Some history of the Why Not Inn at Cradley in the county of Worcestershire.

Worcestershire | Cradley | Why Not Inn

Tucked away in a cul-de-sac off Two Gates, the Why Not Inn has proved to be a resilient survivor in an area where public-houses have closed left, right and centre. Well, that is what I wrote in 2021. Three years later, in October 2024, the house was closed.

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This inn sign was commissioned by licensee Juliet Trimble who denied the speculation that it was her seated in the armchair in this signboard painting. The sign had quite a few mysterious elements including a genie emerging above the pub. The distorted image did however encapsulate the 'crazy' character of the pub during the 1990s. I have typed up some information on the Grand National-winning Why Not here.

This shocking newspaper article does not relate to the Why Not but it is related to Two Gates .....

"At the County Petty Sessions, held at Kidderminster yesterday, Richard Albert Jones, a waggoner, lately of Wolverley, and now of Two Gates in Cradley, was charged at the instance of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, with cruel treatment of his son, Ernest Jones, a boy of nine years; and his wife, Emma Jones, was charged with a similar offence as regarding her little girl, Emma Jones, aged seven years. Mr. Thursfield said the two children as to whom the charges against the parents were brought forward were the survivors of five children they had had, and he stated that their lives were insured. He detailed the specific acts alleged against the defendant, and said that it was owing to the marks noticed on the other child when she went to school that the case came to be investigated. The boy, Ernest Jones, was called, and said on Saturday, April 15th, his father put a strap [produced] round his throat, and there was a rope attached to it with which his father hung him up to a drag in the house. When he had the strap round his throat he could hardly breathe. His father then took the strap from round his neck and put a bigger strap round his waist. His hands were strapped behind him. His father put stones in his boots, and he kept jerking him up and down on his feet. It hurt his feet. His mother and sister were present; This went on, the boy said, for an hour and a quarter. He was screaming, and Mrs. Goodman, a neighbour, came and asked his father to release him. His father would not, and said he should keep him there till ten or eleven o'clock. After his father left the house his mother released him. He had been treated very badly by his father. The defendant warmly chided the boy, and denied ill-treating him. The boy went on to say his father had at times beaten him with a strap and thongs. On one occasion his father put him in a cave at night, and he remained there all night. When the stones were put in his boots his father took his boots off, put the stones in, and then put the boots on him again. He was taken away after this to the shelter at Worcester. He was afraid of what his father might do to him. The defendant put it to the boy whether he was afraid of him, and he reiterated that he was. He was afraid of his father because he thrashed him. Harriet Goodman, wife of John Goodman, said she lived next door to the house where the defendant lived up to Monday last. The defendant came to her house on April 15th, and called her. She went to Jones's house, and saw the boy tied up with a strap round his shoulders, and by a rope to a hook in the ceiling. The boy's hands were strapped behind him. His feet were on the floor. The father said he put the strap round his neck first, but took it off because his breathing was bad, and then he put the strap round his shoulders. Defendant told the boy to bear down on his feet. There were stones, he said, in his boots. Her husband sent her back to the house to ask Jones to release the boy. The boy was still fastened, but was not suspended. She had heard the boy scream when his father had beaten him at times. It was not often he did so. The mother of the boy told her in the morning that the boy had taken 6d. The father said he had had to beat him for naughty tricks, and he would see what that would do for him that he was doing then. Mary Pountney also gave evidence. Henry Jones [Worcester] inspector to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said be visited the defendant's house on April 18th. He could not obtain access, but looking through the window he saw a drag hanging from a nail in the ceiling, and a rope and strap. On April 20th, in pursuance of a justices' order, he went with Superintendent Pugh to the house. He removed the children to the society's shelter at Worcester. The house was very dirty. The children had improved in health in the shelter. Superintendent Pugh took possession of the strap and ropes. Defendant went into the box, and denied on oath that he had ill-treated his children. He said he now lived at Two Gates, Cradley, having left Wolverley, Cross-examined : He had had five children. Three were dead. These two surviving children were formerly insured. He could not tell the office. He denied fastening a strap round the boy's neck. It was true he put a strap round on his boy's chest and he did put stones in his boots. He did not jerk him up and down. He wanted to break the boy of some of his tricks. He had thrashed the boy sometimes. He had "given him one or two" with a strap from round his waist He denied that anyone had ever remonstrated with him about his treatment of the children. The Bench reserved their decision till they had heard the other case. Emma Jones was then charged with ill-treating her daughter Emma Jones, aged seven. The child was not sworn, but stated to the Court that she was going to school on April 12th, with two other girls, when her mother beat her on the legs with a stick that she walked with [Defendant had a knotted stick in court, with projecting knobs on, but the child said that was not the stick her mother struck her with, and defendant volunteered the remark that it was a thinner stick.] The child said her mother struck her on the head and twice on the legs with the stick. Her mother beat her sometimes with a birch and a stick. Harriet Goodman, a neighbour, was called, but her evidence was of a negative character as regarded proof of ill-treatment, and Mr. Thursfield proposed to treat her as a hostile witness. She said she had heard defendant say she wished the children were in the churchyard. Defendant afterwards told the Bench this was when she was provoked, after the children were taken away. Minnie Hardwick said on the way to school on April 12th Mrs. Jones struck Emma, her daughter, on the legs and once on the forehead with a stick Mrs. Jones had told the child to pull up her stocking, and she would not, and then she hit her. Defendant was sworn, and said she only hit the child once with her stick across her clothing on the occasion referred to. The Bench dismissed the case against the woman; but on the first case they fined the father £5. and costs, or a months' hard labour."
"Charge of Cruelty to Children"
Birmingham Daily Post : May 5th 1893.

"A 200-year-old Cradley pub has closed with the heartbroken landlady saying "we just cannot continue." The Why Not pub has been run for the past two years by Lisa Vincze and her husband Atilla. The couple took over the pub in Whynot Street in August 2022 when previous landlord David Cooper retired after 16 years at the helm. It was an exciting new chapter for mum Lisa, who had never worked in the pub trade before, having been a manager for a construction tool hire firm for 31 years. But sadly the dream has not worked out and the couple were forced to make the difficult decision to close the pub after being hit by a lack of trade. Lisa posted on social media : "This is one of the hardest posts I have had to write. With our deepest regret we have no option but to close the doors to the Why Not Inn permanently with the lack of trade as of late it has become more and more difficult week on week to keep the doors open. This hasn't been an easy decision and if we could have done anything more we would have. We have done our best over the past 2 years to bring the community together, raise money, bring live entertainment back to the pub, cater more for the kids but unfortunately this has not been enough and without people coming through the doors we just cannot continue anymore. I would like to thank the ones who have supported us and stuck by us and I am sure that in the near future it shall reopen to the public."
"Why Not Pub, Cradley : Heartbreak As Pub Closes"
by Helen Attwood in Halesowen News : October 5th 2024