The Irish Connection – the Elephant & Castle

17th Mar 2025

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! Did you know that the Elephant & Castle Pub in Wolverhampton – now recreated here at the Museum in our 1940s-60s town – was a home from home for Irish people in the years after the Second World War?

Irish people in the Black Country

Irish people have lived in the Black Country for hundreds of years. Many fled the catastrophic famine of the 1840s, and during and after the Second World War, many more arrived. Ireland’s economy was struggling, and around half a million Irish people emigrated during the 1950s alone, mostly to Britain, and with a particular concentration in the thriving West Midlands. The Black Country was booming, with lots of work available in industry, reconstruction and the new National Health Service. Local firms including Tarmac, Midland Red and ICI directly recruited in Ireland, and the NHS was dependent on Irish nurses. By the end of the 1950s there were over 10,000 Irish-born people living in the Black Country, with over 3,000 in Wolverhampton alone.

Like other new communities, Irish people faced discrimination in housing, work and in everyday life. Amid this atmosphere, Irish people needed somewhere to socialise. Post-war Irish communities relied on local churches, dancehalls, social clubs and sports clubs to socialise, as well as particular pubs. The Elephant & Castle Pub fit the bill perfectly. In a time when some landlords refused to serve some people based on their ethnicity, this was a welcoming pub which hosted people from all over the world: Jamaican transport workers from Fallings Park depot, Punjabi brewery workers from the Springfield Brewery, Travellers from a nearby camp. The largest group of customers were from Ireland, and the pub gained a reputation as an important meeting place for Wolverhampton’s Irish community.

The Elephant & Castle Pub

The Elephant & Castle was a longstanding pub at the corner of the Stafford and Cannock Roads, in Wolverhampton. This building, with its distinctive green and white ceramics and elephant statue, was opened in 1905. It was soon taken over by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, the parent company of the massive Banks’s brewery in Wolverhampton. Its landlord from 1941 was Ben Davies, a former professional goalkeeper for Port Vale; his wife Doris took over the licence in 1957 and ran the pub until her retirement in 1974. She was a formidable character, with bleached hair, heavy face powder and horn-rimmed glasses, and brooked no nonsense.

“The Irish made it”

The Elephant & Castle’s connection with Wolverhampton’s Irish community was longstanding – the pub was just up the road from the town’s Victorian “Irish quarter.” But it was the post-war boom in Irish migration to Wolverhampton which cemented its role as a meeting place.

Former residents and patrons fondly recall the Irish clientele. Michael Cooper, a driver at the next-door Ever-Tidy factory, described the pub as “blessed by immigrants,” and in particular “the Irish made it.” Debbie Stewart, whose parents ran the pub in the early 1970s, remembers being introduced to the customers aged six, and immediately feeling like it was one big family. There was never any trouble at the Elephant & Castle Pub because these customers made sure of it, and it was a safe and fun home for Debbie and her brother Roy to grow up in. Sometimes customers brought instruments like accordions and guitars, and singalongs were a staple of a good night out: everything from Irish rebel songs to “Rhinestone Cowboy”! Perhaps this atmosphere was an influence on one young Irishman in Wolverhampton – Dubliner Luke Kelly, who later became Ireland’s most famous folk musician, lived in the town with his brother Paddy in the late 1950s.

The Elephant & Castle Pub also acted as an informal labour exchange for casual labouring work, run by foremen like Mickey Meaney and Billy Kelly. They would announce in the pub in an evening that they were looking for labourers: the next day a flat-bed lorry would turn up outside the pub loaded with ladders and tools, and those who wanted work would climb up to be taken to the work site. This was usually construction work on projects like the Wolverhampton ring road, the Spring Hill dual carriageway, and the dozens of high-rise flats appearing locally.

As a Banks’s pub, most customers (including the Irish) would have drunk the brewery’s bitter or mild ales. But Ireland’s most famous export, Guinness, was popular amongst the expatriate community too. It was only installed on draught in the Elephant & Castle in 1975 – before that, bottled stout was the only option. In Britain, Guinness was brewed at the Park Royal brewery in London, then shipped by tanker to a local brewery (such as Banks’s) and bottled and stamped there. We have recreated this using original labels provided by the Guinness Archives in Dublin, along with recreations of Irish whiskies like Green Spot and Power’s.

Community

The pub’s trade declined after its neighbouring factories and slum housing were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s. The Irish community remained strong though, and the new Emerald Club on Cross Street North (previously the Cresta Sewing Machines social club, and the gay-friendly Flamingo Club) opened nearby in late 1968. Customers would flit between the two venues depending on licensing hours. A sports team playing Gaelic Football and hurling was formed in 1960, and is still in existence. While the Black Country’s Irish community wasn’t anywhere near the size of that in Birmingham or Coventry, it was still an important part of its social scene in the 1960s, and the Elephant & Castle Pub was at its heart.

Did you, or anyone you know use the Elephant & Castle in the 1960s? Can you tell us more about Wolverhampton’s Irish community? We would love to hear from you – please get in touch via email at collections@bclm.com. Or why not raise a glass at the Elephant & Castle Pub this St Patrick’s Day using the Irish greetings: “Lá Fhéile Sona Duit” (Happy St Patrick’s Day), and “Sláinte” (cheers)!

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