14/10/25 - Two Historic Pubs in Northfield, Birmingham

Fewer but Better

Always interesting to walk with the Ramblers. The conversations jumped between topics; I have determined where the best place to watch free live Blues music in town is (Snobs). And as if they knew where I was heading post walk, the conversation turned to the rather magnificent Black Horse in Northfield.

One Rambler discussed playing in a band in the upstairs function room. Another recounted  the history of the Temperance movement in Victorian Birmingham. They campaigned for the closure of vice-addled drinking dens for "more family friendly pubs".  Fewer but better.

The absolute gits.

In the late Victorian era, when Joseph Chamberlain was transforming Birmingham from an industrial sprawl into a model of civic pride, reform extended even to its pubs. As Mayor from 1873 to 1876, Chamberlain championed the idea that a city could uplift its citizens through cleaner streets, better housing, and moral improvement — an ethos known as the “Civic Gospel.” That same spirit inspired a drive to reform Birmingham’s drinking culture. The Voluntary Compensation Scheme of 1897 allowed brewers to give up licences for overcrowded or disreputable pubs in exchange for trade-funded payments. The effect was dramatic: over 600 pubs were closed in Birmingham, clearing the way for a new generation of “improved public houses” — bright, spacious, and respectable — designed to encourage conversation, dining, and family life over hard drinking.

The Black Horse isa prime example of this blueprint. An enormous, mock Tudor roadhouse, that looks more like a manor house than a pub.

Too big for a photograph

Built in 1929 for Davenports, its now - and no prizes for guessing - a Wetherspoons. Let me count the ways that I loved it.

1. Ornate woodwork, inside and out
2. Real fires
3. Multi-roomed - but the CAMRA Heritage Pub Book includes a map
4. Interesting cask - all at £1.89 a pint
5. A bowling green
6. Downstairs Toilets

I settled in the Gent's Smoke Room

A incredible, affordable theme park palace of a pub.

Make a pint last an hour and this is cheaper than having the heating on at home

5.6% Cairngorm Bothy

The Bowling Green

The more you look, the more you see

I also wanted to discover "Historic Northfield" - so I headed down to the equally interesting Great Stone Inn. Away from the busy dual carriageway, opposite the church and clustered around a collection of cottages dating from the 18th-century.

Historic Birmingham

The item that gives the pub its name is a glacial boulder, once used as a mounting block for riders at the corner of Church Road and Church Hill. In the 1950s it was moved to the village pound, a sandstone enclosure once used to hold stray animals—where it still rests, next to the pub.

A Glacial Erratic in a Pound

Low ceilings, multiple rooms, promotion offers and one-armed bandits, I was faced with a choice of two disappointments. The supplied glass was a too crafty for Wye Valley HPA. And in this part of the world, when a man orders scratchings, he does not expect crunch.

Crispy Crackled Pork Bites are not scratchings