Breweries from outside the Midlands region are included as, particularly nowadays, beers from other parts of the country are sold across the counters in the Midlands. The section is growing as more images are obtained - not all relevant to the area but, hey, I love beer and it's great fun.

Statto Corner 130 Pages 145,885 Words 190 Pubs Featured 482 Pub Photographs 78 Breweries Featured 51 Brewery Photographs 96 Other Photographs 115 Inn Signs 109 Beer Labels 114 Pumpclips 22 Maps 15 Building Plans

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Licensees of the Old New Inn 1816 - 1834 Thomas Tomkinson 1834 - 1845 Richard Tomkinson 1845 - 1850 Joseph Hall 1850 - 1860 John Baynes 1860 - 1886 Joseph Weston 1886 - 1913 Mary Ann Weston 1913 - 1913 Elizabeth Piper 1913 - 1921 Richard William Wyatt 1921 - 1923 Albert Edward Bowkley 1923 - 1927 Thomas McGeorge Bell 1927 - 1928 John Henry Davies 1928 - 1929 Philip Bill 1929 - 1930 Thomas James Banks 1930 - 1932 Louisa Bradbury 1932 - 1932 Frederick Burkett 1932 - 1934 Horace Clarke 1934 - 1934 Richard Thomas Beaman 1934 - 1934 William Baker 1934 - 1936 Gilbert Bertram Evans 1936 - 1941 Thomas Hatley Simms 1941 - 1951 William Ernest Goring 1951 - 1957 Harold Fullwood 1957 - 1957 Eliza Fullwood 1957 - 1960 Harry Cowles 1960 - 1963 Harry Priest 1963 - 1980 Herbert Eric Tether 1980 - 1987 Donald Stephen Jordan 1987 - 1987 Hilary Bate 1987 - 1990 Joy Elaine Sivell 1990 - 1992 Iris Elizabeth Goodwin 1992 - 1993 Kieren Bulmer 1993 - 1994 Darren Lee Payton 1994 - 1995 Frank Geoffrey Griffiths 1995 - c.2002 Francis Joseph Murphy

When I last visited this pub in April 2007 it was boarded up and faced an uncertain future. The freehold property was being sold off from the estate of Admiral Taverns. However, the Old New Inn had been advertised more than a year earlier and the fact that it remained unoccupied suggested that perhaps it was the end of the road for this once very popular watering hole. The photograph to the left shows the pub in happier times. The image was captured when Gilbert Evans was the licensee during the mid-1930's. As everyone is donning their best togs, the photograph was presumably taken on a Sunday or Bank Holiday and shows the pub's regulars before possibly embarking on a trip. I assume that it is Mrs Evans looking through the window! Personally, I have happy memories of the Old New Inn when it was run for Avebury Taverns by Frank Murphy. Apart from serving good beer, he and his wife kept a tidy pub which had retained many of its original features such as the three leaded-glass bay windows seen here around 1935.

Sadly, these windows were replaced by plastic just after the couple left the pub. Think of all the cold nights those old windows had kept out plus all the lively conversation that had bounced off the glass. All gone. The two bays were made from locally-produced red terracotta with steps between leading up to the front door. Although modified the front room had two old fireplaces. The intrinsic character of the place was enhanced by quarry-tiled flooring, wood-panelling and comfy bench seating which wrapped around almost every wall in the pub. The pub was decorated with framed jigsaw puzzles that were put together by Paul Lloyd, a regular of the pub. This is how the Old New Inn looked in the late 1990's, but what about the past?

Two obvious things can be seen in this old advertisement for the pub. Firstly, the "Old" prefix had not yet been added to the licensed premises and, secondly, it was a pub where homebrewed ales were produced. The advertisement dates from the second half of the 19th century when Joseph Weston kept the New Inn from around 1860 to 1886. The pub dates back to the early 19th century - a time when many inns and public houses sprang up on this busy turnpike road connecting Dudley with Stourbridge and Amblecote. The number of pubs along this route reached its peak during the 19th century and not only served passers-by but also the expanding population that centred around the new industries in and around Brierley Hill, particularly collieries, glass, brick and ironworks. The first recorded licensee of the New Inn is Thomas Tomkinson who kept the pub between 1816 and 1834. I presume he was followed by his son because records show that Richard Tomkinson was the licensee up until 1845. He kept the New Inn with his wife Mary.

John and Ann Baynes were mine hosts during the 1850's. Born in Bilston, the couple had seven children living above the pub. In the 1851 census the couple also had a visitor - Manchester-born singer Francis Dempsey's presence suggests that the New Inn offered musical entertainment to the locals of Brierley Hill. Indigenous Joseph Weston took over the New Inn with his Kidsgrove-born wife Mary Ann and introduced a new flavour to the ales produced on the premises. The ales produced by the Weston family must have been popular because they remained at the helm for the rest of the 19th century clocking up more than fifty years as owner-publicans. Joseph Weston died in 1886 and Mary Ann took over the licence. The New Inn was rebuilt in the late 19th century - the prefix 'old' would have been chosen to recall the old pub, a victim of mining subsidence. There was another New Inn - now the Dog and Lamppost at Round Oak. Not only old, but historic, the Old New Inn had two special rooms. One named The House of Commons, the other The House of Lords. In the latter most of the local civic business was said to have been discussed by the town's local dignitaries. Following the death of her husband, Mary Ann Weston remained as the licensee of the Old New Inn for another 27 years before she too passed on aged 86. She left the premises to her married daughter Elizabeth Piper who within 12 months she sold the pub to the brewers' Home Brewery of Evers Street in Quarry Bank. Brierley Hill brewers Smith & Williams bought the Old New Inn on September 9th 1921. They were taken over by Julia Hanson of Dudley in 1934. This helps to explain how the pub became an outlet for Banks's beers and eventually sold to Avebury Taverns.
© Copyright. All images from Digital Photographic Images and reproduced with kind permission.

Licensees of the Spread Eagle Inn 1861 - Jesse Barker 1873 - Mrs Ann Kendall 1880 - James Cox 1889 - 1898 John Bate 1898 - 1899 Hannah Bate 1899 - Joseph Pearson

This photograph shows the soon-to-be-demolished Spread Eagle Inn in the mid-1960's. The photographer is stood in New Street, a steep thoroughfare lined with terraced houses - scroll down the page to see a view of the street in the late 1950's. It looks like a white knuckle ride for any kid with a soapbox daring to have a go free-wheeling down towards the gasometer. The gas works was next to a small basin just down the canal from Delph Bridge where there was also a large timber yard. The landscape beyond is that of the old fireclay workings and the edges of the Delph and Ashtree Collieries. The Spread Eagle Inn actually stood on the corner of Hill Street which converged with New Street to form a triangle off the main road almost opposite St.Michael's Church. Hill Street's name has survived but it is a much different road today and forms part of the 1960's redevelopment of Brierley Hill. As you can see from this photograph, the Spread Eagle Inn was operated by Batham's at the nearby Delph Brewery.

The Spread Eagle Inn was a homebrew alehouse before Batham's took over the lease of the property on September 29th 1926. Grandson Arthur Joseph Batham held the licence of the pub which the brewery initially leased for five years with an annual rental of £225.0s.0d. The old inn was described as having a "double bay front, bar servery with four beer pulls, off-sales area, smoke room, cocktail bar, games room, dining room with ten covers, kitchen, office, two bedrooms, bathroom, cellar and car park". Somehow you cannot imagine all that in the photograph above! And a cocktail bar in Brierley Hill? The Spread Eagle Inn eventually had a compulsory order slapped on it and was demolished not long after this photograph was captured. A sad end to a popular hostelry in Brierley Hill.

Jesse and Hannah Barker were running the Spread Eagle Inn during the early 1860's. Born in 1820, Jesse Barker hailed from Shropshire and his wife Hannah was born in Stratford in Warwickshire. The couple employed Elizabeth Humphries as a general servant and took in lodgers to supplement their income. The Barker's had previously lived in Stanton-by-Dale where Jesse Barker worked at a blast furnace. Following his death in 1870, Hannah moved to a house on Himley Road in Dudley before moving back to Brierley Hill where she resided a few doors away from the pub when James Cox was mine host. Born in 1831 in Oldswinford, he kept the Spread Eagle Inn with his wife Matilda. James Cox had to earn another income during the day and grafted as a fire clay miner, probably somewhere in the distance of this photograph. Half his age, his son James also worked in the same industry. Younger son Richard brought in an income as a glass bottle maker whilst daughters Sarah and Matilda worked as dressmakers.

John and Elizabeth Hatton were running the Spread Eagle Inn during the early 1890's. John Hatton had previously lived on Amblecote Road where he worked as a spade tree maker. By this time ownership of the Spread Eagle Inn had passed to William Bate who also operated the Eagle on The Delph but lived on The Thorns at Quarry Bank. Interestingly, the 1891 census records Minnie Bate as a barmaid in the pub. Hannah Bate took over the licence and ownership of the Spread Eagle Inn on August 22nd 1898 but she was succeeded by George Pearson just over a year later on October 16th 1899. The son of Joseph and Matilda Pearson, he spent his early years at Bank Street in neighbouring Brockmoor. He later took up the trade of carpenter before entering the world of pubs. Towards the end of the Victorian period the Spread Eagle Inn was listed as a High Street property whereas earlier it had been recorded in Church Street, the pub's location having always marked the transition between the two. In 1900 former licensee Hannah Barker was still living five doors away. Living with her niece Priscilla Hudson, she rented out a room to Birmingham-born Maria Godby, a head teacher at a local school. The properties between Hannah Barker and the Spread Eagle Inn were, for some reason, occupied by men working as painter and decorators though immediately next door was the family of William Turley, a local man who worked in an ironworks.