces. The photograph says it all: enjoy life to the full without harming anyone.

Keith
 
just had to tell you folks at long last someone i know has tracked down a photo of the vine pub villa street. its on order for the end of next month. i am assured its the right one although until i see it i wont beleive it. so dont stop looking for it for me folks just in case. rest assured after myself you will all be the next to see what all the fuss has been about for so long lol fingers crossed wales
 
as you all know i thought i had tracked down a pic of this pub but it was not to be...:(i have however found out something that may explain partly why i have had such a problem finding a pic...up until at least 1930 it was according to kellys a beer retailer..so it only became the vine inn somewhere between then and when i moved to villa st in 58..unfortunately i did not have enough time to go through any more kellys at the library so i do not have the exact year but will try to find out...

astoness
 
could i have a look up please to try and determine when the vine inn that was in villa st hockley actually became known by that name... i do know that in 1929 it was just a beer retailers so it would be any time after that...and i think it was either num 125 or 127...

cheers

astoness:)
 
Lynn
It was named as the Vine in 1940 KELLYS but not 1933. But also,just because it wasn't named in Kellys doesn't mean that it wasn't called that, particularly prewar. I think it did mean that it only had a beer licence, but could still have been called the Vine. Recently we were trying to find the Oak in the Parade, that Astonian remembered, and I never found it named in Kellys.
Mike
 
Hiya Lynn
In 1965, The Vine was indeed at No 127 Villa St, and it was also there in 1973/4. See, you didn't imagine it.;)
 
hi ya jim..thanks for that but i already knew it was the vine in 65 as it was in 58 when i moved to villa st....what i am trying to find out is what year it became the vine inn....its somewhere between 1930 and 1956 as ive just checked me 56 kellys..

cheers

lyn:)
 
hi mike...ive only just noticed your reply and ive asked for a 1940s kellys look up to which you have just answered...lol as you know i have a couple of maps of villa st kindly supplied by you and it was pointed out that on one map you can clearly see where the vine was set back off the pavement not in line with houses either side and on the other its flush with the houses....i think maybe alterations took place at sometime....o well i continue my search for a pic but i still think that if it wasnt known as the vine for that long this will hamper my chances of getting one...

thank you again for your help

ttfn

lyn:)
 
Lyn I have the 1937 and the 1938 Kelly's the Vine is in the Kelly's 1938 and not in the 1937 but the the 1938 was transcribed in 1937 so I say it would have been known as the Vine late 1937
 
hi john...thank you for that info...if its the case and it seems so that it was known as the vine from say 1938 that means that folk only had 40 years to take pics of it as it was demolished in 1978....like i said to you getting pics of it is as elusive as your parliament st:rolleyes:.....

thanks again

take care..

lyn:):):)
 
hi again john..not wanting to confuse the issue but would you mind looking in your kellys again.. there was another pub in villa st which i dont remember as i was quite young when it was demolished in the early 60s i beleive...think mom and dad said it was called the villa tavern...it was on the same side as the vine just a little way up and i was told that this pub had been there since the 1800s...

thanks

lyn:)
 
There was a Villa Tavern. In later years it was no 147, but before renumbering it was 51. It is mentioned at least back to 1849, when it was run by a john robbins.
mike
 
mike. thanks everso....i was told it was old but never thought it to be that old....like i said demolished in the 60s and mom and dad were both in there for last orders....if only we had this interest when younger and got snapping with cameras...so now i am looking for pics of two pubs that were in my street....will put out a request for it but i realy dont hold out much hope.....:(

thank you again..

lyn
 
hi robert..no i forgot all about that..mind you i would think that it would be very difficult but i will give some thought as to how to go about it....
i have written a few childhood memories of villa st to be published in next months brummagem mag and asked for anyone with a pic of it to contact me....so i am keeping everything crossed....lol

lyn:)
 
the vine inn...villa st..hockley

could i have look up please for the years 1970...73 and 74...for the name of the landlord/landlords of the the vine inn..villa street hockley....the pub closed in 78 and ideally i would like one for that year but i see we only go as far as the 74 kellys...

thank you...

astoness:):):)
 
Re: the vine inn...villa st..hockley

Sorry Lyn
In later years kellys often didn't include the landlords name, i assume because maybe they changed a lot. there is definitely no anme post 1967 , in 1964 or 1956. In 1950 it was a Mrs Minnie Jones, but that's not a particularly uncommon surname and its a while ago
Mike
 
ok thanks mike..well thats put paid to me tracking down previous landlords families....:rolleyes: i do have a pic of the last ever landlord...dad said his name was wally....but apart from that i once again hit the preverbial brick wall...

o well onward and upward...

lyn:):):)
 
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Well, Alfred Wakeling would have been my Great-Uncle as he was my grandfather's elder brother. My mum tells me of a gruesome twist to their sad deaths.

Alfred and Mabel (his second wife) were the licencees of the Vine, and on the night of this particular bombing my grandad was standing on the step of his shop on Spring Hill (he didn't like going down the cellar and preferred to have a 'breather', aka a fag) when a passer by told him that The Vine had been hit.

The story goes that the blast killed Alf outright as his head was found on the factory roof opposite, and the woman initially buried with him was not Mabel but the remains of a passer by; Mabels body was found two-weeks later, still in the pub cellar :shocked:.

Alfred's remains, together with whom they thought was Mabel were buried in the same coffin; Mabel was eventually buried in the same plot, but in a seperate coffin.

So, a menage a trois for all eterntity; and what about the mystery woman, I wonder how long her loved ones must they have been searching for a missing family member, never to be found?

The undertaker gave my grandad had Alfred's wedding ring and it was incorporated into my mum's wedding ring, which she still wears today.

Talk about a twist in the tale ...
 
hi missbee...what a story...thank you....can you just confirm that the vine you talk about was instead the vine inn that was in villa st...i only ask as this pub and its history is of great interest to me...

cheers...:)
 
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