…and win a barrel of beer!!!
OK, here's the deal. The new real ale pub on Bearwood Road, due to open in early July, is as yet un-named. Black Country Ales is looking to you for suggestions for the pub name. And you not only have the prestige of seeing your suggestion above the new bar…they are offering a barrel of beer (72 pints) to the winner of a competition to think up the best name.
You can send your suggestions either direct to martin@blackcountryales.co.uk or to bearwoodblog@gmail.com, or you can put them in the comments section here if you want to publicly stake your claim.
Entries are open until midnight on 31st May, one entry only per person! In the event of more than one person suggesting the same name, the first one logged will get the barrel… so get your thinking caps on!
The Bearwood Blog 
My name for the new pub is The Old Midland, I banked there when I landed in Bearwood in 1973 to start teacher training until HSBC closed it and moved my account to Harborne, felt sore about the closure until I heard news about it becoming a pub! Look forward to the new Midland Bank!
Patrice Meredith
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 16:00:56
The Peaky Blinder @ The Bear
Like that one, Patrice!
The Barrel of Bear!
The about time.
Or
The gym…. At least some of the Bearwood men could sound fit…. “been in the gym for 4 hours”
Congratulations on the new pub – we can’t wait for it to open here in the ‘wood. As for the name, considering the building’s two former lives as a pawn shop fronted and opened by David ‘The Duke’ Dickinson and a Midland Bank, I think that ‘The Duke and Griffin’ has a mythical/traditional feel with a slightly more esoteric reasoning 🙂
‘The Chance and Shuffle’ – A reference to A.M. Chance (who helped the people buy Lightwoods House) and the popularity (such as the Bearwood Shuffle) of Bearwood’s reclaimed Lightwoods park.
How about “The Bear and the Ragged Staff” hopefully it’ll be that busy they will be run ragged!
How about ‘The Banker’s Draught’?
I’m not the judge but…I like that!
Thank you, Bob!
I like that one too
Best non-ferret-based suggestion so far.
The Other Boot. As in the Wellington is the sister establishment.
The Pig and Ball Bearing. Failing that, I like Patrice’s suggestion of ‘The Old Midland’.
The Bearwoodbank
The polar bear
“The Bear Necessities”
The Bear Trap
Bear bank
The Old Vaults
The Three Shires
Catherine
Bare Necessities
Would you care for an ale ?
Yes please!
The bank job
For me it should be called ‘The Midland Red’ echoing our town’s former major employer (for whom my Mom Dot Bracey worked as a Comptometer Operator from 1942 until 1958) and also referencing the building’s former use as a Midland Bank which was founded in Birmingham in the 18th Century along with Lloyd’s Bank and the Birmingham Municipal Bank (now the TSB) whose headquarters was at 301 Broad Street.
If you do choose my suggestion: ‘The Midland Red’ for the pub you could have lots of photos of old ‘Midland Red’ Buses and the banks that were founded in Birmingham as alluded to above.
The Wythall Transport Museum have a number of old ‘Midland Red’ ‘buzzes’ as us Brummies call ’em which can be hired for functions and events and of course the West Midlands Travel ‘Outer Circle’ number 11 ‘buzz’ the route with the longest circular route in Europe at 28 miles passes by your front door!
The Bearwood Storehouse
The Bear of Smithwick
The Pig and Bear
The Lightwoods Pig
The Pig in the Bank
Darren, which part of One entry only per person didn’t you get mate?
In deference to the previous name of a very local café, how about ‘The Little Tipple’.
The Ferret of Warley (note: have never been sure which area “Warley” actually refers to or how it differs from Bearwood or Smethwick, but it seems to flow better with “ferret,” so there you go).
The Brewers Droop
Hail for Ale
My suggestion would be ‘The Woodsman’. With reference of course to Bearwood itself and nearby Warley woods and Lightwoods Park.
“Barrels of Bearwood”
Sent from my iPhone
>
My suggestion, The Bear in The Woods, to be known as ‘The Woods’
‘The Teller and Tipple’
I like that!
The Smethwick Engine Room
I quite like “The Bearwood Brewhouse”
I quite like THE BEARWOOD BREWHOUSE
How about The North Harborne Tavern?
North Harborne Tavern, for a pub in Bearwood to me sounds ridiculous.
Sorry just checked my facts Smethwick was in the parish of north Harborne 🙂
Smethwick was originally a township within the ancient parish of Harborne to the west of Birmingham. In the 1830’s parts of Smethwick were in the parish called North Harborne
Hi Mat,
Smethwick was originally a township within the ancient parish of Harborne to the west of Birmingham. In the mid to late 1800’s parts of Smethwick were in the parish of North Harborne
THE NEW BEARSTOCK
Bear-With-Us
“Lady with the lamp”
The Samuel galton
My suggestions are;
The Samuel Galton (industrialist)
The James Herbert (local war hero that taught at Bearwood School).
Wasn’t it Herbert James VC rather than James Herbert? I did not know that he taught at Bearwood Road School…..? He lived in Poplar Avenue in the Birmingham part of Bearwood ( I lived in Willow Avenue on the Poplars Estate) along with another war hero: Viscount General Field Marshall William ‘Bill’ Slim who led the ‘Forgotten Army’ of largely Birmingham soldiers and Indian Army Regulars who saved India from annexation and invasion by the Imperial Japanese Army which would have been the end of the British Empire and a bigger humiliation than the British surrender of Singapore in 1941…… I have suggested that the new bar be named ‘Bill’s Bar’ after Viscount William ‘Bill’ Slim however not everyone wants to be reminded of the past and the Second World War as for some it has painful memories…….more’s the pity……There are blue Birmingham Civic Society Plaques on the houses in Poplar Avenue to honour Major Herbert James VC who won his medal at Gallipoli and Viscount Slim. When Chris Sutton of The Smethwick Museum…..’The Museum in the Park (Victoria Park Lodge on Smethwick High Street, rather appropriately next to the magnificent War Memorial) approached Birmingham City Council to see if they would name roads on the new Housing Estate built in Poplar Avenue on the site of the former Cardinal Newman Roman Catholic Secondary School, another piece of our ‘lost heritage’…….after Viscount Bill Slim and Major Herbert James VC and he did not even receive the courtesy of a reply……If we do not pay heed to our history then we risk repeating the mistakes of the past’…..a quote which comes to mind here, especially with what is happening in Ukraine, where the west is trying to stand up to another bully……in Russia, led by the aggressive, ambitious Vladimir Putin, an ex-Head of the KGB…….Enough said……………………………………………
Tap The Tellers
MY NAME FOR THE NEW PUB COULD BE THE MAJESTIC . COPYING THE CINEMA NAME THAT USED TO BE IN BEARWOOD.THE NAME COULD BE SHORTEND WHEN MEETING FRIENDS TO SEE YOU IN THE MAGE?
How about The Money Box i’am sure there will be lots of savings
Search for old Pupils from Cardinal Newmans School, Poplar Avenue – circa 1971-1976
I used to live in Ladywood.
Just a long shot?
Mike
‘The Grey Lady’ would be great, in honour of the spectre that is said to haunt Warley woods.