Lost pub · Annetwell Street

Black Bull Vaults

1787 to 1916

Built: Rebuilt about 1878-79
Gone: Shut for rebuilding in 1916; reopened with its neighbour as the Irish Gate Tavern, October 1917
There now: Castle Way. The whole north side of the street went in 1972-73
Address: 52-54 Annetwell Street
Where exactly: Placed from the Ordnance Survey grid reference, NY3965856060, in Historic England's gazetteer of the scheme's premises. The building has since been demolished.

The Black Bull was trading at 52-54 Annetwell Street before 1787. It was known as the Old Black Bull until 1855, and the 1865 Ordnance Survey map marks it as the 'Old Black Bull Inn'; the same map's 'Black Bull [Old]' on Irishgate Brow, which ran directly into this stretch of Annetwell Street, is probably this building too. Jim Templeton, the city's picture historian, placed it just round the corner into the entrance to Devonshire Walk, looking over the Caldew and the brewery. A News and Star caption of 23 June 1952 gives it a nickname of its own, the Blazing Barrel, from a gas-lit barrel sign, though the Cumberland News of 4 October 1991 gives the nickname and its red glass barrel to the Saracen's Head next door.

David Spedding kept it in 1829, still under the old name, and E. Hodgson signed the innkeepers' memorial of February 1867 for the Old Black Bull. It was rebuilt around 1878 or 1879. In September 1880 the licence passed from C. Dudson to J. Nicholson and W. Skelton, and in 1884 Bulmer's directory lists it as the Carlisle Spirit Stores, Annetwell Street, Nicholson and Skelton, among the hotels and inns; in 1897 Kelly's has only Nicholson and Skelton's wine and spirit premises there. By 1901 it was the Black Bull again, under William Skelton, a 39-year-old wine and spirit merchant born in Wigton by the 1891 census, and in 1906 the Black Bull Inn, Joseph Bouch. A photograph of it taken in 1902 is the only view of it. It stayed in the local directories until 1914.

The scheme bought it on 23 August 1916 and shut it almost immediately, but not because it was a bad pub. The Board wanted a large house here, and it already had the Saracen's Head next door, bought three weeks earlier. Historic England's gazetteer makes the Black Bull a Maryport Brewery house when the Board bought it, and gives the Saracen's Head to the Old Brewery. The closure was for rebuilding: the Board's report of 1 November 1916 does not count either house among the twenty Carlisle licences it had extinguished, but lists the Old Black Bull and the Saracen's Head together among seven houses recommended for 'very large alterations', with the work in hand.

The Board closed both, knocked down the partition wall between them and opened the two as one in October 1917 under a new name, the Irish Gate Tavern; the job took nearly a year rather than the four months forecast. A letter in the Cumberland News of 18 November 1922 says the Old Black Bull had by then become part of the Irishgate Tavern. That lasted until 1971, and the entire north side of Annetwell Street was demolished in 1972 and 1973 for Castle Way, the inner ring road, so nothing of any of it survives.

Photograph

Sources 15

geograph.org.uk
Carlisle Encyclopaedia: directories, census and newspaper index
CARLISLE_PUBS_Ver_3.xls (Mike Tuer's pub database)
Historic England, Countering the 'deadliest of foes': public houses of the Central Control Board and the State Management Scheme, 1916-73 (Clare Howard, Research Report 89-2018): Appendix C, gazetteer of scheme premises
The Cumberland News, 18 November 1922, p. 9: G. A. Rimington's letter, 'Control in Carlisle' (via newspapers.com)
The Cumberland News, 4 November 1916, p. 5: 'The Control Board: progress of the Carlisle scheme' (E. C. Sanders's report of 1 November) (via newspapers.com)
The Cumberland News, 4 October 1991, p. 4: 'Pubs of yesteryear', Irishgate Tavern (via newspapers.com)
The Cumberland News, 27 September 1991, p. 4: caption of a Saracen's Head photograph, 'Blazing Barrel' (via newspapers.com)
Carlisle Express and Examiner, 11 September 1880, p. 8: Brewster Sessions, transfers and the black list (via British Newspaper Archive)
Carlisle Journal, 22 February 1867, p. 6: the Public Houses Closing Act and the innkeepers' memorial (via British Newspaper Archive)
Bulmer's History, Topography and Directory of East Cumberland (1884), Carlisle: hotels, inns and taverns, beerhouses, and wine and spirit merchants (University of Leicester digital copy)
Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (London: Kelly and Co., 1897), Carlisle: street directory and public houses (University of Leicester digital copy)
Bulmer's History, Topography and Directory of Cumberland (1901), Carlisle: trades and alphabetical directory (University of Leicester digital copy)
Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (London: Kelly and Co., 1906), Carlisle: street directory and public houses (University of Leicester digital copy)
News and Star, 23 June 1952, p. 3: photograph caption, 'The Blazing Barrel' (via newspapers.com)

Location from geograph.org.uk. The pin marks the site.

Open question

An unsolved mystery

Which house was the Blazing Barrel, the Old Black Bull or the Saracen's Head next door? A News and Star caption of 23 June 1952, under an old photograph showing the gas jet above the barrel sign, gives it to the Black Bull Hotel, but the Cumberland News of 27 September and 4 October 1991 both give it to the Saracen's Head, and the second quotes Jim Templeton as putting the Black Bull round the corner by Devonshire Walk rather than next door.

If you know the answer, or where it might be found (an old photograph, a family story, a document), tell us and it goes into the story above.

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