THE BLOXIDGE TALLYGRAPH

The original Bull's Head and The Wishing Tree (left), Bloxwich, 1o June 1927 (W. Meikle)

Bloxwich was once particularly rich in old public houses, many dating to the Georgian era and before.  By the time local historian Billy Meikle wrote about the old Bull’s Head pub in Park Road (in the 1930s), few such early inns remained, and today many surviving Bloxwich pubs are sadly under threat for economic reasons.

 

The original Bull’s Head inn had been in what was later named Park Road, Bloxwich, since Tudor times.  The name of the pub is traditionally said to be inspired by the bull’s head which was part of the coat of arms of John Skeffington, a Bloxwich landowner of the 1500s.  However there was once a long tradition of bull-baiting in Britain, and pubs of this name often refer to this now-extinct blood sport, so there may also be an element of this in the origins of this name.

 

The Bull’s Head was for centuries a thriving social centre and a popular meeting place for local workmen.  Indeed the 'Amicable Society' – the town’s largest friendly society - met there from 1785.  They had seventy-two male members and by 1811 there were forty women on the register.  A Catholic Society also met there in the early 1800s, with Titus Somerfield as secretary and a membership of 260.

 

William Colbourne owned the Bull’s Head in 1813.  By 1818 Thomas Taylor had taken over, and was still there in 1834.  In 1851, Samuel Taylor was the licensee but by 1880 it had changed hands again.  William Fryer was the landlord in 1908, by which time the weekly takings were £11 and four shillings.

 

 

Kitchen of the original Bull's Head, 1927 (W. Meikle)

 

Though latterly having a plastered Victorian façade added, by the time Billy Meikle came on the scene in the early 1900s the pub still retained its ancient oak beams, an ingle nook and an 18th century fireplace, giving it a cosy atmosphere.  In 1938, Meikle wrote that forty years ago the Tudor fire grate had been removed.

 

The old Bull’s Head was much-loved, both by locals and by Meikle, who photographed the pub, together with its last landlord Arthur Banks and his wife, on 10 June 1927, not long before it was demolished by Walsall council.  Later, he painted watercolours of the interior to complement his fine photography, leaving a unique record of a wonderful old ‘watering hole’ now sadly lost to us. 

 

 

Last landlord of the old "Bull" Arthur Banks and Mrs Banks, 10 June 1927 (W. Meikle)

 

Both Billy Meikle, writing in 1938, and later fellow local historian E. J. Homeshaw, who published his book The Story of Bloxwich in 1955, recorded versions of the following tale of the old Bull’s Head, the events of which Meikle dates to about 1906:

 

Samuel Moseley, a miner, sat drinking in the kitchen of the Bull’s Head one day, when his wife Margaret came to remind him that it was time he was preparing for work.  She told him the time but he paid no heed to her warnings.  In fact he told her that he did not think he would go to work that afternoon.  Margaret left the Bull in a towering rage and when she got to the door she cursed him and wished that the Bull would fall on him and bury him.  According to the story she only got as far as a nearby tree, where she repeated her wish and suddenly the roof of the Bull’s Head fell in with a great crash!  Everything in the upper rooms including the furniture was smashed, but both the old kitchen and Samuel Moseley escaped unscathed.  When Mrs. Moseley saw the roof fall in according to her wish, she took to her heels, ran all the way home and fell down in a dead faint!  Henceforth, the tree beneath which she was granted her wish became known as ‘The Wishing Tree’, and was held in great awe.  Today, it even features on the top of “The Bloxwich Tardis”, a public monument to Bloxwich in steel and cast iron erected on Elmore Green in 2007.

 

 

The "new" Bull's Head, Park Road, 2007 (S. Williams)

 

The present Bull's Head pub, closed in August 2007 but not yet sold, was built about 1928 on the same site and can just be seen in an early photograph of the Promenade Gardens.  In July 1928 local Councillor Cartwright expressed the opinion that there was nothing in Walsall, or within 30 miles, to touch the Promenade Gardens in Bloxwich.  Certainly, despite the demise of the Bull’s Head, the gardens are still a very pleasant place for a stroll at this time of year, and they will be even better when the town’s famous Victorian fountain returns from its refurbishment. 

 

Remarkably, the Wishing Tree survived the destruction of the old Bull’s Head, and what may well be that very tree still stands nearby on the corner of the Promenade Gardens. So be careful what you wish for when standing beneath its shade - you may get it! 

Stuart Williams

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