CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

WEST MIDLANDS - Oldbury, Waggon & Horses

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

17a Church Street, Oldbury, B69 3AD

Tel: 0121 552 5467

Draught Beer & Cider: Real Ales

Public Transport: Railway Station: Sandwell & Dudley

Pub Food: Meals Lunch: Monday - Saturday Evenings: Tuesday - Friday

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

A corner pub built by Holt's Brewery of Aston in 1890 in the red and terracotta style so typical of Birmingham with a polygonal turret on the corner. There is evidence of the original ownership in painted and terracotta features on the exterior, and in the remaining etched glass of the exterior windows and door panels, including Holt's 'squirrel' - a feature which was later adopted by Ansells. The side entrance leads into a splendid drinking passage separating the front public bar and a separate rear room. The L-shaped passage has colourful Victorian tiled floor and floor to ceiling tiled walls which feature tiled panels in brown, yellow, gold and blue-green with a band at dado level of brown, green and gold tiles and yellow ones above to the cornice, which has another band of brown and yellow tiles. The existence of shelves indicates the old tradition of passageway drinking still exists here. There is a small counter, almost a hatch for serving this area and the Smoke Room. Note the etched glass panel in the inner door which has the wording 'Smoke Room & Club Room'. The floor tiling continues all the way around to the toilets at the rear and there is a panelled dado. Upstairs is a function room with modern bar fittings and brick fireplace, but 7 of the original 9 etched windows survive.

The front bare boarded public bar has floor to ceiling tiling with colourful tiles on the dado and yellow ones above with a band of brown tiles at cornice level. The original bar counter and fine mirrored bar-back featuring slender columns with capitals remain with few modern additions. The rare copper ceiling has been painted over and the original benches remain. The room would originally have been divided by partition walls - note the doors on the corner (the vestibule looks like a modern addition) and on Church Street. A doorway from the passage leads to the Smoke Room which is a small bare boarded room with re-upholstered Victorian fixed seating all around, a baffle by the door and another halfway along the seating on the window side and above the seating is a panel with a large number of bell pushes. The tiled and wood surround fireplace looks to date from the 1930s. There is another Holt window, but another has been lost in recent years and not replaced.