Perhaps one of the most direct and accessible links with the past may be found through Amblecote’s pubs. Despite a century of effort by the magistracy, combined with the breathalyser and a social shift that sent the great British drinking public packing from the saloon bar and plodding round the supermarket, several old pubs have survived to this day.

Of course many have been lost. Brettell Lane, which now possesses only 3 licensed premises on its Amblecote side, had nine listed in the Stourbridge Directory of 1905 whilst King William Street, which boasted the Woodman and the Greyhound in the same publication, now has none.

Others have been rebuilt. The Little Pig, for example was replaced in the 1930s, as was the Royal Oak at Holloway End in the 1950s. Some pubs have also changed name. The Dudley Arms, on the corner of Collis Street and Brettell Lane, was renamed The Starving Rascal to celebrate its alleged ghost, whilst The White Horse at the other end of Brettell Lane is now appropriately enough The Maverick to complement a Wild West theme. The Moorings, standing right on the border of old Amblecote adjacent to the canal wharf at Holloway End, was once the Barrel and before that the Navigation, all names reflecting its proximity and association with the canal and nearby Bonded Warehouse.

Nevertheless many of the pubs still in existence enable a tangible glimpse of Amblecote past. The Swan in Brettle Lane can provide – if carefully observed through the bottom of an upturned glass or two – a decidedly warming historical experience. Meanwhile, the Birch Tree, which possibly incorporates some (hidden) 18th Century elements, presents one of the most interesting of all Amblecote’s older buildings. Now at the end of a cul-de-sac off Stamford Road, the Birch Tree once stood opposite a colliery on Vicarage Road, where for generations it served a local population of labourers from Amblecote’s farms and mines. The drive to the pub (still named Vicarage Road) is a remnant of this lane’s eastern end.

Mention must also be made of the Fish Inn at Coalbournbrook. This fine old building is now the Ruby Chinese Restaurant, its original lines wonderfully adorned with a pagoda style canopy. Nevertheless the crossroads it stands upon are still known as ‘The Fish’, and probably will remain so for lifetimes to come. A case, as with Coalbournbrook itself, of a name outliving its origins.

Perhaps one of the saddest losses was The Glassmakers Arms on the corner of Collis Street and High Street. Whilst the pub itself, at least in its final incarnation could only be described as utilitarian, the symbolic link it provided with the glass industry was profound.