12 George Hotel Into the Roar<strong>in</strong>g Twenties By Jono Oates ............................ One hundred years ago, <strong>Lichfield</strong>, like many towns and cities across the world, was recover<strong>in</strong>g from the devastation of World War One and the aftermath of one of the world’s most destructive pandemics, the ‘Spanish’ <strong>in</strong>fluenza of 1919. In <strong>January</strong> 1921 <strong>Lichfield</strong> started the new year with some trepidation, hop<strong>in</strong>g for a brighter beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to the 1920s. At a meet<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>Lichfield</strong> City Council held at the Guildhall on <strong>January</strong> 10th 1921, a committee of councillors, led by Mayor Joseph Deacon, considered a plan put forward by Smethwick architect George Randle to build a proposed Picture House on Tamworth Street. Although the plans for a c<strong>in</strong>ema, or Picture Palace, were debated by the council <strong>in</strong> 1921, it wasn’t until July 1932 that the Regal C<strong>in</strong>ema became <strong>Lichfield</strong>’s first c<strong>in</strong>ema. It later became a B<strong>in</strong>go Hall, then Kwik-Save supermarket, before ly<strong>in</strong>g empty for many years. It has now been developed <strong>in</strong>to apartments, The Old Picture House, with the Grade II listed façade be<strong>in</strong>g reta<strong>in</strong>ed. The annual <strong>Lichfield</strong> Farmers' Ball was held at the George Hotel, on Bird Street, on <strong>January</strong> 12th, and was considered to be a ‘great success’. Over 100 guests were present, and the company <strong>in</strong>cluded Capta<strong>in</strong> Roger Manley, president of the group, Sir Francis Villiers Forster, and Major George Anson (jo<strong>in</strong>t masters of the South Stafford Hounds). Frederick W<strong>in</strong>terton, of the <strong>Lichfield</strong> Smithfield market and auction, was the secretary of the group. On the other side of town, at the Old Crown Hotel on Bore Street, the tenth annual meet<strong>in</strong>g of the <strong>Lichfield</strong> Shire Horse Society also took place on 12th <strong>January</strong>. Mr J Eadie was the president of this group and the ubiquitous Frederick W<strong>in</strong>terton was the Honorary Secretary. In the annual report, W<strong>in</strong>terton stated that there were now 200 ord<strong>in</strong>ary members and 10 honorary members <strong>in</strong> the society and that dur<strong>in</strong>g the year 25 new members had jo<strong>in</strong>ed the society. In 1921 there were nearly two million shire horses <strong>in</strong> the UK, however today the breed is close to ext<strong>in</strong>ction. At the end of <strong>January</strong> 1921, the Staffordshire Advertiser reported that the Staffordshire County Council Education Department was look<strong>in</strong>g to lease various properties to house the <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g numbers of pupils at the <strong>Lichfield</strong> Girl’s High School. The options were to extend the lease on their current location, Yeomanry House, which was opposite St John’s Hospital on St John Street. They also looked to extend the exist<strong>in</strong>g lease at Nether Beacon, for a term of five years at an annual rent of £120 and to <strong>in</strong>troduce a five-year lease for the Friary build<strong>in</strong>g, which was part of the orig<strong>in</strong>al 13th century Franciscan Friary, at an annual rent of £85. Eventually the lease at Yeomanry House was term<strong>in</strong>ated and the majority of the students moved to the Friary build<strong>in</strong>g. A new, extended, school build<strong>in</strong>g was officially opened at the Friary <strong>in</strong> 1928 and it rema<strong>in</strong>ed until 1987, before the Friary school, now co-educational, moved to its new premises at Friary Grange. The <strong>Lichfield</strong> Chamber of Trade held its annual d<strong>in</strong>ner on <strong>January</strong> 10th at the Swan Hotel on Bird Street where 60 tradesmen attended. The Chamber’s president was William Morrison, a photographer on Bore Street. Morrison po<strong>in</strong>ted out that <strong>Lichfield</strong>, Regal C<strong>in</strong>ema South Staffordshire Regiment memorial, Whitt<strong>in</strong>gton DMS Swan hotel like other places, had ‘seasons of trade depression, and seasons of trade revival, but he ventured to say that no place could f<strong>in</strong>d men more will<strong>in</strong>g to take the rough along with the smooth than the gentlemen of the <strong>Lichfield</strong> Chamber of Trade’. On 7th <strong>January</strong> 1921 Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Tucker, Colonel of the South Staffordshire Regiment, wrote to the Letters page of the <strong>Lichfield</strong> Mercury from his base at Chalet St. Pierre, Biarritz, France, support<strong>in</strong>g a proposal to erect a monument at Whitt<strong>in</strong>gton Barracks <strong>in</strong> honour of the soldiers who had lost their lives <strong>in</strong> World War One, and ask<strong>in</strong>g for public donations. The tw<strong>in</strong> monuments for the North, and South, Staffordshire Regiments were officially unveiled <strong>in</strong> September 1922. *V<strong>in</strong>tage photographs copyright of the St Mary’s Photographic Collection Sources: The British Newspaper Archive; www.staffspasttrack.org.uk
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