Pub vat drowning led to bankruptcy

While stirring a popular home brew at the Cross Keys tavern in Friar Street, a man fell into the giant vat of fermenting ale and was drowned.

His death led to civil action in the courts and clearly became part of the fascinating history of the building occupied then by the Cross Keys. It's the mediaeval black-and-white property we know today as Tudor House and which is home to Worcester's Museum of Local Life. It was in use as the Cross Keys tavern for about 140 years of its four centuries of existence to date.

The drowning tragedy was to have a devastating impact, not only on the widow and children of the victim but also on the lives of the Walkers of Worcester - a family very much part of the licensed trade and pub scene in the Faithful City during late Victorian times and through the Edwardian era.

I've been learning all about the Walkers from two surviving descendants - Vera Priest and Nancy Tandy, both of whom live at Callow End.

They trace their family tree back to William and Mary Ann Walker, who lived at Acorn Villa in McIntyre Road, Worcester - a house which still stands today, close to the entrance to St John's Cemetery.

William and Mary Ann, who kept a sweet shop in Hylton Road and may also have been in the licensed trade, had no fewer than 11 children, at least two of whom became pub landlords in Worcester.

Harry ran the Horse and Jockey in Pump Street for many years, but this article is mainly concerned with the life and times of his brother William Walker junior, who was to be landlord, in turn, of six Worcester pubs.

Alas, only one of these half-dozen hostelries still survives today."

He married Agnes King, whose family lived in Bransford Road, and they were to have five children, the eldest Nora being born when the couple lived in Church Walk, alongside St Clement's Church in Henwick Road.

William Walker's first pub was the Crown at 22 Friar Street (now the Worcester Blinds shop), and it was there that the couple's second child, Charles was born. The next move took the Walkers to be mine hosts of the Black Lion pub which was in Dent Street, off Little Park Street, in the Blockhouse/Wyld's Lane area. Two more offspring arrived to them at the Black Lion - Vera and Lionel.

The third pub to which the Walkers moved was the Beehive Inn, which used to stand in Carden Street, but after a short time they transferred to the Herefordshire House in Bransford Road.

And it was there that a strange family custom was introduced, and one which would obviously be frowned upon today. Just before they went to bed, the Walker children, all still very young, would be given a pint of beer by their parents, to be shared between them!

Then in 1903, William Walker took over the licence of the Cross Keys in Friar Street and also the hairdressers' shop that went with it. The Walkers' fifth and last child was born at the Cross Keys - Eva in 1906.

A glimpse into life at the Cross Keys has been given me by Mrs Nancy Tandy, grand-daughter of William Walker and daughter of his son, Charlie.

"My late father often told me of his boyhood at the Cross Keys. It seems my grandfather was something of a tyrant and expected my father and his brother Lionel to get up early every morning and stir the beer in the pub's vats before going to school. They weren't even teenagers then.

"My grandfather had a bell attachment fixed up in their bedroom to make sure they got up on time to carry out their task, and if they didn't move sharply once the bell rang, he would dash in wielding a stick and give them a wallop.

"In fact, they developed a method of avoiding this painful punishment. They would often climb out through a tiny bedroom window and slide down a sloping roof into the yard of the pub. This enabled them to get to the vats, avoiding the cane on the way!"

Mrs Tandy says her father was also to have the drowning tragedy at the Cross Keys indelibly imprinted on his mind for the rest of his life. He was aged about 11 when it happened in either 1906 or 1907.

"The family story goes that on a certain day, the chap who usually came along to the pub to stir the beer expertly in the vats, didn't turn up because he wasn't well. Instead, a pub regular in the bar offered to carry out the task, and he was given the go-ahead even though he had clearly had a few drinks.

"His surname or nickname was Digger, and he went along to the vats with my father to assist him. Alas, he somehow slipped and toppled into one of the vats and drowned, even though my father tried to save him by holding out a long pole."

In the wake of the tragedy, landlord William Walker offered to pay Digger's widow and children £1 a week for life as compensation, but this wasn't accepted. The widow wanted a lump sum of £600 - a significant figure then - and when William Walker refused to give this, the matter was taken to civil court.

"During the case, it was claimed my grandfather had been drinking and was negligent and, though he argued strongly that he had not been drunk, he lost the case," says Mrs Tandy.

"My grandfather paid the £600 to Digger's widow but the payment bankrupted him and he had to give up his pub licence. Perhaps by coincidence, the owners closed down the Cross Keys the same year - 1907."

The ill-fated Digger lived in either Carden Street or Union Street, and it's thought his widow used some of the £600 compensation to pay for her children's education.

One of her sons is believed to have become a leading doctor.

Mrs Tandy says her father and his brother Lionel once opened a cupboard at the Cross Keys to find a Welsh harp, a zither and a very old and beautifully bound bible.

"It has also been passed down by word of mouth through the family that there was once a passage under the Cross Keys, leading to the Cathedral, and that the pub was haunted by the ghosts of three nuns."

Another of William and Agnes Walker's children, Vera wrote down some of her reminiscences of the Cross Keys before she died.

"Opening hours then were from 6am until 11pm, beer was tuppence-ha'penny a pint, and on Sundays bread and cheese was put on the tables free.

"I well remember being taken across Friar Street to the old City Jail opposite and being shown the treadmill and the former Death Cell measuring 4ft by 4ft. It all seemed very gruesome to a child of four!"

Laslettes Almshouses now stand on the site of that jail.

Having been made bankrupt by the vat drowning accident, William was only able to continue in the licensed trade thanks to his wife Agnes. She stepped into the breach and, in 1907, took the licence of the Mug House, a substantial pub which stood for decades on the riverside in Hylton Road.

Though long lost to the Worcester scene, I am able today, thanks to Mrs Tandy, to reproduce a rare photograph of the Mug House at Hylton Road as it was about 90 years ago. The picture postcard scene has been handed down to Mrs Tandy.

The Walker family remained as mine hosts at the Mug House until 1912, when it was closed down by its owners on the basis that Hylton Road had too many pubs.

It was yet another blow to the Walkers and forced them to abandon Worcester and move to Liverpool.

William Walker had a cousin in charge of a large Liverpool tannery and he was able to get a job there. His ever-enterprising wife Agnes also opened a sweet shop and general store in a Liverpool suburb.

However, a twist of fate was to bring William and Agnes back to Worcester, after a gap of 16 years. Their daughter Nora, then married to William Wright and with a child Vera, developed TB and was advised to leave the industrial atmosphere of Liverpool and return to the country air of Worcester.

William and Agnes, who had been living with Nora and her husband in Liverpool, came back to the Faithful City with her in 1928, and they all set up home at Rainbow Hill.

The story from here on is taken up by Nora's daughter Vera (now Mrs Priest).

"Sadly, my grandfather, who I remember as a kindly old man, died only a year later in 1929, to be followed by my mother, who died just nine months after him.

"When my father later re-married, Grandma Agnes lived first with her other daughter Eva in Stafford, but eventually went into the Berkeley Hospital almshouses in The Foregate, Worcester.

"During the Second World War, she was a leading helper with the Women's Voluntary Service, meticulously mending the uniforms of wounded soldiers being treated at Worcester hospitals. By this time she had lost the sight in one eye, and I often threaded her needles for her," recalls Mrs Priest.

"Grandma Agnes always looked quite regal, her near-6ft tall frame usually dressed from top to bottom in black, and with her white hair done up on top in a bun. She died in 1947, aged 80."

Vera was married in 1949, to Stan Priest of Callow End, and has lived in that village ever since, currently at Wheatfields Park.

Stan was a member of the long-established Priest family of Callow End, who were recently featured in Memory Lane. He served in the Forces in Burma and worked for 37 years at the HW Ward's factory in Worcester. He was also well-known on the local club cricket scene though sadly he died in 1973, at the age of only 50.

Stan and Vera's two sons, Stephen and Michael still live in Callow End. Steve is a cabinet maker and furniture restorer, while Mike is a builder.

Mrs Nancy Tandy, also a widow, moved from Liverpool 12 years ago to live in Lower Ferry Lane, Callow End. Her late father, Charlie Walker (the boyhood beer vat stirrer at the Cross Keys) served in the Army at Gallipoli, in the First World War and was a foreman at the Rootes factory in Liverpool during the Second World War, helping to construct Spitfires.

Other offspring of the children of William and Agnes Walker now live in Gloucestershire, Liverpool, Wiltshire and Staffordshire. Vera Priest and Nancy Tandy also have a cousin of 90, Kath Rawlinson living in Happy Land, Worcester.