Pub history · No.2 of 18 · Coalport & Jackfield
The Black Swan, Jackfield
Earlier origins | The difficult one to date
Our second pub immediately demonstrates why ranking them isn't straightforward.
Today's Black Swan belongs largely to the Jackfield of the mid-19th century.
But research into the pub points to an earlier Black Swan on the opposite bank of the river, believed to date back to the 17th century. The present building replaced it.
So rather than inventing a precise date we cannot prove, we're putting the Black Swan at No.2 while making the reason clear.
By 1881 we have a wonderful snapshot of life inside the pub.
The census records Eliza Culliss, just 23 years old, as innkeeper. She lived there with her father John and three of her siblings.
And pub keeping apparently ran in the family. Eliza's sister Sarah and her husband Adam Ball ran the nearby Tumbling Sailor.
The Mucky Duck
Then there's the name.
Ask for the Black Swan and some locals may still tell you: “You mean the Mucky Duck?”
Coal dust has been blamed. So has river mud. Another explanation says the swans around the wharf simply weren't particularly white.
Nobody has yet produced the definitive answer.
What matters is that Mucky Duck was never the official name. It was a nickname created and preserved by the people who drank there.
The photograph below shows the pub when industrial Jackfield was still very much alive, with Coalford Brickworks and railway sidings nearby.
Stand there today among the greenery and it's difficult to imagine it.
The photograph does the imagining for us.
How we know this date
- TraditionCAMRA and local pub histories describe the Black Swan as one of the Gorge's oldest pubs, with an earlier house of the same name on the opposite bank believed to date to the 17th century. No document yet proves it, which is why we say “earlier origins” rather than inventing a year.Source: CAMRA and local pub histories
- DocumentedThe 1881 census records Eliza Culliss, just 23, as innkeeper, living at the pub with her father John and three of her siblings.Source: 1881 census
- TraditionNew evidence submitted following publication points to directory entries for the Black Swan in 1835 (William Oakes), 1842 (Edward Lloyd), 1851 (Charles Parker) and 1856 (Charles Parker). These references appear to pre-date the move to the present premises. We are seeking copies/full references for these directory entries before incorporating them as confirmed evidence.Source: Local research submitted following publication
This is a working date. If you have a document or photograph that changes it, we'd genuinely like to see it.
“You mean the Mucky Duck?”
Then
Now
Black Swan · Coalport & Jackfield
Can you help with The Black Swan, Jackfield?
We're still researching this pub. Old photographs, licences, newspaper cuttings, brewery documents or family memories all help — and if you have evidence that changes our date, we'd genuinely like to see it.
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