From pub plays to acts of protest in Stratford
Two weeks ago, the Herald published an article on the lost pubs of Stratford and sparked more than a few memories. Here we focus on two of the responses involving stories about the town’s brewing history and the pub which had its own theatre.
End of the Brewery
IN 1968, the Flower’s Brewery on Birmingham Road closed its doors after more than 130 years of brewing beer for the many Stratford pubs.
Seven years earlier, the company had been taken over by Whitbread, which decided to shut the brewery down and move production to their base in Cheltenham.
Bert Russell had worked as one of the brewery’s draymen for 25 years, transporting barrels as far afield as Wales, and when the announcement came that all Flower’s staff would be made redundant, he and his fellow colleagues decided to make one last stand.
Carrying the sign of their beloved brewery, the men marched up Birmingham Road to one of the last pubs that Flower’s built, The Yard of Ale, where they planned to stage a protest by covering the pub’s Whitbread; a parting act of defiance, according to Bert’s son, Alan Russell.
“He loved working there. They were the best days of his life, so he was gutted when it all finished,” said Alan. “I can always remember him very nearly in tears over the fact that it had all gone. That was it - redundancy. He just loved the job, and I think that’s what was so upsetting for him.
“He was a worried man; you’ve got to pay the bills and I wouldn’t say it was a well-paid job. I think they all thought it was a job for life and never dreamt it would all fold.
“A lot of the guys suffered a little bit after that. It shook them all and this was their only way of making a stance. It wasn’t necessarily going to do any good, and obviously it didn’t, but at least they had a go.
“I’m immensely proud of my dad, and it’s a bit of Stratford history, I suppose.”
Plays at The Unicorn
Martin Kenny sent in the following article, produced with the assistance of the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
WITH a history stretching back to 1756, the Unicorn, now known as the Pen and Parchment, has one of the most fascinating backgrounds of any Stratford pub.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has amongst its archive material several play bills for shows that were performed over 250 years ago at the New Theatre at the Unicorn.
The Booth Company opened the season of performances with Hamlet on Saturday, 2nd March, 1771. The actors were the renowned performers of the day, the Booth players would regularly top the bill at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Performances in pub theatres would be lively encounters in which audiences would expect to interact with performers, maybe similar to modern pantomime.
There are many iconic images of the Unicorn held within the archives, such as the long lines of Stratford men assembled in Warwickshire Regiment uniforms at the outbreak of the First World War. Other photographs show the pub at various levels of floods from 1860s to the present day.
The Unicorn has also changed its title from being an inn to a hotel or pub across the centuries. Images from the 1860s show a cattle market adjacent to the New Theatre. By the late 1960s the theatre is known as the Old Barn and was repurposed as a Wimpy bar and ice cream parlour. Until recent times the Old Barn has been used for various commercial ventures until becoming a hotel in more recent years.
At the back of the Old Barn, which faces the Bridgefoot car park, the building gives glimpses of its age with the hayloft, bricked up windows and curiously a stone lion built into the wall. Of course, this may not be an original feature but it appears that the Pen and Parchment has much undiscovered history.
Photos: Nigel Bromley
