RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Staffordshire => Topic started by: Pemus on Wednesday 21 September 16 22:16 BST (UK)
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I wonder if any rootschatters know of this public house in Wolverhampton, which no longer stands-having to make way for a new bus station. 'The Little Swan'. It was my home for a year about, 1944-5/6 as my parents, both now deceased, were the licensees.
Pemus
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Yes and the Black Swan that was nearby that also got knocked down
One of them had a carved swan above the door
Willow x
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Don't know about the Black Swan, Willow. I'm told the Little Swan stood for a long time before the Bus Station replaced it...tale from 1845 (glen11) says a customer went outside and was robbed by a woman!
:o
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Was it perhaps your parents who sold a 1936 Wolseley 12hp for £375 from there in September 1945?
Birmingham Mail 27 sep 1945
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Hi, I remember the Little Swan from my childhood and teenage years, until it was demolished in 1979 I think. Our bus to/from town stopped in St. James' Square just around the corner and we had to walk past the pub into town. I never went in the pub (although I frequented quite a few others ;D), but during it's later years I remember there was always the sound of reggae music playing and the pub was popular with the Rastafarian community, who always said hello when we passed by.
It was sad to see it demolished along with the nearby small shops. I remember as a child, my mother always used to take me into Rennison's butchers a few doors away, the best meat in town she said.
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Was it perhaps your parents who sold a 1936 Wolseley 12hp for £375 from there in September 1945?
Birmingham Mail 27 sep 1945
Don't know maxD-could have been..I'm wondering how that made it into the Birmingham Mail.
???
Pemus
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Interesting reflections Jool. I was too young myself to remember much about our lives in Wolverhampton. I recall vaguely the trolleybuses with their overhead wiring as I could see the wiring from my upstairs window.
As an intended pub attraction, I suppose, my father introduced a monkey into the pub-very short-lived as it was a real perisher-nipping you at the slightest provocation.
::)
Pemus
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It was just an ad in the small ads. In Feb 1944 the West Midland Terrier Club advertised their next dog show to take place there on 4 March.
Small snippets I thought might amuse.
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maxD
well my mother was very fond of terriers. We had a Staffs terrier in later years. 1944 was about the time when my parents became licensees at 'The Little Swan'.or.1945.'46.
A trap door was behind the counter at the pub and it ran down to the cellar...one day a pieman went with his tray of pies behind and didn't see the trap was open-of course he fell down to the cellar!! Funny for others but not for the pieman!
:) :(
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This is a trolleybus of the kind that ran by the 'Little Swan' and gave me one of my earliest memories.
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maxD
A trap door was behind the counter at the pub and it ran down to the cellar...one day a pieman went with his tray of pies behind and didn't see the trap was open-of course he fell down to the cellar!! Funny for others but not for the pieman!
:) :(
Sounds like the inspiration for Arkwright falling through the trap door behind his counter in Open All Hours. ;D
Nice looking pub.
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Some information here : http://www.longpull.co.uk/HBCPdownloads/HBCP%20Wolverhampton%203.pdf
from Tony Hitchmouth's Black Country Pubs
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Wow Alycia, what a great find. I didn't realise how big the pub was until I saw the photos and plan on your link. I looks a fascinating place, I wish I'd popped in for a drink when it was still standing now.
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This is a trolleybus of the kind that ran by the 'Little Swan' and gave me one of my earliest memories.
We have one of these running now at our Black Country Living Museum
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Thankyou Alycia for that reference to Tony Hitchmough's 'Black Country Pubs'-very much appreciated. 'The Little Swan's' 1st licensee, Thomas Dean, is named from 1818 so it was a long-standing public house. Of course it was disappointing not to see my parents' names, Victor and Doris Pemberton, missing as the last licensee listed in Hitchmough's work was 1921 and dad and mum took over in c.1944/'45 and were there for 1 or 2 years only...
Also, trolleybuses and Black Country Living Museum noted.
:)
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You're very welcome. You can probably get more information on the pub from Sandwell Archives, this is where Tony gets most of his information from. http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/info/200253/archives_local_and_family_history
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Thanks again, Alycia.