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Historical Landmarks

Rushall's Legendary Pub - The Manor Arms

The first record of Rushall occurs in Domesday Book (1086) where its total annual value to its lord was assessed as 10 shillings. This was from a village of eight households and a mill. The name means 'a place in marshy ground where rushes grow' and the early settlement by the Saxons probably occurred to the north of Rushall Hall, where there are remains of a moated site. Nineteenth century excavations found Saxon coins in earthworks in that area.

The feudal lordship did not originally have its own parish church as the first mention of the church in 1220 describes it as a chapel of Walsall. However the lords of Rushall were always independent and they secured the chapel's parish status. In 1440 John Harpur rebuilt Rushall Church on the chapel-site next to Rushall Hall, today substantially a 19th century structure, incorporating walls and gatehouse from the earlier 13th and 14th century building. Rushall Church itself survived the Civil War to be rebuilt 1854-6. The old square tower remained until 1867.

The little village of Rushall was an agricultural community for centuries before limestone mining trebled its population. In 1834, with a population of under 700, the village boasted four pubs and two maltsters. Twenty years later the population was nearly 2,000 and there were eight pubs.

None of these early inns survive today, but there is one pub of great character, the Manor Arms at Daw End, close to Park Lime Pits. Despite the entertaining but incorrect local legends woven around the pub which claim that the Manor Arms dates back to 1104 and may have been inhabited by monks, this historic building is in fact constructed of mainly 18th century red brick and modern roughcast, but contains stone from a previous structure dating from the 15th - 16th centuries.

It is possible, being situated at the boundary of the original park to Rushall Hall, that it may once have been the lodge to the northern approach, but there is no firm evidence to prove this.

The Manor Arms did not in fact operate as a pub until Victorian times. The building was in use as a farmhouse until the Anson family opened their front room as a beerhouse towards the end of the 19th century, with John Anson selling beer to passing boatmen whose narrowboats used the canal at the rear of the house. Mr. Anson is listed in Kelly's 'Directory of Staffordshire' for 1892 as a 'Farmer and Beer Retailer' at Daw End, and the family had been selling beer since at least the late 1860's as a sideline to their farming business. The Ansons first gained a full publican's license in about 1895, after which the trade directories begin to list the Manor Arms as a public house.
 

The Manor Arms, Daw End, 1942

The Manor Arms is, remarkably, a pub without a bar, with the beer being served from the back of the low ceilinged timber beamed main room, and this certainly makes it unique in the Borough, and possibly further afield.
The Ansons do not seem to have neglected farming, however, since Mrs. Sarah Anson, the licensee in 1924, is listed in Kelly's 'Directory of Staffordshire' as a farmer and pedigree pig breeder.

Despite the legends surrounding it which have obscured the facts for many years, the simple truth is that the Manor Arms is still a fascinating old pub with interesting origins, and a genuine local treasure that stands up to the test of time without the help of mythical medieval monks.