The Little Swan

[Pemus]

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

[Willow 4873]

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

[Pemus]

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!
 

[MaxD]

Was it perhaps your parents who sold a 1936 Wolseley 12hp for £375 from there in September 1945?

Birmingham Mail 27 sep 1945

[Jool]

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 ), 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.

[Pemus]

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

[Pemus]

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

[MaxD]

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.

[Pemus]

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!