Some history of the Golden Cross Inn at Smethwick in the county of Staffordshire.

Staffordshire | Smethwick | Golden Cross Inn

More information on the Golden Cross Inn at Smethwick to follow. I probably created the page as I had a link to the Golden Cross Inn from another page. When building the site it is easier to place links as they crop up rather than go back later on. I realise this is frustrating if you were specifically looking for information on the Golden Cross Inn. There is information on Smethwick and Staffordshire dotted around the website - click here for a suitable starting place.

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"The hearing of the Smethwick betting charges was concluded at Staffordshire Assizes on Friday in last week, before Mr. Justice Coleridge. Squire Hill [a publican] and Joseph Jones, were found guilty on the previous day of using the Golden Cross Inn, Smethwick, for the purpose of betting with persons resorting thereto, came up for sentence. Addressing Hill, his Lordship said that the good character he had proved and his antecedents did not tend to mitigate the offence he had committed, because if men in his position, rightly looked up to and rightly commanding influence [as a licensed victualler] engaged in these practices they were more likely to lead unwitting people astray than if they had not character for the moment to help them. He did not regard Hill's case as so serious that of Joseph Jones, because Hill was more or less a go-between, but prisoner must understand that the offence he had committed was an offence which tended to demoralise other people, and it was one which, in the interests of society, must be checked. Prisoner would go to gaol without hard labour for six weeks. Addressing Jones, his worship said his case differed from that of Hill. Sitting there as a judge, he could bear testimony to the fact that most of the crimes which came before him owed their origin either to drink or to gambling. Prisoner and the landlord of the house were combining to throw temptation in the way of foolish men and weak men to indulge in both. Their plan was this : The landlord of the public-house sold prisoner metal tokens, and prisoner sold those tokens to other men, which entitled them to drink at the landlord's public-house to the extent of 2d. per token. In fact, prisoner bought £1 worth of beer for 17s. 6d., and sold the beer to those men on condition they bought their beer at the landlord's public-house. Having got them there, the landlord supplied them with beer, and prisoner haunted the public-house and encouraged the men to bet for his own advantage. Prisoner and the landlord plotted a manifest evasion of the licensing laws, and the unrestrained demoralisation of their weak and silly dupes. How in the world intelligent men could imagine they were going get the better of sharks and bookmakers passed his wit to imagine. A great authority had laid it down as the result of his investigation that 90 per cent of these foolish people lost their money in gambling, and had not the slightest doubt that prisoner and the landlord encouraged both swindling and drunkenness. Prisoner was sentenced to four months with hard labour."
"Severe Sentence on a Publican"
Warwick Advertiser : November 29th 1913 Page 3