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Bulls Head

 

Picture source: Clive Schneidau


 
The Bulls Head was situated at 141 King Street.
Source: Hazel Osgood
 
I have been retyping my father's autobiography and find that he was born in this pub. He is Anthony Clive Pengelly b. 06/01/1920 The pub was owned by Starkey, Knight and Ford and managed at that time by his grandparents, William Charles and Elizabeth Ann Moss.
My father's mother, Agnes Mary nee Moss, was the youngest of their five children and the only daughter. As such, she was expected to help out in the running and cleaning of the pub until she was married.
At that time, hygiene was very poor and spitting was a common practice. There was a sawdust channel in front of the bar counter for customers to use for this purpose. My grandmother had to get down on her hands and knees and clean and scrub this floor, so it is thought this is how she contracted the TB which killed her in 1925 at the age of 30.
(Excerpt from autobiography of Anthony Pengelly)
"At this time, beer barrels were hoisted up and laid on racks with the ends facing outwards. A tap would be hammered into the 'bung hole' and beer drawn off as required. There were two racks, one above the other, the upper one's taps being about eye level. Each barrel also had a drip tray beneath its tap. Well, being thirsty one day when I was very young and living there, I went to one of the lower barrels and putting my mouth under the tap and turned it on. Then I heard someone coming and I scooted out of the front door. Unfortunately, I didn't turn the tap off and before anyone discovered it, the beer was running out of the front door of the pub. I can't remember any chastisement so I must have had some very doting grandparents."
Hazel Priestley-Hobbs (October 2015)
 

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