page_title: Bournbrook
section_title: Public Houses
hierarchical_section_title: Bournbrook / Community / Public Houses
caption_attribution_description: The Goose at the Old Varsity Tavern (formerly the Bournbrook Hotel), Market Place, Bournbrook
context_page_description: Bournbrook is an industrial and residential district in southwest Birmingham, England, in both the Selly Oak Council Ward and the Parliamentary District of Selly Oak. Prior to what is commonly termed the Greater Birmingham Act, which came into effect on 9 November 1911, the Bourn Brook watercourse was the North Eastern boundary of Worcestershire, and the area was locally governed by the King’s Norton and Northfield Urban District Council.
  Bournbrook was once known for its Victorian Leisure Park known as Kerby’s Pools. The industry that followed the construction of the canals transformed the ancient manor of Selley. The junction of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Netherton Canal via the Lapal Tunnel created a distribution centre for heavy raw materials from the Black Country. Major industries developed along both sides of the two canals. Terraced housing, for the better off working people, was constructed on the former Selly Hill, Selly Grove, and Selly Oak estates. The High Street provided retail, entertainment, and public services.
context_section_description: Bournbrook Tavern, Bristol Road, was a Mitchells & Butlers  pub with an unofficial name of ‘The Steps’ due to a flight of steps up to the entrance. It may have replaced an earlier pub called the Bowling Green Inn It was replaced by The Brook which has since been demolished and a hall of residence for students is now on the site.
  In the 1881 census the Bristol Pear, on the corner of Bristol Road and Heeley Road, was the Heeley Arms the 1881 census shows with Thomas Thompson as publican. It changed its name to the Station Inn before adopting its current name.
  Goose at the OVT The Inn was reported to have existed in c1700. On the 1839 Tithe Map the owner was James Kerby and it was called the Bell and Shovel Inn. Under the ownership of George North from 1859 the name changed to the Malt Shovel. Showell records that the public house, belonging to Holt’s brewery, having been extended and partially rebuilt, and the grounds better laid out, the establishment was re-christened, and opened as the Bournbrook Hotel at Whitsuntide in 1877. For a short time it was a Firkin Pub, and it is now the Goose at the OVT.
  The Gun Barrels was just in Edgbaston. During the late 19th century the pub became popular for prize fights because as the Bourn Brook was the county boundary, the pugilists could escape from the local police by crossing the brook which was beyond their jurisdiction. The pub had been rebuilt by 1987 and has since been demolished. An earlier building called The Grinders appears at this location on an 1819 turnpike map. It may have been named after William Deakin’s Gun Barrel Manufactory at Bournbrook in 1841. Like many rural inns the pub had an adjacent bowling green which may also have been used for croquet.
  The Plough and Harrow was formerly called the New Inn in 1900 (delete) and took the name Plough and Harrow in 1904. The records of the Birmingham District of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows show a lodge was located at the New Inn, in Selly Oak. The squirrel motif of Holt’s Brewery can be seen on the gable. Holts Brewery was founded in 1887 in Aston, but in 1934 became Ansells Brewery Ltd. It was demolished pre 1987.
caption: The Goose at the Old Varsity Tavern (formerly the Bournbrook Hotel), Market Place, Bournbrook
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