A History of the Gypsies Tent by John Richards
The Last Beerhouse in Dudley, Worcestershire A History of the Gypsies Tent (Formerly the Jolly Collier)
by John Richards
The last beerhouse in Dudley
(Previously published in the Brewery History Society Journal no.52, January 1988)
- Bert and Don Millard, Little Model Brewery
Dudley in the early 19th century was not a pleasant place. It is described by Pigot ... "as covered by coal pit banks, steam engines, blast furnaces and iron mills". At Queens Cross ... "the coal in the mines is in a state of ignition, smoke and gas may be seen issuing from the cracked ground ... this phenomenon has presented itself upwards of 100 years". This is the area where our story starts.
The earliest references traced to the site of the Gypsies Tent are included in deeds dated 11th April 1804. They in turn refer to earlier schedules, including one for the 9th July 1777. The former was an Indenture between Benjamin Vanes Gwinutt of Dudley, nail weigher, and George Gwinutt, victualler (the latter was licensee of the Windmill Inn, Old Mill Street a few yards away from the plot of ground that was to be developed into terraced houses). Also involved in the transaction was Thomas Shore, he later became landlord of the Three Crowns standing on the corner of Upper High Street and Old Mill Street.
Thomas Shore was a member of the Shore (Shaw) family, who owned the Barrel Vaults and the Cross Inn, 102 Upper High Street together with a malting business. The deeds concerned a small piece of land that was described as 'garden ground' and it cost Thomas £12. The Gwinutt family also owned the Golden Lion on Bacon Row, Kates Hill (a mile away), and founded Gwinutt's Mineral Water Company.
In 1820, son Thomas Shore borrowed £260 from his father and signed with an X. With the money received he built a dwelling house on the four perches of land bought in 1804. The solicitor handling the business was James Bourne, who was a partner in the old Dudley Brewery at Burnt Tree, near Dudley, and whose family went on to own their own brewery in Fisher Street and a number of public houses.
From time to time, various pieces of land adjacent were bought and sold - one of special interest is a Lease of Possession dated 28th September 1825 that involved local maltster George England, who later became the largest common brewer in Dudley. His malthouse and bottled porter store was in Hall Street. Also involved was victualler John Stokes, landlord of the Five Ways Inn opposite the 'garden ground'; and Joseph Whitehouse, plumber and glazier. Dwelling houses were built on this site one year later. John Whitehouse (possibly a son), is recorded living here in 1841 (census) aged 35 and a publican. It was a beerhouse then and remained so until the doors were finally closed for the last time in 1980.
The property remained in the ownership of Joseph Whitehouse, though the licences, like the address had changed, the property was now listed in Dock Lane not Stafford Street. The 1851 census records William Griffith as landlord, aged 27 from Montgomery. He was also a brewer. This is the first reference to brewing at the Jolly Collier.
In 1861 the licence was held by 34 year old John Cleavley, and the address had changed again, it was now Grey Stone Street. He too was a brewer from Seven Stoke in Worcestershire, his wife Sarah came from Hartlebury.
The first mention of George Thomas Millard at the Jolly Collier is a receipt dated 14th October 1867 for £1 5s. ... "for making an inventory of the fixtures and fittings for Mr Thompson". The valuer was local auctioneer Thomas Stokes. The receipt was handwritten and is still in existence.
A second receipt dated one day later, the 15th, for the increased amount of £15 13s. ... "all the fixtures in and about the Jolly [spelt Joly] Collier beerhouse". Signed with X over a stamp by the outgoing tenant Daniel Smart (his father John kept the pub before him, but had moved to number 11 Dock Lane, very close to Stepping Stone Street, to the Old Dock, that later became the home-brewed Round House, delicenced in April 1963, a photograph can be seen in Hanson's sample room, Dudley. Other members of the Smart family ran beerhouses in Birmingham Street and Bath Street). The Mr Thompson referred to would have been George Thompson who had a malthouse in Stone Street and lived then at Queens Cross, close to the Jolly Collier, and went on, with brother Frederick to found Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries with a certain Thomas Banks.
George Millard was a country boy born and bred in Duddleston, Gloucestershire, where he met local girl Ann Elizabeth Cornforth. Both families later moved to Aston, near Birmingham, around 1860, where George and Ann were married at St Peters & St Paula Church on the 20th January 1861 - he was 22 and described as a brewer, she was 20 and signed the marriage certificate with a X.
The Millards moved back to Duddleston where their first child Elizabeth was born. Their second, Harriet Jane was born in Cross Street Dudley, just a short distance from the Jolly Collier in Stafford Street on the 18th February 1863. The Dudley birth certificate refers to George Thomas now as Innkeeper brewer, though this is not confirmed by any directory, but we do know that he found work at the Five Ways Inn adjacent.
His father George was a miller by trade, he moved to Dudley to live with his son and the family in the early 1880s. He died on 22nd January 1885, aged 76 and was buried at St James's Cemetery, Eve Hill, on the 28th.
The first census to record George Millard as a tenant at the Jolly Collier was in 1871.
- George Thomas Millard ... Head ... Widower ... 33 ... Brewer/publican ... born Kingstanley, Glos.
- Elizabeth Millard ... Daughter ... 9 ... born Kingstanley, Glos,
- Harriet Millard ... Daughter ... 8 ... born Dudley, Worcs
- Sarah Cornforth ... Niece ... 17 ... Unmarried Servant ... born Birmingham
- William Cornforth ... Father ... 68 ... Widower ... born Kinver
The Cornforths were brought in to help run the family business.
The Jolly Collier was named after the main local industry; collieries, mine shafts and winding gear were everywhere. The whole of Dudley and the Black Country was, and for that matter still is, riddled with pits. A very large number went totally unrecorded.
In the ten years between 1871 and 1881, George Millard changed the name to the Gypsies Tent. He would be well acquainted with the considerable competition in the town, and would have visited the Colliers Arms and the three Miners Arms adjacent, and would be thinking about a different name. The family are convinced that he decided on the new name shortly after seeing a gypsy encampment. It would be around this time that he bought the Jolly Collier from the Thompsons. No mortgage deeds, however, survive.
1876 was a good year for George Thomas Millard. He re-married on the 6th February 1876; his bride was Harriet Somer Wilkes: he was 37 and she was 39. He also added to his estate by buying eight cottages together with garden lands ... "towards Grey Stone Field", from Thomas Downes, at a cost of £230, and installed his father in one of them. With the demand growing for his homebrewed beers, more room was required to expand the old brewery. What was needed was a new one, a 'model brewery', but without going deeply into debt again, it would have to be a 'Little Model Brewery'.
The decision made and the new brewery christened, he borrowed £250 in 1879 from the Thompsons and another successful local maltster, Luke Jewkes, who also owned beer and public houses. He lived nearby in posh Victoria Terrace (the Jewkes later became involved with John Dawes and the Victoria Brewery in Hall Street, close to George England's Dudley Brewery).
Work started immediately on 'The Little Model Brewery' as it was now called, at the rear of the Gypsies Tent, and it was soon in production brewing the strong dark Black Country mild, together with a bitter, that looked and tasted something similar to the Batham's Delph bitter today. Every year a special October brew would be laid down, it was dark and rich and carried an original gravity of 1098, some years it was even higher. This was an annual event until George Millard's death at the age of 60, and when shortly after his funeral one of the vessels was emptied, it was found to be half full of hops.
It was three-quarter tower brewery and traditional in design, four stories, with a block at each side, the remains can be seen today behind the old Peacock Brewery - perhaps better known now as Hansons. Town water was used and beer sold locally to the free trade.
In 1881, George Millard was 43 and had been married for 5 years, daughters Elisabeth and Harriet were working in the business and described in that year's census as servants. George was 3, and Harry Millard just 5 months - born 14th October 1880.
George Thomas outlived his father by only 13 years. He died in December 1898, having laid the foundation of a successful business, but not living long enough to enjoy some of the pleasures of retirement. He too is buried at Eve Hill.
Harry Millard worked, in an export merchant's office in Birmingham when he left school, and helped in the pub and brewery when required, so he knew the routine. His mother Harriet became licensee. She died on 15th February 1921 aged 84, she too is buried at Eve Hill.
Harry married Annie Smith when he was 21. She was 24 and a Walsall girl. They were married in 1901 at St John's Church, they had six children - all girls.
In 1914, the year that Harry became the licence holder, the front of Gypsies Tent was rebuilt. It was necessary because of mining subsidence for which, in the Black Country, there was no redress. When the builders excavated they discovered a shallow draft mine and the remains of a bell pit - a type in common use in the borough. Colliers would dig out a shaft in the shape of a bell, remove all the coal and when exhausted place railway sleepers over the mouth; sometimes the shaft would be capped with a single course of bricks, left and forgotten about, eventually to cave in. The family guessed long before this happened that they had a problem; in the pub kitchen you could light the gas from the pit shaft under the floor as it escaped between the bricks.
It cost £5,000 to make good and rebuild; a metal girder was placed along the edge of the Gypsies Tent. It had been specially made by Danks of Oldbury and it was the longest, at the time, ever used in Dudley. It was bolted into place in the trench and concrete poured over and around. It is there to this day and not only supports the building but busy Steppingstone Street that runs alongside. Harry never succeeded in paying off the mortgage, it was eventually settled by sons Don and Bert.
Harry brewed two beers, a 1036 mild, by now well reduced in gravity, and the stronger light bitter at 1042, with the occasional special brew. His father George a few years before his death had bought a beerhouse, the Sun at Credence; a few miles away, but like most of the old Dudley pubs of character, long since disappeared, the local Police Station now stands on the site. He also invested a third share in the Old Crown Inn, High Street, Kinver which had a full licence. The Little Model Brewery beer was delivered by a Dudley carter, the load would take all day - Kinver was some 10 miles away - loading at 8 o'clock in the morning, returning at five in the evening. It cost 7/6 per journey. Millards owned the cart, the carter and the horse.
Harry Millard featured in 'The New Citizen' in March 1949, and was photographed standing outside the Gypsies Tent in the traditional brewers pose, holding up a glass of beer to the light, this on his 50th anniversary in the business as brewer publican - and he was still regarded 30 years after World War I as the local expert on swimming and water polo, he was a keen swimmer and official instructor to the Dudley Club. Part of the pub premises were used by the Dudley Little Theatre, sons Bert and Don were both active members.
Harry, like his father before him, ran the business successfully, and on his death in November 1957 aged 77, he left the brewery and Gypsies Tent to his two sons, Bert and Don. Bert had been taught to brew by his father so this did not represent a problem. Donald worked for Preedy's, the local tobacco wholesalers and retailers, their warehouse and offices were some 50 yards away. He worked behind the bar to complete the team. Both are bachelors.
They are also teetotallers, unlike their father and grandfather. Their mother Clara (Harry Millard had remarried after the death of his first wife, they had four children, Gladis, Harry, Bert and Donald), had signed the Pledge, which was "not to touch, taste or handle". She broke the last one, but in view of the family business, she was excused. She also met her husband Harry in the Temperance Institute, High Street, Dudley.
Brewer Bert depended on his father regarding taste and flavour, after his death he depended on his customers' reaction ..."'they would soon tell me if I'd got it wrong" he remarked.
A Royal Brew (1050 og) celebrated the visit by the Queen on the 23rd March 1957. It resulted in a personal appearance on the BBC 'Tonight' programme, Bert was interviewed by Cliff Michelmore on April 10th.
They hand-bottle Guinness and Bass No. 1 Barley Wine; Bert recalls that it would take half-a-day to produce 400 half-pints. They stopped in 1956, Black Country brewers Holden's bottled for them after this.
The Little Model Brewery was now producing between 8-10 barrels a week, depending on demand, the maximum possible was 14 barrels. There were - and in fact they still exist - two fermenting vessels, the capacity 360 and 400 gallons. Barretts hops were normally used, the malt purchased from Laws of Wombourn.
Brewing stopped in December 1961; the reason was trouble with the council over the proposed new ring road scheduled to be started in 1965 - a new boiler and hot tank was urgently required and no assurances could be given over the future redevelopment of the area. Also the new health regulations were of concern; the brewhouse, had, as was customary, been whitewashed as it helped to absorb moisture and steam, but would now have to be removed and replaced with gloss paint which would not. The brothers decided that enough was enough and shut the brewery down and in doing so brought to a close over 120 years of Dudley brewing history.
In place of Millard's homebrew beers, they sold hand-pumped Bass and mild, and an increasing amount of cider, to the extent of becoming known locally as 'The Cider House'.
By 1980 nothing regarding the redevelopment had been resolved to their satisfaction and this plus ever-demanding licensing regulations causing continuing problems for the brothers, they jointly agreed to finally call it a day and close down the Gypsies Tent. This they did in December after 113 years of family ownership. The Victorian public house is still there, untouched, as it was on the close of business, bottles and glasses on the bar shelves, bar furniture, tables and stools, with the etched windows inside still in excellent condition.
Don and Bert Millard are happily retired, living with their dogs and memories, and apart from the occasional twinge of arthritis, are fit and well.
Licencees of the Jolly Collier, later the Gypsies Tent
- 1830s ... John Whitehouse ... to ca.1841
- 1841 ... William Griffith ... to ca.1851
- 1851 ... John Cleavley ... to ca.1861
- 1861 ... John Smart, then Daniel Smart ... to 1867
- 1867 ... George Thomas Millard ... to 1899
- 1899 ... Harriet Millard ... to 1914
- 1914 ... Harry Wright Millard ... to 1952
- 1952 ... Bert Millard ... to 1980