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Now I remember the old Birch Villa with fond memories.
It was one of the very first pubs I drank in back in 1969
and it was a lively place with plenty going on in each of the small rooms that
made up the pub.
But the life and interests of a young student living in
south Manchester meant that other places took my fancy and I never went back.
In the years afterwards it was a place you passed on the bus
and that was pretty much it.
And then more recently I happened to be on that stretch of
Wilmslow Road at the junction with Dickinson Road and clocked that the pub was
now Hardy's Well, complete with pub garden, telephone box and a poem on the side
of the gable end.
Now there will be those who mutter typical of south
Manchester to reinvent an old 19th century boozer into something new
and different.
But according to the blog Pubs of Manchester, Past and Present, “we're
pleased to report it's reopened and doing superb trade thanks to its simple
policy of serving a good selection of decent beer (e.g. Copper Dragon Golden
Pippin) in a convivial atmosphere.”
Now I fully recommend this site for anyone interested in the
history of Manchester’s pubs. It covers
both the city centre and out into the suburbs and contains pictures, historical
information and recommendations.
All of which brings me back to the Birch Villa which closed
in 2011 and reopened as Hardy’s Well in the same year.
And before any one mutters that Hardy’s Well seems a tad
contrived it does make sense in that the beer served in the Birch Villa was
made at Hardy’s Crown Brewery in Hulme whose name still appears at the top of
the pub.
The Birch Villa was serving its beer by 1893 and in 1911 the
landlord was Richard Wood assisted by his wife Elizabeth, and three of their
four grown up children and two barmaids and two waiters along with a general
servant.
It says much for the success of this 13 roomed pub that all
the staff lived in and none were over the age of 21.
And I rather think I have written myself into a visit to
Hardy’s Well, perhaps in the company of Peter.
Picture; Hardy’s Well, © 2013 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Facebook: Paintings
from Pictureswho painted the picture.
*Pubs of Manchester, http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.co.uk/
Apparently Birch Villa was the scene of an unsolved murder in the middle of the last century. The landlady, whose last name was Rowe was found dead in one of the rooms there. Does anybody know anymore about this historic murder?
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