187 Enville Street Stourbridge DY83TB Tel: 01384 374410
The History of Katie Fitzgerald's public house researched & written by John Richards
Originally known as the Golden Lion, Katie Fitzgerald's was a small one-roomed beerhouse, the property of Mary Faulkner. It was well positioned to attract travellers along the Stourbridge-Kinver turnpike road. The Duke of Wellington's Beer House Act, 1830, permitted a householder or ratepayer, on payment of two guineas to the Excise, to turn his private house into a public house. In an area then known as Mamble Square, the Golden Lion opened in competition to the Bridge Inn opposite. The first licensee was widow Mary Faulkner around 1844; she was recorded in the 1851 census aged 70, with her daughter Mary, 37, and son William, 32. They employed one servant. Victorian licensing hours were both long and demanding, 18 hours a day, 4 am to 10 pm, seven days a week. Closed only during Divine Service, Christmas Day, and Good Friday. Mary Faulkner's choice of sign is interesting; the Golden Lion was usually associated with either Henry I, or the dukes of Northumberland, the Percy's. She however, was Welsh, so her reasons were probably more pragmatic, as there were two Red Lions and two White Lions nearby. Like the Bridge Inn, the Golden Lion was a homebrewed house. The popular Victorian Stourbridge drink was a form of malty mild: heavy, dark, sweet and strong - that usually varied considerably from brew to brew. The average Black Country gravity was 1060 - the second highest in England. By 1853 Mary Faulkner had passed on, and her daughter Mary had taken over. She remained single, then unusual for a landlady - selling the business to Thomas Whiston in 1865. Locally born Thomas Whiston was documented in the 1871 census aged 45, with his wife Elizabeth, 46, and one servant. Stourbridge magistrates granted the Golden Lion inn status in the 1870's. This permitted the house to remain open as long as a bed was empty, offering basic accommodation, simple victuals, homebrewed ale, and stabling to the lawful traveller. Rated at £28 0s 0d in 1900, the beerhouse was granted a full alehouse licence two years later. This permitted the retailing of wine and spirits in addition to beer, stout and porter. A status most beerhouse keepers sought but failed to achieve.
Brewing on the premises stopped when the Golden Lion was leased to Burton brewers Sidney Evershed Ltd, in 1902. In 1904, North Worcestershire Breweries Ltd, Stourbridge Brewery, Lower High Street, Stourbridge took the lease. Thomas Homer of Brierley Hill bought the Golden Lion in 1905, when brewing resumed. This continued through new owner John Auden until his death in 1924, when the Golden Lion became the property of Francis Joseph Matthews. Francis Joseph Matthews also owned the (Old) Crispin, in Windmill Street, now Church Street, Stourbridge. Son Francis John carried on the family tradition, brewing until 1947, when the family sold to Ansells Brewery in March 1961. Ansells closed the Golden Lion in 1984, and again in 1986, when it re-opened as the Stourbridge Lion, 4 August 1989.
Structurally unchanged, the old Golden Lion Inn continues to be a popular freehouse, and is now know as Katie Fitzgerald's, who was the grandmother of owner Trina Keane.
LICENSEES
HOMEBREWED/BEERHOUSE
1844 Mary Faulkner 1853
1853 Mary Faulkner (daughter) 1865
1865 Thomas Whiston 1879
1879 Edward Hawkswood 1884
1884 Trevis Richards 1895
1895 Moses Hipkiss 1901
1901 William Bowen 1905
1905 John Homer 1905
1905 George Mountford 1906
1906 Zachariah Mills 1907
1907 William Henry Cooper 1908
1908 Joseph Jordan 1909
1909 William Edmonds 1910
1910 John Auden 1924
1924 Rhoda Auden 1924
1924 Charles Henry Waldron 1926
1926 Thomas Samuel Watkins 1929
1929 Arthur George Morris 1930
1930 Reginald Thomas Ellis 1934
1934 William Henry Skinner 1936
1936 Reginald Thomas Ellis 1939
1939 Francis John Matthews 1947
1947 Evelyn Beatrice Matthews 1954
1954 Sarah Elizabeth Matthews 1958
1958 Ethel Maria Denbury 1959
1959 Sarah Elizabeth Matthews 1959
1959 Thomas Harry Cartwright 1960
1960 Harry Coates 1960
1960 Kenneth G Shilvock 1961
1961 John Hartley Rider 1964
1964 Ronald Haycock 1966
1966 John Sadler 1966
1966 John Frederick Morris 1967
1967 Robert Caleb Darby 1968
1968 Eunice Joan Dawler 1968
1968 Audrey May Kirkham 1974
1974 Donald Nock 1976
1976 Ernest Hartill 1984
1984 Michael Bradburn 1985
1985 Raymond Forester 1985
1985 Robert William Griffiths 1987
1987 John William Kent 1988
1988 Margaret Diana Costello 1990
1990 Roger Anthony Cooper 1992
1992 Margaret Diana Costello 2000
16/06/2000 Petrina Rosemarie Keane
Click on the Links below to
listen to the "Queen of Stourbridge Town" from the album " Stourbridge Town"
Eddy Mortons song about the
ghosts that haunt Katie Fitzgeralds.
Click on the Links below to
listen to the "Battle For stourbridge' from the album " Rainbow man " Eddy Mortons song about the events of 1962 that altered the history of the canals.
For more info on other New Mountain Music albums or Studio hire
click on the link below..
click to enlarge ..