The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Bird in Hand, 95 Little Park Street

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
			Old Bird in Hand
			Bird in Hand
The proverbial saying, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" is of great antiquity and may have suggested this sign, a popular one since the seventeenth century. Traditionally it was illustrated by a mailed fist on which a falcon was perched. In 1756 six soldiers were billeted here and in a poem of 1800 it was already known as the Old Bird in Hand. One nineteenth century licensee was also a maltster. I wonder if his malt house was attached to the pub? It was bought on 19 July 1907 by Phipps Brewery for £1,800 from Mrs E. Gilbert and the tenant's annual rent in 1909 was £25. In 1935 it was advertising 'Phipps Northampton ales and stouts. Choice wines and spirits'. In 1755 The Bird in Hand was the meeting place of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire (Masons). In 1921 it was the headquarters of the Coventry Premier Homing Society. Presumably this was a homing pigeon society, rather appropriate for the name of the pub! It closed on 29.5.1961.
LICENSEES: 1822 S. Watson 1835 - 1851 Joseph Watson 1857 W. Whitmore 1861 Thomas Bromwich 1868 - 1874 James Bates maltster 1879 Tom Garrett 1881 J. Garrett 1886 William Lloyd 1890 - 1894 Tom Garrett 1896 Mrs E. Garrett 1903 - 1905 Elizabeth Chapman 1909 Arthur Fennell 1909 A. E. Lucas 1911 - 1922 Albert James Lucas 1924 - 1931 J. Lucas 1933 - 1934 G. H. Greetham 1935 - 1938 Mrs W. L. Greetham 1939 - 1940 R. Spicer 1955 - 1961 George Taylor
OWNERS: to 1907 Mrs E. Gilbert from 1907 Phipps
Street plan of 1851