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Clark Street | Homepage > Warwickshire > Birmingham > Clark Street |
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This thoroughfare connected
Reservoir Road to Icknield Port Road at the junction opposite Freeth
Street. In this photograph one can see the off licence on
the corner of
Reservoir Road. The camera is pointed along
Reservoir Road - sorry but I do not have a decent image
looking along Clark Street itself. The thoroughfare was
seemingly laid out in the 1850's as the area between
Brookfields and Rotton Park was developed. To the left you
can see how the street looked in 1861. There seems to be an
error in that Osler Street and Clark Street are reversed on
the map!
Notwithstanding, building development in both thoroughfares
was typically piecemeal as plots were sold and built upon.
The key landmarks on the 1861 map are the canal reservoir
and the inland waterways constructed by James Brindley and
Thomas Telford. The latter was the engineer responsible for
Rotton Park Reservoir, constructed between 1824-9 to supply
water to the improved Birmingham Canal. The Telford cut is
the straight line waterway marked on the upper right-hand
corner of this map extract. The earlier James Brindley canal
that followed the contours of the land can be seen
meandering under Icknield Port Road. Known as the Icknield
Port Loop, this waterway has survived. Some of the early
residents of Clark Street earned their living on the canal;
boat builder and wharfinger was a common occupation to be
found in the locality. Conditions for the early inhabitants
of Clark Street were 'challenging' as a proper sewer was not
installed until the summer of 1865. However, in the
following year work started on paving and cobblestones -
much to the chagrin of the residents of Freeth Street who
were continuing to endure mud and filth. They looked across
Icknield Port Road into Clark Street with envy and wrote to
the local newspapers urging the local authorities to "confer
a very great boon by looking with an eye of pity upon the
poor residents of Freeth Street." Building development in
Clark Street continued throughout the 1860's. Five houses
including a shop situated close to Reservoir Road and known
as Greenwich Place were offered for sale at auction in 1868.
The sale included twelve houses to the rear from which the
annual rent was estimated at £156.8s.0d. Despite the envy of
residents of Freeth Street, conditions in Clark Street were
still regarded as poor in 1872 when a Mr Carter presented a
memorial to the Public Works Committee from the inhabitants
of the street "praying for the repair of that street, which
was in a 'dangerous and filthy' condition." Two years
later another resident wrote that nothing had been done
towards cleansing Clark Street for eight months. He
described the place "as a slough, with channels of mud ten
or twelve inches deep." One could ask if the unpleasant
surroundings contributed to the death of Mrs Emma Fray who
lived in Avenue Place within Clark Street. She had been in
ill health during the 1870's and was described as "very much
depressed in spirits." Unable to cope, she tried to commit
suicide on Christmas Eve in 1873 by taking an overdose of
laudanum but was stopped by her children. On the following
Friday she left the house and was not found until the
following day when her body was discovered near the Icknield
Street Bridge. At the subsequent Coroner's Court held at the
nearby Station Inn, the jury returned a verdict of "suicide
in a state of insanity." At this time some of the street's
residents were unruly. A labourer named George James, along
with his brother Thomas, a serving solider, were arrested
and charged for a brutal assault on police constable Simmonds who was patrolling Icknield Port Road. It was
reported that they "forced the officer to the ground with
great force, wrenched his staff from him, beat him about the
head, and kicked him on the body." Simmonds was taken to
Ladywood Police Station where he suffered a fit and was
taken to the Queen's Hospital in an "insensible condition."
George James became known as "The Terror of Icknield Port
Road" and was feared in the locality. His attacks on people
were not confined to men. He was jailed in 1875 when
violently assaulting Eliza Poole, a married woman of Clark
Street. He hit her when she was stood on the doorstep and
then followed her into the house and twice punched her in
the face. In terms of education, there was a considerable
boost in 1874 when the tender of Messrs Parnell and Sons, of
Rugby, for the "erection and completion of the schools in
Osler Street and Clark Street, at a cost of £9,139, was
accepted." Designed by Messrs Martin and Chamberlain, the
building work by Parnell's was completed quickly and the
buildings were opened for public inspection in November
1875. The school fronted both Osler Street and Clark Street.
At the latter was a building of two storeys for boys and
girls, and on the Osler Street side was an infants' school.
Spacious playgrounds were laid out between the two
buildings. In the main building the boys were taught on the
ground floor and the girls on the upper storey. Designed to
accommodate 1,000 children, the final cost was £12,090.0s.d.
as the land was purchased for £1,445.17.s.0d. The fees to
attend the school were set at 3d. a week for boys and girls
and 1d. per week for infants. Attendances were initially low
but the buildings also served a role for public meetings,
political gatherings and also where meals for the poor folk
of Ladywood were served. Life in Clark Street, like many
other thoroughfares in working-class Ladywood, was a typical
mix of poor conditions, low pay, drunkenness and domestic
strife. One of the worst cases was reported in 1881 when
William Fletcher, of a back-to-back property behind No.19
Clark Street, was charged with beating his wife to death
with a chair. One of the most bizarre deaths in Clark Street
was that of Frederick Moseley of No.4 Court. In 1884 he was
carrying a lump of coal to make a bonfire for Guy Fawkes
night when he fell upon it and ruptured one of his kidneys.
He was taken to Queen's Hospital but his condition worsened
following an infection and he died ten days later. Drink was
to blame in the case of Thomas Etheridge, a brass-caster of
Clark Street who attempted to commit suicide by jumping into
the Birmingham Canal during 1883. Two local bobbies were
patrolling nearby and they managed to pull him out of the
water and took him to the Moor Street lock-up. He told the
police that he had been drinking heavily in consequence of
family troubles. Henry Hart, a brass-dipper of Victoria
Terrace in Clark Street, also appeared in the dock after
being drunk and disorderly whilst threatening to jump into
the canal. Mac Joseph has some photographs of Clark Street
with stories from former residents on his excellent website
Ladywood Past and Present. |
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Herefordshire-House | |
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This 1858 advertisement for the sale by
auction of this
beer house
is the earliest reference I have found for the Herefordshire
House in Clark Street. The sale of the property was to
include the household and public house furniture along with
the brewing plant, evidence that
the pub was a
homebrew house. The sale was to be held on the premises
by John Gray. I have yet to check early ownership of the
property but it is a strange coincidence that this
auctioneer hailed from Almeley in
Herefordshire. I cannot help wonder if
there is a relationship between his birthplace and the
naming of this
beer house? The
Herefordshire House was probably one of
the first buildings to be erected in Clark Street. An early
publican was Titus Griffin who is listed as the licensee of
the
beer house
in a trade directory for 1862. The Griffin family are listed at Clark Street in
the census of 1861 and, although the pub name is not
recorded, they are almost certainly living at these
premises. The son of William Griffin and Nancy
Dauncey, Titus was born in 1821 in the
Gloucestershire village of Coaley to the north of Dursley.
He married Aston-born Eliza Lavender in 1844 and the couple
established a home for themselves in a back-to-back house in
Ryland Street from where Titus worked as an edge tool maker.
Indeed, he continued in this trade when living at the
Herefordshire House where his wife Eliza was recorded as a
brewster. She was responsible for the
homebrewed ales sold at the pub. Her son
George helped in the production of beer to the rear of the
premises. The
beer house
made the local newspapers in 1861 when Mary Reynolds, a
French polisher, living on the Bristol Road, was drinking in
the parlour with her son John Reynolds, a brassfounder
living in
Hurst Street. The pair took a parasol and
shawl from the house when they left and John Reynolds later
tried to sell the parasol to a Mrs Mann who returned the
items to the Herefordshire House. Detective Spokes later
apprehended Mary and John Reynolds and they were committed
to the Sessions for trial. Having been previously convicted,
John Reynolds was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.
Licensee Titus Griffin was himself hauled before the bench
in November 1861 on a charge of allowing card playing in the
Herefordshire House. He was fined 2s.6d. Titus Griffin
remained in charge of the Herefordshire House throughout the
1860's when, at the end of the decade, he moved to the Hyde
Arms [see below]. |
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Hyde-Arms | |
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The Hyde Arms is one of those pubs with
two addresses as it was on the corner of Hyde Road. The
imposing building can be seen here in a photograph captured
on August 1961. A woman is holding a small baby and is
surrounded by some local urchins who are probably off school
and enjoying their summer holidays. An immaculate-looking
Ford Consul is parked outside the pub. A flashy motor by the
standards of the day, this may have belonged to a local
businessman or indeed a bookie! Maintained to a good
standard by
Mitchell's and Butler's,
the Hyde Arms is looking very tidy in this photograph. The
ground floor had benefited from the addition of stone
cladding, a feature probably applied during the inter-war
years. Hyde Road is to the left of this image. The corner
doorway was used for access to the main bar. The centre door
fronting Clark Street was the entrance to the pub's outdoor.
Also fronting Clark Street, the door to the right allowed
access to the smoke room. I had not looked into the history
of the Hyde Arms or Clark Street until I received a
genealogy message from Peter Faulkner who suggested that the
Hyde Arms was originally called the Herefordshire House [see
message to left]. However, after a bit of digging, I found
that they were completely different buildings. It was in
September 1869 that Titus Griffin of
Castle Street appointed
Mr. J. W. Cutler to apply for a
beer house
licence for the Hyde Arms. The key resource was a newspaper
article dated 30th September 1870 in which the same
representative applied for a licence to sell beer to be
drunk off the premises [outdoor sales]. In this application,
the magistrates were told that Titus Griffin had held a
licence for premises on the opposite side of the street, and
he simply wanted to transfer it. This reveals that the Hyde
Arms was a different property and on the opposite side of
Clark Street. A further application two years later provides
more information on the Hyde Arms. It was in September 1872
that Titus Griffin was seeking a spirits licence for the
pub. His representative, Mr Buller, told the magistrates
that the house was "commodious and had been built for use as
a public house." He told the bench that Titus Griffin had
"been in the trade twelve years, and there was nothing
against him." The solicitor added that "some two hundred
houses had been erected in the neighbourhood." Titus Griffin
was sworn in and he told the magistrates that "the house was
his own. He gave £800 for it and it was rated at £45." The
courts finally granted a full licence during the following
year. The proceedings reveal that Titus Griffin, a former
edge tool maker, had raised the capital to purchase the Hyde
Arms and that it was a recently-erected purpose-built public
house. Titus Griffin quickly established the Hyde Arms as
respectable and a well-regarded establishment. The local Liberal
Party held a meeting of the supporters of Mr S. Tonks in
September 1873 when choosing a candidate for the elections
in the Rotton Park ward. As outlined above, Titus
Griffin was born in 1821 in
Gloucestershire and kept both the
Herefordshire House and Hyde Arms with his Aston-born wife Eliza.
Previously recorded as a
brewster, she was responsible for the
homebrewed ales, a skill that she handed
on to their son
George. The Griffin family remained at the Hyde Arms until
1882 when they moved to the
White Swan in
Grosvenor Street West. Titus died in 1885 aged 64. Son Charles Griffin later
moved to the
Victoria Inn at
Guest Street, a fully licensed
house that he kept with his wife Kate. His mother Eliza also
moved to the
Victoria Inn where no doubt she helped to bring
her long experience in the trade. She later died in 1896.
Charles lived only another five years himself and died in
1901. The licence for the Hyde Arms was transferred to John
Morgan on December 7th 1882 at a Special Licensing Session
held at the Public Office in
Moor Street. John Morgan almost
certainly signed a long lease for the Hyde Arms because there
was the consideration of the freehold ground rent and the
reversion-in-fee. This was held by William Middlemore who
owned a large estate and a considerable number of properties
around Birmingham. It was following his death that the
freehold ground rent of the Hyde Arms and Nos.68-74, along
with four houses at the rear, was offered at auction in
1887. The combined rent on the land produced about £180 per
annum. Licensed victualler John Morgan was born in Llanfihangel
in Radnorshire around 1827. He had earlier worked as a
locomotive engine stoker when living next to the
Ship Tavern in
Ledsam Street. By the 1870's he had moved
to Duddeston with his wife Mary who hailed from Brigstock in
Northamptonshire. By this time John Morgan had worked
his way up to the position of engine driver. The census of
1891 records John Morgan as a widower; he was running the
Hyde Arms with his daughter Catherine. The Morgan's employed
a barmaid and two general servants. Ownership of the lease
of the Hyde Arms passed to Thomas Morgan of the
Barrow Arms in Barrow-in-Furness but was acquired by
Mitchell's and Butler's
on February 27th 1902. The Cape Hill brewery paid the sum of
£5,500.0s.0d. with a freehold reversion later paid to
Holder's Brewery, suggesting that the house was once
being supplied with ales from the Midland Brewery. The
purchase made by
Mitchell's and Butler's
in 1902 included ten other properties that were rented out
by the brewery. More commonly known as let-offs, these
included Nos. 68-78 Hyde Road.
M&B
installed Arthur Edge as manager of the Hyde Arms. He
had been a long-serving employee of Henry Mitchell & Co;
before the company's merger with William Butler's Crown Brewery.
Arthur Edge
had previously managed the ill-fated
Queen's Head in
Steelhouse Lane before a spell at the
Anchor on
Islington Row. Frederick Powis was the licensee from the early
Edwardian period until just after the First World War. A
former steam engine maker, he was the son of William and
Catherine Powis who once kept the
Heath Street Tavern
at Winson Green. Elizabeth Powis succeeded him as licensee
of the Hyde Arms before the arrival of Alexander and Matilda
Binger. However, this couple's stay was brief but not so for
the next publican - Frank Sweatman was in charge of the pub
for more than twenty years. Harry Pitty was the gaffer
during the Second World War; taking over as manager in November 1939, he
remained at the helm until 1959. If anyone has any memories
of this long-serving publican then please get in touch.
Having seen the trade figures for this house, it is clear
that Harry knew how to run a pub. When he took as manager
the Hyde Arms was selling less than 500 barrels of beer per
annum. However, in 1942 and despite the fact that there was
a war on, he sold 825 barrels of beer - a dramatic
increase in trade. The last licensee of the Hyde
Arms was Joseph McCullough when the house closed
on November 3rd 1968. |
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“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be
happy.”
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History and Information on the Public Houses of Birmingham with Licensees and Newspaper Articles PLUS Genealogy Connections |
