The (White) Chimnneys - updated 27/5/03 with 1930 photo

The Chimneys 1930	Thanks to Lynn Suvanto of Ontario for this photo of the Chimneys, taken from a newspaper cutting sent to her by a relative. Lynn is researching the Cartwright name, and according to his will Joshua Cartwright (1817-92) - whose son William later ran the Lion Inn - was a landlord of the Chimneys. The picture shows licensee Jack Jones with his dog. Mr. Jones' grand-daughter Mrs V. Fellows, lived (lives?) in Musk Lane.
Location of The Chimneys: Abbey Road next to Eggintons	What's left of the pub: Semi-circular entrance step
White Chimneys from June and Tony Cashmore The Cashmores were tenants of the White Chimneys Inn, Abbey Road, Gornal Wood between 1978 and 1984 and they were the last licensees to run the pub before it closed. June said "We have very happy memories of the ‘Chimneys’ (as it was known locally). Many of the Gornal characters used the pub and we made many friends during our time there. We tried to keep some of the Gornal sayings and doings alive during our time there, and at Easter we would have an Easter bonnet parade and hold ‘ayvin days’. The ladies would ‘ayv’ the men on Easter Monday, and the men took part in ‘ayvin’ the women on Easter Tuesday. A collection and raffle would be organised and the money put behind the bar for the competitors. On one occasion we had an Old musical hall evening, money from this was presented to Red Hall School to celebrate their centenary celebrations. Customers dressed up and we had a compere, Mr Arthur Allen, who for a number of years had been licensee of the Pear Tree, New Street. We catered for weddings, christenings, and birthdays, and we always had a charity day on August Bank Holiday Monday. One of our best remembered "do’s" was to celebrate the Royal Wedding in 1981". The year that June and Tony bought the tenancy, Ansells brewery was in the middle of a major improvements programme . The Chimneys was part of this scheme, and had been earmarked for extensive refurbishment. In 1982 plans were drawn up and permission gained for the work on the pubs revamp to start; a new roof was put on, the cellar was completely modernised and the frontage was re-rendered. At about the same time that these works were being carried out, Ansells Brewery had launched the Holt, Plant and Deakin chain, and a number of Ansells pubs in the area were ‘sold off’ and refurbished, rebranded then reopened as Holts pubs. Work stopped on the Chimneys and the breweries attention turned to the Old Bulls Head, Red Hall Road as this was to be one of the new Holts pubs. Just after this, Ansells Brewery was hit by the draymen’s strike, it lasted for nine months and effectively ended Ansells refurbishment programme. Instead of doing pubs up they were forced to sell off a number of their properties, and the White Chimneys Inn was one of them, it closed in 1984 and was demolished a few months later. June said "The friends we made during our time in the pub, will be friends for life, we laughed with them and sometimes we cried with them, they have given us never to be forgotten memories".
Chimneys Memories from Down Under from Peter Mudge mudgee3@bigpond.com I should like to add a little bit of a story regarding THE WHITE CHIMNEYS. When I arrived in the Midlands in 1957, I first lived up in HURST HILL, and I went to work at WOLVERHAMPTON DIE CASTING. It was here that I met my future wife, who was from GORNAL WOOD, and it was to Gornal Wood that we settled down, first to live with the wife's aunt, then we moved into the OLD FARM next to the ZOAR CHAPEL (site of present library). Anyhow it was then that I first went to the THE CHIMNEYS and met all the Gornal folk. You see I came from TORQUAY in DEVON and to listen to the GORNAL TALK - well I was lost! But i found them to be great people, and the nights that I spent in The Chimneys drinking were the highlight of living in the Gornal area. I should like to point out that my wife is of the ESP family, who lived at that time in NEW STREET, she still has family living up on the 5 WAYS. We have now been living in AUSTRALIA for the past 34 years , but I still call GORNAL my home. (Peter would love to hear from old friends and family - contact him at the above email address)