The Greyhound and Punchbowl
| The Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn | |
|---|---|
 The Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn during May 2010 | |
  Location within West Midlands county | |
| Former names | Stow Heath Manor, Ye Olde Greyhound |
General information | |
| Location | 51 High Street, Bilston WV14 0EP |
| Coordinates | 52°33′56″N 2°04′27″W / 52.5656°N 2.0741°W |
| Year built | 1438 – c. 1450 |
| Groundbreaking | 1438 |
| Opened |
|
| Renovated | 1936 until present |
| Closed | 1715 (Stow Heath Manor House) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | John de Mollesley[1] |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | The Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn (formerly Stoke Heath Manor House) |
| Designated | 1952 |
| Reference no. | 1201819 |
The Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn, formerly Stow Heath Manor House and then Ye Olde Greyhound, or also 51 High Street, is a public house in Bilston, West Midlands, England. It was formerly a manor house before it was licensed around 1810.
The current building consists of the western wing of Stow Heath Manor House, which was used as a manor house between 1450 and 1715 and then as a public house between c. 1757 and 2023.
History
Adjacent to the heath of Stow located in Bilston,[2] the construction of Stow Heath Manor House began likely in 1438[a] after John de Mollesley of Bushbury married the daughter and sole heiress of Edwin de Bilston during the same year.[b] The building was probably completed during the early 1440s, and the earliest surviving section of the building dates to 1450, with John de Mollesley and his wife being the earliest known incumbents in c. 1460.[5][6] The local court leet was also held in the upper rooms around this time.
Royal Commissioners stayed at the manor in 1508 under Henry VII to enquire about St. Leonard's Church, and Commissioners of Henry VIII came to Bilston in 1538 to enquire into the state of St. Leonard's Church during the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541); both sets of commissioners stayed at the manor house.[7] The house was sold during the English Civil War to John Green,[4] whose son died during the Battle of Worcester (3 September 1651), and by this time it was also called Stoke Heath Manor House.[8]
It is traditionally believed that during the 17th century, either Charles I or Charles II visited the manor house.
The manor house was owned by the Green family until 1715, when it was abandoned.[8] Over several decades, water ingress severely compromised the structural integrity of the roof trusses. This lack of maintenance eventually resulted in the catastrophic collapse of both the central connecting hall and the eastern kitchen wing.[4] When new owners acquired the site no later than 1757, the collapsed remnants of the center and east blocks were systematically cleared away, leaving only the shored-up western residential wing standing as a standalone structure.[3]
John Garbet was the earliest known licensed victualler of the public house, owning the property during the 1750s, and he organised a cockfighting tournament to take place there on 27 June 1757,[9] and coins dating from the reigns of George III and Louis XVI of France suggesting the property was still in use as an inn between 1774 and 1793;[c] this timeline is further solidified by records showing Jonathan Hartshorn held the license from at least 17 April 1791 to 1801.[9] The venue was not officially licensed as Ye Olde Greyhound until around 1810 (the licensed victualler at this time is unknown), and during this time, it was believed the building only dated to the 18th or 19th century.[6]
It eventually fell into disrepair again, until it was purchased in January 1935 by Messrs. W. Butler & Co. Limited and was restored by James A. Swan in 1936 and renamed to The Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn.[3]
Before it was restored by Swan,[2] the building was under licence to Joseph Wheeler and showed serious signs of disrepair.[3] On 20 June 1952 Historic England designated The Greyhound and Punchbowl as a Grade II* listed building.[10][5] It was last refurbished in 2003 by Avebury Taverns,[6] and the building was placed on the Heritage at Risk Register around 2008.[5] The building is now suffering from complex structural problems to the supporting concrete frame due to poor management conditions towards the building. It is slowly decaying, with currently no management solution agreed.
On 30 September 2023, at roughly 03:40 BST, the building was damaged in an arson attack, and the flames were put out by 05:20 BST; the building received smoke damage and nobody was injured.[11] Between 3–4 October 2023, the building was likely burgled, and it is still closed in 2026 despite ongoing renovations by George Kang.[9]
Description
Much of the extant building dates the manor house to the mid 16th century, although all that remains of the original 15th-century building is the west wing and a tree in the middle of the building that was probably felled on site or nearby, also during the 15th century.[3] The rear room has a well-preserved 16th-century carved overmantel, although it is probably not in situ anymore and has been moved from its original location. Lawley (1893) and Mills & Williams (1988) said the manor house "would have been divided into three blocks: the west wing containing the principal living room, the east wing the kitchen area and a hall which connected the two".[8][12]
Notes
- ↑ During an 1820 renovation of one of the upper bedrooms, workers peeled back wallpaper or plasterwork and found the following inscription:[3]
"John Mollesley, 1438" - ↑ The name of John de Mollesley's wife is only listed in contemporary documents as "the eldest daughter and sole heiress of Edwin de Bilston", and "the heiress of Bilston".[4] Her name has also been confused with Christiana, which was instead the name of John's grandmother.
- ↑ The cache found behind the woodwork during the 1936 restoration included British coins of George III and French coins of Louis XVI minted between 1774 and 1793.[3] The presence of the 1793 issue provides the terminus post quem for the building's structural conversion into a commercial inn.
References
- ↑ "Greyhound & Punchbowl Inn". Heritage Gateway. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
- 1 2 "Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn, High Street, Bilston". Black Country History. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
The building, erected around 1450, was originally designed as a manor house by John de Mollesley, and called Stowheath Manor. In 1820, the building became a public house and changed its mane [sic] to the Greyhound and Punchbowl Inn. In 1936 it was bought by the brewery William Butler & Company and restored by J. A. Swan.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Messrs. W. Butler & Co. Limited (1936) - The Greyhound and Punch-bowl, Bilston. p.4
- 1 2 3 "BILSTONS JEWEL IN THE CROWN". Lost Wolverhampton. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Greyhound & Punchbowl Inn". Historic England. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
- 1 2 3 "Greyhound And Punchbowl Inn". The Heritage Gateway. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ Basil Oliver, The Renaissance of the English Public House, Faber and Faber, 1947, pp.144-146
- 1 2 3 George W. Lawley, A History of Bilston, John Price, Bilston, 1893
- 1 2 3 "GREYHOUND & PUNCHBOWL | High Street, Bilston" (PDF). Longpull. 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2026.
- ↑ Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Staffordshire, (1974), 71
- ↑ Cook, Allen. "Fire at Grade II listed Bilston pub treated as arson". BBC News. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ↑ Mary Mills and Tracey Williams, Bilston, Tettenhall and Wednesfield, Tempus Publishing, 1998