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Windmill pub Dudley Road

I went past The Windmill yesterday and it looked derelict, some buildings nearby have been demolished.
 
doubt very much if this pub will be around much longer....just wondering if anyone had any info about a real windmill being on this site...think it was demolished in the 1800s thanks

lyn
 
 
COMPRESSORMAN said:
This pub was right opposite Dudley Rd Hospital, now City Hospital, I was a Manager at in the 1960s. Went in their regularly.
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thanks as i said earlier dont think this pub will be there for long...in 21 there was an application to demolish it but was withdrawn...i think the demo people used it as their offices for a while but they have now vacated the pub

lyn
 
hi folks would anyone know if there actually used to be a windmill where the pub now stands..if so it may show up on older maps...thanks

lyn
 
Used it in the 1960s so if it was a Windmill it was well before my time, try accessing any OS maps...bound to be on those. TRY Francis Frith?
Pub was built in 1936 by M and B. So your going back possibly to pre 1900s.
Birmingham City Council declared a climate emergency in June 2019 and made the pledge to become net zero carbon by 2030. If it is serious about achieving this it must stop plans to wastefully demolish, rather than re-use, historic buildings.
I am standing in the local elections May 1st 2025 and one of my aims is to stop tearing down our heritages.
 
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COMPRESSORMAN said:
Used it in the 1960s so if it was a Windmill it was well before my time, try accessing any OS maps...bound to be on those. TRY Francis Frith?
Pub was built in 1936 by M and B. So your going back possibly to pre 1900s.
Birmingham City Council declared a climate emergency in June 2019 and made the pledge to become net zero carbon by 2030. If it is serious about achieving this it must stop plans to wastefully demolish, rather than re-use, historic buildings.
I am standing in the local elections May 1st 2025 and one of my aims is to stop tearing down our heritages.
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Totally agree Compressorman! It is too easy to loose history in our so called future. They both need recognition but not a5 the experience of one another!
 
Cannot find any reference to there being an actual windmill there. The Pigott smith map of c 1824 does not show one, though the position is on the verhy edge of the map, and things on the edge seem to be a bit sparse in general, so I would not take that as definite proof there was not one. There was an actual "Old Windmill" pub there in 1889 (see below) , though it was a beerhouse, and have not been able to check further back. The first definite landlord known was Henry George Wilkes in 1895.
Off topic, re- the attachment, Would be interested in knowing what the article form sale actually was

Birm post .18.6.1889.jpg
 
thanks for info mike...i was told by a friend that he thought he had either seen a windmill marked on an old map or read that there was one but this was years ago..but that memories fade and cant be certain where he saw the info...will keep looking..maybe william hutton wrote about it..ive got his book so i may have a look through it to see if there is a mention...take it you mean what was a chaff machine..it was more or less what i thought it was..lyn

A horse-drawn chaff machine, also known as a chaff cutter, was used to cut straw and hay into small pieces for mixing with other feed for horses and cattle. This process, called chaffing, helped improve the digestibility of the forage and made it easier for the animals to eat and digest.
 
mikejee said:
Cannot find any reference to there being an actual windmill there. The Pigott smith map of c 1824 does not show one, though the position is on the verhy edge of the map, and things on the edge seem to be a bit sparse in general, so I would not take that as definite proof there was not one. There was an actual "Old Windmill" pub there in 1889 (see below) , though it was a beerhouse, and have not been able to check further back. The first definite landlord known was Henry George Wilkes in 1895.
Off topic, re- the attachment, Would be interested in knowing what the article form sale actually was

i
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Is there a canal back of the windmill pub?..as I understand, they were used to move the water around the canal system, I know there is a canal in the City Hospital ground because my office was but 50 feet away from it when I worked there in the 1960s, I feel there is one because as you drive up Dudley Rd there are high bridges just past the Windmill pub, so there must have been a windmill then..ipso facto as they say Burmingum.
 
Monroe Hickman said:
On the old midlandspubs site it stated that the name of this former beer house commemorated the windmill that once stood across the heath. It was demolished to make way for the Birmingham Union Workhouse. The windmill, although not ancient, was active during the 18th century.
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thanks for that info...and we know the exact location of the workhouse that gives us a good idea of where the old windmill once stood

lyn
 
From post 71 at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ley-road-western-road-opened-1852.2280/page-3

At the same time as the prison and lunatic asylum were being built, so was the Birmingham Union Workhouse. Standing alongside the the Dudley Road with its entrance in Western Road, it replaced the workhouse built in 1733 in Lichfield Street, now the top end of Corporation Street. The late 18th-century Birmingham Heath windmill was demolished to make way for J J Bateman's Tudor-style building. Originally built to house 1100 inmates, by 1881 its population was more than double that number. Poverty led to illness and gradually much of the workhouse was taken over by sick wards. Now only the entrance lodge survives, the so-called Gateway of Tears, and this is cuirrently out of use
 
mikejee said:
From post 71 at https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...ley-road-western-road-opened-1852.2280/page-3

At the same time as the prison and lunatic asylum were being built, so was the Birmingham Union Workhouse. Standing alongside the the Dudley Road with its entrance in Western Road, it replaced the workhouse built in 1733 in Lichfield Street, now the top end of Corporation Street. The late 18th-century Birmingham Heath windmill was demolished to make way for J J Bateman's Tudor-style building. Originally built to house 1100 inmates, by 1881 its population was more than double that number. Poverty led to illness and gradually much of the workhouse was taken over by sick wards. Now only the entrance lodge survives, the so-called Gateway of Tears, and this is cuirrently out of use
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Mike, were new facilities built to take their place, and do you know what they were called?
 
I used to pop into the Windmill in the 90s, it was basic but sold crisps etc plus a stash of chocolate bars behind the bar which was useful if you were peckish,,

I think they used to get quite a lot of trade from the factory it backed on to.. there was also another pub on the corner opposite Western Road/ Dudley road junction but they demolished that for the hideous tower of new build flats … I don’t know what is going on with the road opposite Dudley Road hospital. One lane has been coned off for months without seemingly anything being done ..
 
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