WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ?

"Mr. Hitchmough has scoured censuses and local printed material to compile this fantastic distillation of the area's public houses. Owners, licencees, landlords and other nuggets of local and family history (we're told Norman Plant, one-time licencee of The Acorn, Blackheath, was a whippet breeder) all are here."

EXPRESS & STAR

"Pub preservation campaigner Tony Hitchmough, 58, has now released his second edition of a CD Rom chronicling eye-catching images and a wealth of historical information on boozers across Sandwell. .....The major reference work is the result of more than 30 years of painstaking research by the retired maths teacher, which has also led to similar projects for pubs in Dudley and a third version covering Walsall and Wolverhampton. ..... Through his on-going research he found so much more information he decided to release an updated version, with spruced up features throughout. ..... His studies through archives, public documents and newspapers dating back to the 19th century had filled up five shelves of lever arch files in his house, which was far too much to put together into book form. ..... Instead, the interactive CD Rom features bookmarks and drop-down links with alphabetical lists of each pub, broken up into the six towns of the borough. ..... A staggering 1,600 pubs are featured in the Sandwell version alone."

YOUR FAMILY HISTORY

May 2007

"Hitchmough has trawled sources such as censuses and church registers for raw information but has added colour by researching local newspaper archives for human interest stories relating to the pubs, involving crimes, inquests and industrial relations. Separate but hyperlinked data is held in searchable PDF files, with the key file providing an introduction, a list of pub names and addresses, a glossary, sources and a How to Use file. ..... A list of some of the Acts of Parliament from 1828 relating to licensing is featured together with comments on their effects."

THE BLACKCOUNTRYMAN

Spring 2007

"There are a number of files contained on the disk, all in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format. This gives the reader the flexibility to search within the document for any word or combination of words, to find whatever it is you are looking for. It is possible to print pages from the document. I believe this will interest both the casual browser and serious student of local and family history. Material is easy to find and, though not complete, is as up to date as records allow."

SMETHWICK HERITAGE TELEPHONE

May 2007

"Tony Hitchmough has put together a number of very comprehensive, user friendly data CD's ..... Tony's decision to release the information in a searchable CD form has provided an invaluable source for anyone interested in family or local history."

BREWERY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

Summer 2007

"It should be very useful for sorting out some of the loose ends for CoBB [Century of British Brewers book], since the West Midlands has proved to be one of the more difficult areas ..... The entries include snippets from local papers and also identify brewers, which is particularly helpful. The disk contains a word document explaining how to use it and loads into Adobe Acrobat Reader. The CD is indexed and searchable."