Looking back at the key pubs in Locktown’s proud past
Old pub named after money maker
IN 1843, Willenhall was described as “La Ville des Serruriers” (the town of locksmiths) by French politician and social reformer, Léon Faucher, who recorded some 280 lockmakers and 90 keymakers in the town.
The town’s famous lockmaking industry was originally based in small family businesses in tiny workshops, before expanding into larger factories. In the 19th century, many pubs opened to serve the thirsty lockmakers, miners and foundry workers.
By 1851, 38 pubs and 23 beerhouses served a population of 11,930, which by 1911 had grown to over 19,300, when there was one pub for every 196 people.
Oldest
The Market Place was the commercial centre of Willenhall, with many inns and taverns. The Bell dates from 1660, is a Grade II listed building and is probably the oldest building in the town.
This former coaching inn has its original cellars, with a reputed tunnel to St Giles Church and, for many years, was kept by Thomas
Wakelam’s family. The local building society was founded here in 1839, but it closed in 2006 and was bought by the Willenhall Heritage Trust in 2010.
Nearby, the Angel, dating from before 1818, was demolished in 1934 to make way for the gas company’s new offices, whilst The Talbot (1818) closed soon after 1946.
Another of Willenhall’s oldest pubs was The Bull’s Head in Wolverhampton Street, first licensed in the 1730s. It was an important coaching inn where mail was dropped off to the post office in the yard. For more than 150 years, it was kept by Jeffery Tildesley’s family, and in 1825, novelist George
Borrow stayed here and immortalised the inn and its landlord in his novels Lavengro and Romany Rye. But it lost trade when it was by-passed by the railway and New Road, and was demolished in 1927.
Another important coaching inn was The Neptune in Walsall Street, opposite St Giles Church. In the 1830s, the “Quicksilver” horse-drawn stagecoach called here on its way between Wolverhampton and Lichfield. Local magistrates and manorial officials regularly used a room at the inn, and many public announcements and election speeches were made from its balcony. Unfortunately, it closed in 1937 and was later demolished. Other historic coaching inns included The Kings Head (Stafford Street) and Lion (or Red Lion) in Upper Lichfield Street, which have been converted into shops.
Mayor
Walsall Street was home to several old pubs. From 19011916, lockmaker, local councillor and later mayor, Randle
Hobley kept The Prince of Wales (1864). It was rebuilt in 1939 and remains open today, as does The Three Tuns (1855) and Old Oak (1877), originally home to Henry Mills’s brewery.
On the corner of Gipsy Lane was The New Inn (1818), rebuilt in the 1920s and now named The County. Rev Wil