From the Walsall Express & Star, Saturday, 6th August 2011. Click for a larger version.
So, farewell then, to the Rising Sun. It appears that on Friday night idiots broke into the old, derelict pub and started a fire that caused considerable damage. Yet again it appears a piece of our collective history has fallen foul of the plague of arson that seems to result in the destruction of any historically significant, derelict old building.
I’m concerned for the fate of the Rising Sun, just as I am for several of the closed pubs locally – The Pear Tree Cottage, The Wheel Inn and the Swan, which all remain empty, sadly in one case in apparent conflict with the desire to reopen it.
There was talk that the Rising Sun was to be reopened and refurbished, but sadly, it came to nothing. I haven’t checked out the damage yet, but surely it can’t be long before this pub falls to the bulldozer just like so many others locally. If that’s the case, it’s criminal, and yet another symptom of the malaise befalling our great tradition of community pubs.
With another boozer just the other side of the roundabout, I can see that making this one pay, with it’s isolation from the main sprawl of Brownhills, would be very difficult indeed, with only the nearby estate of Brownhills West to support it.
We need to get behind our local watering holes, and use them or face losing them. There are some good houses locally, and they are still great places to go. The Stymaster has reviewed many pubs for his indeispensible Publog site which should be essential reading for any local beer hunter.
It really makes me wonder though – as a reformed smoker, we were all told that when the smoking ban was introduced, the pubs would be chocfull of people who never previously visited them due to the off-putting smokey atmosphere. Oddly, those people don’t seem to have materialised, and the smokers seem to prefer to stay at home with a cheap can or two from the supermarket rather than endure dithering in the cold to have a fag with a £3 pint in their hands. Surely a better accommodation could have been achieved?
The derelict rising sun, as it looked last week. Taken for my 30daysofbiking mini blog.