Images in this collection
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Madeley Wood, looking along the bank
Early 1900s
This wide early 1900s panorama sweeps across Madeley Wood, taking in the Bird in Hand bank to the right, the Blockhouse pub in the foreground and Beeches Hospital on the skyline. Behind the wall sits a terrace once nicknamed Gawpers, or Gawbeys, opposite the George — a scrap of local slang that has otherwise vanished entirely from memory.
Sepia panorama, photographer unknown
New Bridge Road, with the pubs marked
Early 20th century
A previous owner has carefully annotated this early 20th-century panorama of New Bridge Road, marking out the garage, the Blockhouse pub and the Bird in Hand. Such hand-written labels are small treasures for historians, fixing exact locations that would otherwise be guesswork from the photograph alone.
Annotated archive photograph
The Blockhouse Inn
Late 19th century
James Potts' name is proudly displayed over the door of the Blockhouse Inn in this late Victorian photograph, with landlord, family and regulars all gathered outside for the camera. Group portraits like this, staged specially for a visiting photographer, were often the only occasion an ordinary pub and its community were ever formally recorded.
Archive photograph, photographer unknown
The inn built in 1774
Late 19th century
A crowd of adults and children pose proudly outside this brick riverside inn in a late Victorian photograph, its owner having dated the building itself to 1774. The gathering suggests the inn was as much a community hub as a business, its river-facing position placing it right alongside the crossing trade below.
Archive photograph, photographer unknown
Ferrymen below the Bird in Hand
Late 19th century
Ferrymen sit aboard their boat in this late Victorian photograph, with the buildings of the Bird in Hand bank rising directly behind them. The inn's name and the ferry's route were intertwined in daily life here, each depending on the passing trade that the river crossing brought to its door.
Archive photograph, photographer unknown
The Dog & Duck
Late 19th century
Two figures sit outside the timber-framed Dog & Duck in this late Victorian photograph, the pub's trade drawn directly from the ferry landing just below it. Riverside inns like this one depended almost entirely on passing ferry passengers for custom, a relationship the pub's very position on the bank makes obvious.
Archive photograph, photographer unknown
Tuckies, with the Duke of Wellington and the Boat Inn
Early 20th century
Careful annotations on this early 20th-century photograph identify the Duke of Wellington and the Boat Inn, two pubs that between them served ferry passengers, tileworks labourers and towpath travellers passing through Tuckies. Having two competing pubs so close together says much about how much foot traffic this small crossing point once carried.
Annotated archive photograph