Deb brownlee

I worked behind the bar. I was there for about 18 months. It could have been longer. 

I know the exact date when I finished which was the 27th December 1976, and the reason I know that is because I joined the police the day after. So worked there ’til midnight on the 27th and then started the police about 8 o'clock in the morning on the 28th.

I worked in the Tavern with an Indian chap called Joe. The landlord at the time was Tony Stone and he had another pub as well called The Shoulder of Mutton in Tettenhall. He was an absolutely lovely, lovely man. Me and Joe were both extremely honest and Tony used to leave us to run the Tavern, and go off and try and concentrate on building up The Shoulder of Mutton, because the Tavern was already very successful and very busy. He just used to leave us to get on with it. And he was very pleased to do that cuz he used to say Well, the till's always right.

The draft beers –  I can't remember what they were – uou’d pour 'em in a certain way to get the head right, and if you didn't get the actual beer up to the pint mark on the glass you'd get the customers whingeing at you, so you'd let ’em drink a bit out so there'd be foam all round their face. And then top it up again.  

They tended to be very generous with tips. They'd say Have a drink for yourself. Well, at the end of the night sometimes you actually had a drink but in those days of course the bar staff had their own glass at the back and you chucked it in that. Whereas now they've changed the law, cuz the greedy tax man wanted it. And the employers wanted it.  And they have to pool it. 

What I mainly remember was the Hells Angels. Who were great. They used to have fights.  But they just sorted out their fights there between their different groups and then everybody carried on drinking. They were lovely. Really nice, polite, nice people. And we all used to go up the Lafayette after.

After I joined the police force there was a nasty thing happened which was I had a not very nice sergeant and a not very nice inspector and they were all after the underage drinkers at the time which of course was everywhere. Everybody did it. They said to me You must know who all the underage drinkers are. You can take us into the Tavern and point them all out to us.

Well, I rang Tony up and said Get 'em all out, because we've gorra come and raid ya. So we looked round an empty pub. There was no way I was gunna betray my mates, do you know what I mean? But that was quite common that they'd try to raid the pubs round Wolverhampton and one of us used to tip 'em off.  

If you were serving after half past ten you could be prosecuted. Of course what actually used to happen was you shut the doors and just carried on. That was basically all pubs. That was just what happened, because it was a stupid law and they changed it in the end didn't they? I think they brought it in during the war for various reasons to do with light, and not wanting people to be rolling round the streets drunk. Well, I mean, that's a British thing so they weren't gunna stop that forever.

Basically you could only serve til half past ten. Pubs just used to turn the lights down to the minimum lighting, shut the doors and get on with it.

When I was on foot patrol round the town the Hells Angels used to follow me round holding their hands out to be handcuffed shouting Nick, nick. Which was quite a thing at the time.  Jim Davidson, wasn't it? I remember telling em to **** off.  And them saying You can't say that, you're a copper now.

There was an incident after I'd become a police driver. I was parked up in the town in Princess Street which went across Market Street and carried on down towards Dudley Street, which is pedestrianised. Anyway I was parked up there and some West Indian chaps came and were trying to tip the car over with me in it, and they'd almost succeeded in getting the car over. This was round about the time of all the race riots in Whitmore Reans and everywhere and it was all very fraught at the time. And the Hells Angels came round the corner, the ones I knew whose names I can hardly remember, and saw these chaps off. I got out and said Thank you ever so much for doing that. And they said If it hadn't ’ve been you we’d 've helped them.

I've always remembered that line, because it was very funny at the time. I said Well, thank god then. That was when the police cars were Austin Allegros and weren't terribly big, and probably quite easy to tip over. And I was nearly over, but I was extremely lucky that they came round the corner and saved me. 

I don't remember going back in the Tavern after I left. Because don't forget I was gone for ten weeks to the training, then I was back and working shifts and life just went in a different way. Most of the time if we were drinking we were drinking in different places – after hours because we were always at work. I used to go clubbing a lot then so I definitely still would have been going up The Lafayette, so I probably saw people from the Tavern up there.  And of course the police stations then had a bar. Our own bar was open ’til god knows what time, so I suppose that's why I never really resumed going to the Tavern.

I did ask the police if could I carry on with being a barmaid but you weren't allowed to have second jobs. Because I would've carried on. They changed that rule before my seven years were up. You could ask permission, explain why you wanted to do it, and what you were doing. Half the police force now are coach drivers and drivers. They've nearly all got second jobs now, the ones that want to. And it isn't an issue, but at the time it was a big issue. You were police and only police. I would have carried on working at the Tavern, though I think I'd have found it difficult to keep it up, because of working early shifts and twice a month doing quick changeovers where you worked til 10 o'clock on the night and you were back at half past five. And of course if you had to work over if you'd got a prisoner you might not finish til 12 or 1 but you've still got to be back at half past five. On that shift system, most of your time – when you weren't at work or drinking – was spent asleep.

But really my overwhelming memory is just how much I loved it there at the Tavern. Absolutely loved it. And I would love to know what happened to Joe.