More on Rose & Crown and a nearby shop fire
I would like to add a bit more to the letter of mine which was appeared in the edition of October 9, naming some of the men in a photograph of a coach trip from Netherton’s Rose and Crown pub in the early 1950s.
You missed out the fact thatarthur Millard, who I named in that letter, was the licensee of the Rose and Crown. He was my husband John Cole’s uncle, and ran the pub with his wife Maude.
I can also tell you a bit more about that part of Darby End. On the opposite corner to the pub, on Withymoor Road and Double Row, there was a green grocer’s shop, which was run by my husband’s Grandmother Darby.
In the 1940s there was a very bad fire there. Mrs Darby used to sell Christmas wreaths, and dry them out by the open fire. On one occasion, while she went outside to visit the toilet, a stray spark from the fire caught the wreaths and by the time she got back inside was already out of control.
Sadly, her grey parrot was in there and though she tried to rescue him, she was unable to unfasten the cage door and he died in the fire.
Her granddaughter was upstairs at the time and found herself trapped. Luckily someone was able to rescue her with a ladder.
The shop was gutted and Mrs Darby had to move out. Later she ran a shop next door, which she ran with my mother-in-law, who took it on herself when Mrs Darby died.
I have another family connection to the Rose and Crown. The last licensees were Mr and Mrs Mason, who are my niece’s husband’s parents. The pub is now gone, and has been replaced by flats.
Sheila Cole, Withymoor Road, Netherton