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| The Fox Inn at Chaddesley Corbett |
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This photograph probably coincides with the acquisition of the Fox Inn by Walsall's Shire Oak brewery in 1903. The photograph advertised that the builder was W.H.Read and the architect was C.H.Cadd. The company probably modified the building to suit their needs. The exterior is essentially the same today. However, the stables and workshop have long-since been converted into a small snug with a pool room to the rear.
Fronting the Kidderminster to Bromsgrove turnpike road, the passer-by probably imagined that the building was named after fox hunting in the locality - which is near the truth but.... the name is probably derived from local folklore. In Victorian days there was apparently an impression of a fox's head in a red sandstone parapet close to the bathing spot known as 'Roaring Brook'. The imprint was thought to commemorate an incident in which a local foxhunter, allegedly a reckless devotee of the wild hunts of Jack Mytton, followed a fox over the parapet. The fox scuttled off, the horse was lost and the rider narrowly escaped death.
Also close to the Fox inn was Jolley's Pit, a former marl pit that became a water pool for local boys. In the mid-19th century the farm belonged to James Hughes whose family originated in Upton Snodsbury. A feoffee of the school in Chaddesley, he encouraged the local boys to partake in bathing in the pool apart from when the farm was out-of-bounds during the haying season.
Before the creation of the play field in the late 19th century, games were contested in front of the Fox Inn along the turnpike. Indeed, the pub formed one of the goals in a game combing elements of bandy and shinty. The other goal was along the turnpike at the gates of the vicarage. It was often wildly agrressive and travellers along the turnpike were sometimes caught up in the thick of it.
Formerly part of a short terrace on this busy old turnpike, the Fox Inn owes it existence to the Duke of Wellington's Beer House Act of 1830. Prior to this act public houses were either inns or taverns - the key difference being that in an inn you could sleep as well as eat and drink. Most publicans strived to gain inn status for this allowed them to remain open as long as a bed was empty and simple victuals were offered to any lawful visitor or traveller. The established inns and taverns faced more competition from the abundance of beerhouses springing up after 1830. The beerhouses were generally private dwellings with one or two rooms converted following the controversial Parliamentary Bill. The Act, designed to curb the rise of gin consumption and to bypass local magistrates legislation, allowed any householder or ratepayer, on payment of two guineas to the Excise, to sell beer and cider from their property. The Act was pushed through by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, before he was ousted from Downing Street. It was in response to increased agitation over the 200 year-old licensing laws which were seen as archaic. However, the issue was to remain a political hot potato for the rest of the 19th century. Many of the new beerhouses throughout the land named their pubs in honour of the Iron Duke. Their pub signs tended to display Wellington in his military roles and often celebrated his battle achievements that had captured the imagination of the public. However, more often than not, the new publicans were showing appreciation to the man who had helped them set up in business. Although many beerhouses were eradicated under later legislation, many survived and evolved into fully licensed premises. The Fox Inn is one such example.
Blacksmith, John Wright paid two guineas for a licence and converted part of his private dwelling into a public house in 1834. Locally born, John Wright lived here with his wife, Jane, and their two daughters Rosa and Mary. Jane would have looked after the hombrew house in daylight hours as John Wright also made a living from the shoeing forge attached to the pub. By 1850 John Wright's son, James, took over the business which by then had been granted inn status. No doubt the combination of horse shoeing and the pub business kept the Wright family busy.
Bromsgrove-born, Joseph Jennings, arrived as tenant of the pub in 1855 and he ran the pub with his Herefordshire-born wife Susanna. The blacksmith's shop was run separately by William Richards. In 1870 the Fox Inn was granted an alehouse licence which permitted the pub to sell wines and spirits in addition to the homebrewed ales.
Inside today's pub there is a copy of the pubs particulars when it was sold at auction in 1882. The pub had a pigsties, stable, gig house and an adjoining blacksmiths shop and shoeing forge. By 1891 Christopher Jeffs was the publican at the Fox Inn. His mother Elizabeth lived next door. She had recently sold the nearby Talbot Hotel where her other son William was the licensee. With two Jeffs brothers running the Talbot Hotel and the Fox Inn, the family had quite a share of the beer market in Chaddesley Corbett. Elizabeth Jeffs was born in Wribbenhall near Bewdley. In the 1860's she lived close to the Tontine Inn at Stourport where her husband worked as a master carrier's clerk. She was a widow by 1871 when she lived with her children at Lichfield Street in Stourport. Christopher Jeffs was single but employed Harriett Spencer as a housekeeper.
In 1901 54 year-old William Pratt was the publican of the Fox Inn. He hailed from Whitstable in Kent and combined the job of innkeeper with that of harness maker. The son of a saddler, he had already established this business in the village and previously lived at Briar Hill Cottage. Helping him run the Fox Inn was his Worcester-born wife Sophia. Elizabeth Jeffs still lived in the adjacent cottage but the blacksmith's shop had closed during the 1890's.
Ann Newey, owner of the Fox Inn, sold the pub to G.H.Boulter, Shire Oak Brewery located at Stonnal near Walsall in 1903. The brewery were keen to expand their estate of pubs in Worcestershire. It was then that the pub's brewhouse closed and the Shire Oak ales introduced to Chaddesley Corbett. It is probably after the pub was acquired that it was re-modelled. Shire Oak closed in 1930 and the pub was sold to John Joules and Sons of Stone in Staffordshire. They kept the pub until 1968 when they were taken over by Bass Charington.
The Fox
returned to Free House status in 1999 when current owner James Wood acquired the building from Bass.
Former Licensees of The Fox Inn |
