Here’s yet another photo treat for folk who remember the 70s, 80s and 90s in Brownhills – David Evans met up with the wonderful Gerald Reece on his 80th birthday walk a couple of weeks ago and Gerald shared some rather wonderful photos for us to have a gander at.
This week it’s lost or changed pubs, clubs and restaurants with some of the most remarkable photos of lost ones locally I’ve ever seen.
I’m sure these will kick off discussion, so grab a beer or brew, sit down, and remember when Brownhills had way more pubs than one would have thought possible…
The Jollier Collier was on the corner of Pelsall Road and Coppice Side, and gave the canal bridge nearby its name. An oddly long, thin pub I suspect it had been terraced houses at one point. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
I know nothing about Castle Working Men’s Club. Was this Doody’s Club? It was of course in the Castle Street area but not sure where! Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The Railway Tavern was demolished for housing in the 90s I think. It was in Lichfield Road, and fondly remembered particularly for it’s discos. At one stage the lounge dining area was fitted out with booths in the style of railway carriages. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The Jolly Collier from the air, suspect 1980s. Note the large house behind with the pool. An air photographer sold many homes and businesses aerial images door to door in the mid 80s after doing a flypast of the area. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The Wheatsheaf, another popular pub was on the Ogley Road. A no-nonsense classic local boozer. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The Waterside still exists today, but I’m unsure of it’s history. I think it may have been a Working Mens Club, I’m not sure. Anyone? Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The front of the Railway Tavern: painted I n white, black and red it was a nice looking pub. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
This is the best photo I’ve ever seen of the Top Club/Sportsman/Hunstman which was where Smithys Forge is today. It started out a WMC but it’s genesis was troubled and it soon became a pub. An oddly brutalist, ugly building it was a popular house. I remember washing hanging on a line on the balcony when I was a kid. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
I’ll be honest I have no idea which pub this is, but from the closeness of the windows I suspect it was inside The Sportsman. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
There were three clubs in Lichfield Road – Top, middle and bottom. Middleton House was the bottom. Only the Middle Club, Sankeys, survives. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
Now a nursing home, this distinctive building in Hednesford Road was previously a cafe loved by bikers called the Ponderosa, I don’t recall this building being a pub – but here it is in the late 1980s (from the cars outside) as a pub called Busters. Remarkable. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
Originally a service Station called a ‘Motrestrant’ Hoofbeats predated the very popular Terrace Restaurant. It remains today, but is vacant. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The Terrace in the 80s before expansion. These were really the golden days of what was a hugely popular restaurant. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
The Old Anchor was demolished soon after the new one to the rear opened, in 1986. The original had a lot of character and is sadly missed. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
Chesters came to what is now a computer and vape shop in Brownhills High Street in the wine bar boom of the mid-80s. It never seemed particularly busy, but could well be seen as a sort of template for today’s micropubs. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
Chesters relaunched as Simply Blues, in reaction I guess to the band name Simply Red. It closed by the early nineties and the row of shops refurbished. Image very generously supplied by Gerald Reece. Click for a larger version.
What do you recall from this gallery? If you have any thoughts or questions, please do share them – comment here, find me on social media or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.
I thank Gerald and David for this remarkable set – it really is most excellent and for me personally has stirred many memories.
The donor of these remarkable images, Gerald Reece is of course a talented and superlative local historian, indeed now resident in Devon, who wrote the seminal work ‘Brownhills – A walk into history’ upon which this blog stands.
