Well over 25 years ago, I began to notice that the English public house was more than just a building in which people drank. The customers talked and played, held trips and meetings, the licensees had their own histories, and the buildings had experienced many changes.

These thoughts spurred me on to find out more. Obviously I had to restrict my field; Black Country pubs became my theme, because that is where I lived and worked. Many of the pubs I remembered from the late 1960's, when I was legally allowed to drink in them, had disappeared or were in the process of doing so.

Originally my plan was to collect any information I could from any sources available. It was around this time that the wonderful institution that is the Black Country Bugle first appeared. I have never missed an issue, and have found the contents and letters invaluable.

With the advances in technology in mind, I decided the opportunity of releasing my entire archive as a CD ROM, rather than mere selections as magazine articles or as a book, was too good to miss. This would allow those people with interests, such as mentioned above, to search for relevant innformation. (sic)

The CDs contain information about every pub that has been found to exist in each of the districts within the Black Country, along with a number of illustrations.

I am planning to continue my researches, and so we will be producing updated versions of each CD area when sufficient new research justifies it. Hopefully new old pubs will continue to be discovered, as will some mysteries be cleared up. Please refer to the Updates page on the webite for news.

If anyone is able to provide extra, relevant information and / or pictures, about any of the pubs and people contained within this work, I would be grateful to hear from you, initially by e-mail at thitchmough@hotmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Tony Hitchmough