The licensees

If you’re interested in the history of Black Country boozers in general then Hitchmough’s Black Country Pubs at www.longpull .co.uk is an incredible piece of research work put together by the late Tony Hitchmough, Gavin Lawson, and Tony’s wife Janet Parker. Janet was of great help in our research and provided some fascinating material and newspaper cuttings to support this project.

Much of the early information about the pub we’ve taken direct from Hitchmough’s entry for the Tavern in the Town. In the list of licensees below we’ve indicated in blue the entries that were already recorded on www.longpull.co.uk, and in red are the names that we’ve been able to add from our research, either by talking to people or from the folder of documents provided by Wolverhampton Archives. Dates marked ‘unknown’ merely show we have no documentary evidence to say who was licensee – the person named before or after those dates may have been licensee then, too. Again, if you know names of any missing licensees or exact dates for people’s tenancies then do get in touch.

Owners of the premises

Isaac Horton
William Jones
Joseph Lawrence
Harmer & Co
Atkinsons Ltd
Mitchells & Butlers Ltd

Licensees of the pub, from The Board through to Moriarty’s, and everything in between.

Liquor Vaults/The Board

William Jones - 1870
George Mercer 1870–1877
Alfred Linden 1877 – 1884
Unknown 1884 - 1891
John Beattie 1891
Joseph Lawrence 1892 – 1896
Unknown 1896 - 1901
John Beattie 1901 – 1904
Unknown 1904 - 1908
John Thomas 1908
Unknown 1909 - 1911
Mrs. Prudence Holland 1911 – 1912
Styles Willis 1913-1914
Unknown 1915 - 1916
John Beattie 1916 – 1921
Unknown 1922 - 1924

The Shakespeare

Unknown 1924 - 1932
George E Lowe 1932
Unknown 1932 - 1939
Edward Hudson 1939
Unknown 1939 onwards

The Bermuda Tavern

William Pugh - 1963

The Tavern

Unknown 1969-1972
Mr and Mrs Lavender c1972
Pat and Vera Cotter c1974
Tony Stone c1975
John and June Maddoc c1977
Sue and Malcolm Guest 1978 - 1980 (Malcolm aka Skip)
Mick Waldron c1980
Donald Steven Brown aka Canadian Don c1982 – 16th Dec 1985
Mark Wilson 16th Dec 1985 - 15th October 1986
Donald Joseph Scully 15th October 1986 – 6th November 1987
Peter Sedgwick – 6th November 1987 - 5th Feb 1988
Keith Michael Hayward – 5th Feb 1988 - 9th September 1988
Stuart Eric Daniels 9th September 1988 onwards