About Us
The Swan
Home to the award winning Bathams Bitter and Mild.
The Swan is located in the beautiful and ancient village of Chaddesley Corbett set in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside and it has been a popular destination for the locals, tourists, cyclists, hikers and families who have enjoyed the Swan Inn’s friendly and welcoming atmosphere for centuries.
The Swan Inn
Chaddesley corbett, worcestershire
History
Cedes Leage, Cheddesley, or Chaddesley Corbett, the Corbets were Lords of the Manor, was referred to by Kind Coenwulf of Mercia in 816; and again in the Domesday Book 1086; dominated by the parish church of st. Cassian’s.
Quarter Sessions Papers of 1634 ‘… there are none that sell ale without a licence’ – first introduced during the reign of Edward VI in 1552. Only two alehouses have survived; one is the Swan Inn.
Probably on of the 8 Recorded earlier, the Swan Inn was rented by miller malster John Bate from the Corporation of Warwick, together with paddock, buildings and a garden.
Son Thomas Bate 30, was landlord in 1841, helped by his wife Elizabeth 27; they had a family of 5 – Elizabeth 10, John 5, Mary 5, Williams 5, and Hannah 3.
The Swan Inn was a homebrew house, the popular Chaddesley drink was mild: pale, sweet, and strong. Lighter in colour than the equivalent kidderminster or black Country brew. The average local gravity was 1060 – the second strongest in England.
Licensing hours were long, 18 hours a day, 4 am to 10 pm, seven days a week; closed only during Divine Service, Christmas Day, and Good Friday.
An alehouse license permitted the retailing of wines and spirits; and as an inn, the Swan could – and did, remain open as long as a bed was empty: offering basic accommodation, ale, food, and stabling to the lawful traveller.
Thomas Bate had passed on by 1850, and Elizabeth was landlady; helped by greengrocer son John, and barmaid daughter Mary. Young William was still at school. Elizabeth did not remarry, she retired in 1873 aged 59. Machinist William Horne 53, was appointed tenant, his wife Mary 34, looked after the pub during the day. She had a family of 8.
The Swan Inn was acquired by the Trustees of King Henry VIII in 1927; they leased to Daniel Batham & Son, Ltd, 27.07.1951, which continues to this day.
Old Swan Inn has witnessed many changes over the past 200+ years, but has remained – as originally intended by John Bate – a social centre of a community.