This etching of Main Street in the centre of Wolston shows The Beeches and the Red Lion Inn. The Red Lion is no longer a pub, but the building has been carefully restored (going on behind the blue boards in the more recent photo).
Local pubs in the 1970s
The Red Lion was described by Tom Walton in the 1970s: he mentioned that the pub had a skittle alley and that two cottages had been pulled down to make a car park and garden. The Rose and Crown (opposite the Red Lion) and the Half Moon still survive as pubs today.
The Wilcox family – lord of the manor
The Beeches is still there, though trees have grown up in front of it. It’s an attractive 18th century Grade II listed building that used to belong to the Wilcox estate. I have a vague memory that it was it the dower house – can anyone confirm this? The Wilcox manor house that stood next to the church was sold with its contents in 1927 and then demolished. A few fine trees in the garden along with gateposts, iron railings, and converted stables are all that survive. By the way, the Wilcox family ‘stole’ the river Avon in Wolston: the straighter millstream dug out for their mill is now the main river, whilst the old winding river has been reduced to a tiny stream. Proof of this is shown by the parish boundary, which runs along this winding stream.
A trip down the River Avon revisited
This is part of a series of ‘before and after’ photographs based on the Rev. E.N. Dew’s lantern slides for a talk about the Warwickshire Avon. The original photos date from around 1900 and the linked article explains the history of the photographs.
Tom Walton’s ‘A Wolston Walkabout’ can be consulted at the Warwickshire County Record Office reference PH 1213.
Comments
The two houses formerly alongside the Red Lion were very thin and long, and had become semi derelict. It is believed that they were pulled down mainly to widen access to the rear of the pub, land previously mainly used for stabling and wide enough for a horse and cart but not for cars. The cottages were demolished to allow vehicle entry to the then new ‘beer garden’ and also to enable provision of a side entry door to the pub from the beer garden.
Later on, the brewery allowed the building to deteriorate, eventually to the point where it became unsafe and it was necessary to insert two big girders front and back, tied together with four big steel rods through the building, to prevent it literally falling apart. The current rebuild is maximising reuse of the original bricks reclaimed from the demolition, and when complete the front of the new building will replicate the design and style of the original building and add considerably to the street scene in Wolston.
The Red Lion has not been demolished. The building has been converted into a residential property. The original façade has been carefully maintained, which involved rebuilding the frontage with improved foundations.
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