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Pubs of Tamworth Staffordshire |
| Tamworth |
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| Albert-Hotel |
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This photograph shows the Albert Hotel around 1905. Note that the trees, probably planted at the time Albert Road was laid out, are well established by this date. A well dressed man appears to be addressing someone inside a first floor window but there is somebody standing on the step - the wife of the publican perhaps? There is a lot of activity in the street and plenty of horse dung! It's a splendid scene and helps to explain why Albert Road was such a desirable place to live in the Victorian and Edwardian era. Although it is now possible to walk into the Union Pub Company-operated pub, the most exciting period for drinking beer in the Albert Hotel was in the mid-19th century when the publican brewed his own ales in the back yard. A walk along the side of the pub reveals some of the old stabling block and other outbuildings where the homebrewed were produced. How long the first licensee maintained the homebrew tradition is not clear. William Spencer certainly had the temptation of buying consistent quality beer from the nearby brewery. |
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There is also a record of C.Paulton brewing in Albert Road in 1876 but little is known of this enterprise. In later years, there was a large brewery stores at the "Bell Corner" end of Albert Road. This belonged to James Eadie Ltd., a brewery based in Burton-on-Trent but a company that supplied ales to many public houses in the locality. Albert Road formed part of the 'new' Tamworth development of the mid-19th century and competed with Victoria Road as the main route in and out of the town to and from the railway station. Erected in 1847, the station initially served the London and North West Railway's Trent Valley line. Indeed, this company laid sidings just beyond the plot on which the Albert Hotel stands. These terminated in a goods shed that was just a stone's throw from the pub. The Midland Railway also built a goods shed on the opposite side of the road where Albert Road meets Victoria Road. Consequently, it's a fair bet that, in those days, the tap rooms of the Tweeddale Arms and the Albert Hotel would be chocker with railwaymen. The two pubs also vied for custom from those arriving at the station looking for refreshment and accommodation. |
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It was a former publican of the Tweeddale Arms who became the first licensee of the Albert Hotel in 1864. Born in 1826 at Clifton Campville, William Spencer kept the brand-new Hotel with his Gloucestershire-born wife Mary. Although the street had already been named Albert Road, William Spencer named the hotel in honour of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coborg and Goth who had recently died. A visitor to Tamworth shortly after the opening of the railway station, Prince Albert married his cousin Queen Victoria in 1840. This was three years after she had been called to the British throne following the death of her uncle King William IV. Albert and Victoria had nine children. He played an influential role on the queen who was very submissive and hardly made a decision without consulting him. In this role he replaced Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister in the early years of her reign. He died at Windsor Castle in 1861 from typhoid fever. After a few years at the Albert Hotel, William and Mary Spencer went on to run a large hotel in Nuneaton. |
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The Spencers were succeeded by William Eastland. The hotel proprietor hailed from the Kent village of Lamberhurst. After receiving a sound education at Hawkhurst, he came to Tamworth and worked as an assistant chemist at Frederick Ruff's pharmacy in George Street. He met and married his wife Emma who was born in New Basford, home of the famous Shipstone's brewery. The couple's daughter Florence was born after their arrival at the Albert Hotel. William Eastland employed two servants to keep the hotel running smoothly. However, he'd developed itchy feet by the end of the 1870's and left the licensed trade. He moved with his family to Stafford where he started a new chapter in his career working as a commercial traveller. The new publican at the beginning of the 1880's was Edward Canning. His father was Charles Canning who, with his partner John Gibbs, founded a quarry and terracotta works in 1847 at Glascote. The company employed around 300 people by the end of the 19th century. The firm supplied the decorative building materials for many famous buildings including the Royal Albert Hall and the Natural History Museum. The company's products were used in ecclesiastic, commercial and domestic architecture. In addition to many houses in and around Tamworth, the company's products were used in the construction of prominent buildings such as Lloyd's Bank and the building currently used by the Halifax Building Society, both in George Street. Edward Canning's tenure at the Albert Hotel was brief. He fell in love with and married Sarah Jane Bradley, daughter of William Bradley, licensee of the neighbouring Tweeddale Arms. Following William Bradley's premature death, his wife Mary took over the licence of the Tweeddale Arms. However, despite having the experience of running the Queen's Head in Nuneaton's Church Street, her two daughters moved into the Tweeddale Arms where they managed the pub as a family unit. Although Mary Bradley retained the licence, son-in-law Edward Canning was appointed manager. With his wife Sarah Jane dying in 1891, Edward died of a broken heart in the following year. John Bradbury held the licence of the Albert Hotel for a brief spell before the arrival of Ambrose Robotham. The son of a woolstapler, he had grown up on Lichfield Street next to the White Horse Hotel on the corner of Silver Street. His childhood sweetheart was Clementina Brookes, daughter of the hotel's owner and publican. They married in June 1874 and, together, the happy couple kept the White Horse Hotel for over a decade. They had three sons before Clementina died prematurely in 1888. It is likely that widower Ambrose Robotham moved to the Albert Hotel to forget this tragedy and to make a fresh start. After a few years he did find happiness again and, marrying a Handsworth-born woman called Mary Ann, he moved to a new life in Melton Mowbray where he managed a farm. |
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Ambrose Robotham was succeeded by George Rose. Born in 1853 in Darlaston, he and his wife had previously kept a pub in Oldswinford near Stourbridge. Agnes Rose had taken a rather circuitous route to the Albert Hotel. She was born in Tamworth and, growing up in Kettlebrook, met the Black Countryman who was living near the Bull's Head at Two Gates. George's father had moved to Watling Street in search of work as a clay miner. The family lived in the old Co-operative store. An early endeavour to establish a co-operative society on the corner of Tamworth Road was attempted in 1872 but the venture failed. By the time George and Agnes Rose arrived at the Albert Hotel the couple had eight children. And just to make sure there was little room to swing a cat in the upstairs accommodation, they employed a live-in servant. As tenants for the Lichfield Brewery, the Rose family remained at the pub throughout the Edwardian period. Is that George Rose shouting up to one of his children upstairs and is that his wife Agnes on the front doorstep? |
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The
1949 photograph shows the Albert Hotel in the livery of
Ind Coope and Allsop Ltd.
This company had acquired the
Lichfield Brewery in 1930. The sale included the estate of 182
public houses which, of course, included the Albert Hotel.
George Rose was succeeded by Jesse Harman as licensee of the Albert
Hotel. He remained at the pub for only a year, possibly because in
October 1915 he was convicted of selling alcoholic liquor during
prohibited hours on a Sunday. Found guilty he was fined £5.0s.0d. The
fine was small considering the fact that selling alcohol out of hours
during the war was deemed to be a very serious offence. In the year that
Jesse Harman was convicted Lloyd-George, then Chancellor of the
Exchequer made his famous declaration that "Drink is doing more damage
in the war than all the German submarines put together...We are fighting
Germany, Austria and Drink, and the greatest of all these deadly foes is
Drink." One of the main problems for government and local authorities
was how to tackle the drunken state of munitions workers on whom they
depended for the continued supply to France. The trouble with the
workers was that they were earning more money than ever before.
Interest in the war in the
early months was minimal and with little to do but drink that's exactly
what they did. Several Defence of the Realm Acts were passed to restrict
the hours that public houses were allowed to open. Sunday was
particularly restricted in order to reduce the traditional Monday
absenteeism. It was not until 1921 that pubs were allowed to open eight
hours a day but not during the afternoon. This regime stayed in place
until August 1st 1988 when all-day opening was finally restored. During
the Second World War, the Albert Hotel was kept by Alfred Burdett. A
former miner at Kingsbury Colliery, he took over the licence on July
17th 1939. He died in 1953 aged 71. The first licensee to keep the pub
under the ownership of
Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries Ltd. was
Carole Cartwright. The brewery carried out substantial structural
alterations to the building in 1996, the year that the old interior
layout vanished. Kate Casey arrived in 2002 and took over the licence on
January 21st 2003. |
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