Two, or Three, JBTs.
- Stewart
- 5 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The two jolly beer tasters (JBTs) had to postpone their summer session in Macclesfield due to the indisposition of one of their number as mentioned in this post featuring that town's lost Queens Arms. On attempting to rearrange the visit, one of the pair took exception to Travelodge wanting about £120 just to lay one's head on their comfy pillows for a night. No breakfast, no parking, just somewhere to lie down for eight hours.
Yes – and I don't think this will come as any surprise to those that know me – it was me! With me being half-Scottish would you expect anything else? It doesn't help that my Scottish half is from the waist down, where the pockets are.
Instead of being ripped-off in Macc I found a nice pub with 4* accommodation, breakfast and parking for less than three quarters of the cost of that Travelodge. The JBTs were off to Tamworth.
We arrived a little early, and with the thermometer in the car showing thirty-two degrees were glad to enjoy the air-conditioned delights of the bar whilst our accommodation was readied. The pints of Sharp's Sea Fury were welcome too. At 5%, this malty pint was very nice, but probably both a little on the strong side and a little too dark to be best choice for the prevailing weather conditions.
Bags dumped and pints quaffed it was time for the JBTs to head out into the heat to explore this market town, which to be found about fifteen miles northeast of Birmingham. First stop was the Sir Robert Peel, remembered, or not, for his Tamworth Manifesto.
Having quaffed our first, with its warm welcome and cool interior we stopped at the Peel for a second. Lighter, golden ales were the order of the day from here on.
Our next port of call and refuge from the furnace was the Market Vaults...
...with a sign that the Inn Sign Society would be proud of.
Selling Joule's brews, from Market Drayton, I sampled a half of Citra, which I thought wasn't especially good, followed by a half of Pale, which was.
Our final stop was in the Tamworth Tap where we each tried the Three Tuns' Solstice. Light in alcohol as well as appearance it really did suit the weather that we were experiencing.
A three times winner of CAMRA's national Pub of the Year title this is a cracking little pub, apart from one of my pet hates. Queueing!
OK. The bar could be described by a certain type of estate agent as bijou, but is queueing really necessary? Anybody working a bar who is worth their salt would know who was next in line to be served and most of us Brits would point out who was ahead of us if a mistake was made.
Traditionally these away days end with a curry so, on leaving the Tap we made our way to the Delhi Divan on Lower Gungate, just a hundred yards away from the Globe. Not too far to stagger back with full bellies.
The food was really nice, getting a top three place in our league table of away day curries. Only two complaints. Firstly, the portion size would've fed a three-generation family in Bangladesh and, secondly, no kulfi. We could've found some stomach space for a nice cool kulfi, but that was not to be. How about some nice vanilla ice cream? No luck there either. No ice cream of any sort. In fact, they don't do desserts at all. That was it then. The JBTs would have to make their way back to the Globe to dredge up obscure musical tracks from their youth to listen to whilst solving the problem of world peace.
As has also become tradition, I have to include a pub that we were unable to visit as it no longer exists. Unsurprisingly there are a few bygones that I could've chosen, but I've plumped for another JBT, viz the Jolly Button Turner that used to ply its trade at 48 Bolebridge Street. It's a pretty unusual pub name. In fact I have only found one other that went by the name. That one was in Church Street in Birmingham and is also long gone.
The Jolly Button Turner was in existence by at least 1801, and was occupied by a James Pike, when it was the location of an auction as announced in Aris's Birmingham Gazette on 12th October.
For a significant part of the nineteenth century it was run by members of the Hastilow family. Pigot's directory of 1828 gives a James Hastelow [sic] there...
...and he was still in residence by the time of the 1851 census.
On James's death, in 1853, his son John came in and ran the place. If not straight away, then at least by 1861.
When it was John's own turn to meet his maker, in the summer of 1879, his widow Eliza took over the reins.
Whilst Eliza was at number 48, her daughter Caroline, who'd married Charles Bird in 1875, was living close by at number 50. Charles died and Eliza retired, not necessarily in that order, and by 1891 Caroline was running the pub.
Quite what happened to Caroline, I'm not sure. I think that she may have remarried and moved away. In any case, by 1900 the family's connection with the Jolly Button Turner seems to have come to an end and the pub was being run by Emma Ball.
The 1901 census shows her living there with son George...
...but by 1904 it looks like she's retired leaving George in charge.
George was at the Button Turner for around thirty years, still showing up when Kelly's produced their 1932 edition...
...and here he is, probably around 1910ish, with some of his regulars.
Today, if you were to stand in the same location and take a photograph, this is what you'd see.
The Jolly Button Turner became a victim of the 1970s town planners' need for road widening. It was boarded up by 1974 and was demolished in October 1978.
So that's the fate of one JBT. The other pair of JBTs have already arranged their autumn sojourn. As Travelodge's prices have come down to a Travelodge leveI it's to be that visit to Macclesfield that this trip should've been. Plenty more bygones to choose from there.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
The newspaper image is courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).
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