Three Tuns - Fazeley - Old Pubs and Old Ales of Tamworth

 Click on a thumbnail image to change the large photograph below - scroll the gallery with the arrows

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Licensees of the Three Tuns Inn 1850 - Edward Bowring 1860 - Samuel Sudbury 1864 - Charles Hobby 1871 - Margaret Thomas 1872 - Thomas Hewkin 1890 - Mrs Alice Hewkin 1891 - John Hughes 1900 - John Platts 1912 - John Henry Brookes 1968 - 1971 Albert Joseph Heafield 1977 - 1977 John Andrew Davidson 1977 - 1984 Peter Charles Butler 1984 - 1986 Garry Swallow 1986 - 1987 Robert John Broadhurst 1987 - 1995 Alec William Walker 1995 - 1996 Anthony Hurley

The first photograph in the gallery above shows Lichfield Street from a position just to the west of the canal bridge. The photographer was stood in front of the Methodist Chapel that stands next to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. Located on the corner of Mill Lane, the building to the left has survived and is seen here as a butcher's shop. This was probably one of two butcher's beershops in the village that traded as the Shoulder-of-Mutton. In White's Directory of 1834 the one in Atherstone Street was run by John Thacker whilst the Shoulder of Mutton in Lichfield Street was operated by John Skellett.

Whilst most of the properties on the south side of Lichfield Street [left side in the first photograph] have disappeared, a number of the buildings on the north side of the road have survived including the Three Tuns Inn, the lantern of which can be seen halfway along the road. The detail of this intricate lantern can be seen in the third photograph. It is the same design that was erected outside the Market Vaults in Tamworth's Market Street so the Three Tuns Inn was perhaps once operated by Worthington's of Burton-on-Trent - though the Eadie's-operated Red Lion Inn on Bolebridge Street also had such a lantern. In later years the Three Tuns Inn was taken over by Mitchell's and Butler's before forming part of the Mann's portfolio. In the rather confusing pub company era of the post-Beer Orders Act, the Three Tuns Inn was owned by Ascot Estates Ltd. However, in February 1996 this company sold 251 public houses, including the Three Tuns Inn, to Mayfair Taverns, a management buy-out team. The photograph of the pub in September 2002 shows the name of Mayfair Taverns on the sign. However, Enterprise Inns acquired Mayfair Taverns, and its chain of 276 tenanted pubs, in October 1998. The most recent photograph above [August 2006] does at least have Enterprise Inns on the sign.

The Three Tuns Inn was not the only pub on this stretch of Lichfield Street. The Navigation Inn once traded only a few doors away. With both pubs backing onto the canal junction, it is not surprising that early publicans made most of their living from a trade offering support services to the boatmen passing  through Fazeley. In the case of the Navigation Inn, the Sadler family were also wharfingers. Here at the Three Tuns Inn in the late 1840's Edward Bowring worked as a saddle and harness maker. Barges at this time were pulled by horse and the business from this, combined with the passing trade on the busy Watling Street, kept Edward Bowring extremely busy, particularly as the Three Tuns enjoyed inn status.

Edward Bowring was born in Uttoxeter in 1815 and, although he held the licence of the Three Tuns Inn, in reality it was run by his Chesterfield-born wife Hannah. The couple had one son; Edward was born in Fazeley in 1844. The hard slog of the saddle and harness maker proved too much for Edward Bowring and he died at a relatively early age. Finding work in a laundry, Hannah and her son Edward moved around the corner to a house in Tamworth Road.

By 1860 74 year-old Samuel Sudbury was the publican of the Three Tuns Inn. Born to the south of Fazeley in the Warwickshire village of Middleton, Samuel Sudbury travelled around the country in what seems like a colourful career. By 1841 he was living with his wife Ann in Chelsea and documented as a retired publican. However, Samuel Sudbury was not one for giving up work and soon he was on his travels again. By the time he took over the at the Three Tuns Inn he was living with a woman called Ruth who was some 21 years younger. She was born in the Radnorshire village of Llanvihangel. Consequently, the conversation with the hosts brought a flavour of Welsh culture combined with the knowledge and experience of a man born before King George III suffered his first attack of madness and the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Like the Three Tuns in Tamworth, the close proximity of the pub to the breweries in Fazeley may be the reason for its name. However, it is possible that the wharf behind the Three Tuns Inn was used for onward distribution of beer casks produced in the village's brewing operations. The sign of the Three Tuns is fairly prevalent and not surprising since a tun is a large cask with a capacity of two pipes (four hogsheads) that traditionally held wine but were also used for ciders and ales. But why three? The reason is that Three Tuns are used in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Vintners [1437] and also the Worshipful Company of Brewers.

Although Fazeley is where the brewing magnate James Eadie first operated as a tea dealer and maltster, the two key brewery concerns were the Midland Brewery in Atherstone Street and the Fazeley Brewery which was based in Coleshill Street. The Midland Brewery was founded by Thomas Allkins in 1854. Although born in Fazeley and growing up in his father's beerhouse called the Stag-and-Pheasant, he was not traditionally a brewer and only started up the business on his return to the village. Taught no doubt by his father who was a clockmaker, he spent much of his working life as a watchmaker and traded from a shop on West Bromwich's High Street. Variously described as an ale and porter brewer or a brewer and maltster, Thomas Allkins died in 1871 and the business was continued by his wife Mary Ann along with her eldest son William. The brewery had sunk its own well and were supplying six tied houses when it was sold to Edward Freeland in 1874. Born in the Surrey village of Stoke D'Abernon, Edward Freeland gained his experience working for a brewery in Kingston-upon-Thames. The Amalgamated Clubs Brewery Co.Ltd. were registered in May 1919 in order to acquire the Midland Brewery. It was not a success and went into voluntary liquidation in December 1922.

Established by George Thorneloe in 1845, The Fazeley Brewery was set up a short distance from the George-Inn on Coleshill Street. Indeed, the George Inn was kept by George's son Francis who followed in his father's footsteps and continued the brewery business. Originally an auctioneer, George Thorneloe was a local dignitary and, seemingly, a workaholic. In 1851 he was documented as a Brewer, Sheriff's Officer for Staffordshire, High Bailiff at Warwickshire County Court, Auctioneer and Farmer. Following his death, his wife Bessy moved to the Gloucestershire village of Longhope where her son and former publican of the George Inn, Francis Thorneloe, was living at Walbrook House and working as a farmer. Two of his wives predeceased him. Wolverhampton-born Sarah Anne [nee Windle], with whom he had run a farm in Herefordshire, died on April 16th 1879 aged 52. In the following year he married another woman from Wolverhampton. Although only 31, Amelia [nee Cullwick] died in April 1884. He married again - this time to a Kent-born woman called Elizabeth. Francis Thorneloe died in 1905. Meanwhile back at the Fazeley Brewery... the founder's other son Thomas George Thorneloe continued the business for a short spell before it was acquired by Arthur Evans in 1872. Born in the Herefordshire town of Kington, he was the son of a wealthy farmer. He possibly sourced his hops from the family's farm. Enjoying success, he moved from the premises to a house in Drayton Bassett where he and his wife Edith employed a governess, nurse, gardener and domestic servant. The Fazeley Brewery ceased production in 1907 and when the site was placed on the market it was described as having a "large stores, a yard with gateway entrance, stabling, lofts and premises, together with engine, pump, boiler and certain fixed plant in addition to substantial maltings for 24 quarters with three floors and kiln."

Succeeding Charles Hobby, Worcestershire-born ex-farmer Margaret Thomas held the licence for a brief spell before Thomas Hewkin took over the Three Tuns Inn. Born in Barton-under-Needwood, he and his wife Alice previously lived near to the pub on Lichfield Street whilst he worked as a groom. He had been a servant of Henry Hodge, curate of Middleton. He died in 1885 and the licence passed to his wife Alice before John Hughes took over as publican. He was a Tammy and, working as a general labourer, had previously lived in Gungate Street with his Burton-born wife Annie. At this time, the adjacent cottages which still stand to the west of the Three Tuns Inn were occupied by coal miners, agricultural labourers and employees of the bleach works. Immediately next to the pub was the waggoner John Wedge and his family.

Mine hosts at the turn of the 20th century were John and Ann Platts. The couple had previously lived in Coleshill Street when John Platts worked in a nearby colliery. Although both locally born, they did once live at the Derbyshire village of Castle Gresley where John Platts also worked underground.

© Kieron McMahon [Pubs and Breweries of the Midlands: Past and Present]