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Picture source: Russell Judge

The Pheasant was situated on the corner of B4208 Gloucester Road & Drake Street, A4104. This pub closed c2010.

I understand The Pheasant Hotel closed around 2010 but I did hear that it had been left to decay badly and someone on the web posted photos of the derelict mess inside but of course it could have been re-furbished and re-opened by now. I worked for them in 1972/3 playing Hammond Organ at dances held in the annexe dance hall attached to the side rear of the hotel. My sister worked behind the bar for a short time. I have some strange memories such as the chickens kept there and the odd facts that never left me such as the phone number Hanley Swan 500 I don't know how much of this information will be of use to you but I can imagine it might be of some interest. The Landlord was a guy called Southwell Elms and his wife was the Landlady Rhoda Elms. The dances were held every week end for couples to come and do ballroom dancing and among them were a few championship medal-winners who would come there to rehearse dance steps. I got a job there playing my Hammond Organ along with Colin the drummer who was dreadfully loud and did his best to be centre stage and drown out my playing - Attached is a photo of him with me in the background looking glum as the noise was starting to do my hearing damage. Later in my spell with them they added a guy on piano called John. I never knew their surnames. I stuck it out for a while but after I married it was thought the hours working Saturday and Sunday nights every weekend were rather anti-social and there was no way of taking a holiday unless I could find a stand-in to take my place for playing the type of dance music they required - Foxtrots Quicksteps Cha-chas Sambas Tangos Waltzes and for the old-time sessions the Veleta, the Military Two Step and the Dog-Dance. In the evening interval the band were given free Scampi and Chips or Chicken and Chips served in a basket as this was the new style in that decade in so many pubs. Rhoda Elms did the cooking with an assistant for all the dancers to have basket meals at their tables during the evening dances. The beer was good and well kept at the bar (a good cellar temperature and clean pipes). Same can't be said for the cooking as the deep fryers were somewhat stale and the chips tasted like it. Rhoda used to sell me a dozen eggs every week-end as she kept Chickens. My family so adored these eggs that it prompted me to compliment her so I asked Rhoda how come they were such good quality fresh eggs and she told me that she didn't know why except they were free range and she said the hens were a cross between Sussex Light and Rhode Island Reds and she fed them on Crossfield Pellets in the morning and cut maize in the afternoons. Strange how these facts stay in my mind. This info meant little to me other than well known breed names as I had worked for a time for Rank Hovis McDougal at a poultry farm near Wimborne in the 1960s. Anyhow I dated a girl who worked at the Pheasant as a bar maid who during the day worked at GRE Insurance (Guardian Royal Exchange) in Worcester but the relationship floundered. I was paid £20 a week end for the Saturday night and Sunday night dances which were 8.30 to midnight Saturday and I think 8.30 to 10pm Sundays. Southwell the landlord, I am not sure if he was a tenant or an owner of the Hotel. He had plenty of wealth as he used to regularly go Gliding at Aston Down airfield. I think he was fairly well connected and had friends in the Police force. When I was ready to give up working there, it happened that something upset Southwell over a request tune that one of his friends wanted played for an anniversary and Colin said he would play it if we had time at the end of the evening. Pressures from other requests ran us out of time and we forgot to play the tune and I didn't know it anyway but the friend of Southwell flew into a rage and Southwell called Colin and me aside at the end and I think he was the worse for wear on drink - he was really abusive so on the spot I resigned and said nobody treats me like that -you can stick the job - I'll be back next week to remove my Hammond Organ and Tone cabinet. I did so and I understood from someone who went there regularly that he bought another Hammond Organ and hired a new organist and I never went there again. My wife and I were staying on the common near the Pheasant Hotel in our Motorcaravan when holidaying in the Malverns in the late 1990s and as we drove away from the site we spotted a very much older Southwell Elms taking a walk on the common. I assumed he was either still living at the Pheasant or had sold up and was living nearby. I doubt if he's alive now after all it's 44 years since I left that job. I think it was under new management more than once since the 1970s maybe even more than that. So that's about it. I haven't got superb memories of the place and there were better pubs around. On the walls were photos of celebrity musicians who had done a cabaret turn at the Pheasant - I remember Dickie Valentine had performed there and his signed photo was in pride of place because Valentine had died along with his pianist and drummer in a Hillman Avenger 90mph crash in Wales at 4am one morning in May 1971 so when I went to work there at first this tragic event had only recently happened. I don't know what kind of entertainment had been commonly made there before I came along. I was only an amateur pianist so very thinly semi-pro as I had been a Salesman with EMI records (failed) and later went on to train 3 years in Piano Technology working once qualified as a Piano Tuner Repairer for the Dartington Trust here in Devon. I retired in 2002 but only reached 65 in 2011.

Laurie Prior (June 2017)

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