Citylife in Lichfield January 2022

Most of the inns and pubs featured in this series disappeared from Lichfield
many years ago, but this month’s selection features a former pub that closed
within the last 12 months, as well as one that closed over 50 years ago.
The Greyhound Inn on Upper St John Street closed in 2020 and now lies empty, with the
building’s future uncertain at the current time, but for many years it was a very popular
community pub.
In December 1892, the Greyhound was the subject of an arson attack. Sarah Foden, a 28-
year-old iron galvaniser, was staying at the Greyhound in a room rented to her by landlord
William Lovett. On 22nd December the room in which she was staying caught fire and the
bedding and mattresses were all badly burned. Two other fires also broke out in an upper
floor room and at the stable outside the inn. Suspicion fell upon Sarah and when the police
searched her, they found three sovereigns and a number of gold rings that had gone missing.
At court the judge ruled that she had started the fires deliberately to provide a
‘smokescreen’ for stealing the coins and jewellery and sentenced her to 18 months of hard
labour in gaol.
Landlord Sydney Ball was in trouble with the courts in January 1911, charged with selling
a horse that was not fit for purpose to Andrew Harper of Bilston, in November 1910. Harper
claimed that the horse, which he had bought from Ball for 25 guineas, was a ‘jibber’ – a horse
that pulls up and refuses to move. Ball claimed that he had sold the horse in good faith and
that he had never known it to jib, but the judge ruled in favour of the plaintiff and charged
Ball 6 shillings in costs. Sydney was in trouble with the courts again in January 1914, when
he was charged with allowing an illegal lottery at his premises in the weeks before Christmas.
Ball argued that every licensed premises in Lichfield ran a lottery competition at Christmas
and that he was being unfairly singled out for punishment. The prizes on offer for the lottery
winners included turkeys, rabbits and bottles of whiskey and Ball issued the winning lottery
numbers in the newspapers. Mr Jackson, representing Ball, said that he liked lotteries and if
the Government ran a national lottery there would be far less illegal street betting. The judge
failed to agree, however, and charged Ball 10 shillings with 16 shillings costs.
A naughty errand boy was the criminal mastermind in June 1940 when a fourteen-yearold
unnamed boy was brought before the Lichfield Juvenile Court, charged with several
counts of theft. The boy had stolen five packets of cigarettes, with a value of 7 shillings and
1d, from Catherine Fox, landlady of the Greyhound Inn, and had also stolen two postal
orders, value 12s. 6d, from Mrs. Helen Wigham of Wheel Lane. When interviewed by PC Pike
the boy said ‘I am sorry I took them. I thought I could get away with it’. He was fined 30
shillings and his mother was ordered to pay the fine.
The Goat’s Head Inn was one of Lichfield’s oldest established inns and was originally
accessed directly from Breadmarket Street, it was later extended around the corner in to
Bore Street. There was a gated coach entrance to the rear of the inn and in October 1904
one of the inn’s horse and cabs suffered an accident when a retaining pin fell out from the
axle bar, and the horse bolted. It managed to get one of its legs trapped over the collapsed
axle and then, running on only three legs, started kicking and plunging as it raced through
the city’s streets. Eventually it was caught and a large wagonette with a harness was used to
bodily lift the horse away from the cab. Although badly injured the horse survived the rescue
operation.
The pub closed in January 1970 and was rebuilt to become a branch of Barclay’s Bank, as
it is today. On New Years Eve 1969 regulars gathered at the inn to say a farewell, and were
treated to a meal by the licensees, Horace Wilson and his wife Maud, who both retired after
the closure, having looked after several of the city’s pubs and inns, with over 40 years in the
trade. Lichfield lost another fine old pub, which boasted city’s largest snooker table, and one
that had hosted many sports’ clubs, societies and group meetings over the decades.
Sources: The British Newspaper Archive; Lichfield Pubs by Neil Coley, The Old Pubs of Lichfield by
John Shaw
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Lost Pubs of Lichfield
The Greyhound & the Goat
By Jono Oates
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The Greyhound Inn, 1990s
Goats Head from Breadmarket Street, 1890s
Goats Head 1970s