It already seems an age since my last pub pint - White Rat in Wolverhampton's Chindit on the 1st November - and news that the West Midlands will be in Tier 3 come the end of the second lockdown means I'll be waiting a while yet for my next cask indulgence. In the meantime, I'll try to fill the void by summoning a further five bygone boozers from the depths of the WME Archives...
- Coach & Horses, Balsall Heath -
November's selection begins in the backstreets of Balsall Heath where the Coach & Horses occupies the corner of Edward Road and Mary Street, not too far from the Edgbaston cricket ground. From what I can gather, the building survives having at one stage become the Al Nakheel cafe-cum-restaurant specialising in Arabian and Yemeni cuisine. I'm not sure if it is currently in use though so any updates on its status would be appreciated.
- Cottage Inn, Stourbridge -
Last month I featured the Somerset House as a casualty from the 'Enville Run' crawl which links Stourbridge and Wollaston, and here we lament the loss of another from that notable sequence. A compact traditional watering hole, the Cottage Inn was the first pub on Enville Street after you'd escaped the clutches of Stourbridge Ring Road; I never got to sample it myself sadly and now it is purely residential, albeit still retaining the little circular portrait detail between the upstairs windows.
- The Falcon, Smethwick -
We go back to May 2010 in recalling this Smethwick specimen which I spotted whilst preparing for a walk along Windmill Lane towards Cape Hill. The Falcon stood on Baldwin Street with Messenger Road on the left terminating at those concrete bollards; a very plain establishment, it received a Hub Marketing visit in February 2011 when Mr D9 and I made the acquaintance of a dog with a large surgical collar. Barely a couple of months later, the place was flattened and the land has latterly been claimed for the Windmill Heights development.
- Great Horse, Heath Town -
My fourth offering this month is a boozer that will need no introduction where the Beardsmores are concerned, with Mr B Senior being especially well versed in the hospitality of the Great Horse. This was almost the definitive M&B box boozer, situated on the fork where Bushbury Road and Prestwood Road converge near Heath Town Park. Having suffered from something of a dubious reputation (to put it politely), it was converted into a One Stop store and takeaway about eight years ago.
- The Grange, Coventry -
Somewhat surprisingly, I haven't featured a perished Coventry pub until now so here is a Stoke Heath sample as my token attempt to redress that particular balance. Trying unsuccessfully to find the Rose & Woodbine in 2012, Mr D9 and I stumbled upon the Grange on Alfall Road quite by accident. It would have been a handsome roadhouse in its day but had already shut down and remained derelict for a couple more years before being turned into a Co-op supermarket. Until next time, cheers!
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