The Bell and Bear, Gorsty HillFrom an article in the Black Country Bugle in 1976, when it was hailed as Pub of the Month.
The Bell Inn, located on Gorsty Hill, close to the Blackheath, Cradley Heath and Halesowen boundaries has been a noted ale-house for longer than any living man can possibly remember.
Inns, and even roads were few and far between if we go back 200 years into Black Country history, but on Yates"™s map, dated 1775, we find Gorsty Hill clearly marked.
Only eight dwellings are shown bordering the whole of the thoroughfare, which ran from the centre of present-day Blackhearh to Halesowen.
A farmhouse and barn are where "The Bell" now stands, and it is probable that the public-house we know today sprang from these original buildings "“ with some obvious conversions.
The Feredays - On BCC here :
http://bcconnections.tribalpages.com/tr ... onnectionsThe Fereday family were in ownership at that time, occupying their wayside dwelling, which was then surrounded by green pasture meadows and fields, swaying corn, with the dense thicket of Coombs Wood in the hollow across the road.
Tremendous changes were on the horizon. Within the next thirty years, a nearby canal system and the opening of several local pits brought rapidly increasing population and industry. Traffic between Halesowen and Rowley grew accordingly, and it became profitable for the owners of Fereday Farm to open up a kind of roadside hostelry, to accommodate wagon drivers and those who travelled on horseback along the busy Halesowen/Rowley Road.
The location of this establishment was nothing less than ideal "“ being positioned on an almost level stretch of highway, sandwiched between the considerable slopes of Coombs Holloway and the upper reaches of Gorsty Hill.
Drivers found it an ideal spot to give their horses a breather between these two severe gradients and "wet their own whistle" at the same time.
That was when the farmstead was first converted into a tavern with stabling and a Wheelwright"™s and Blacksmith"™s forge.
The family prospered. In 1860, Thomas Fereday owned the property. He married into the wealthy Wright family of Old Hill, and when he died in 1885, "The Bell" and surrounding lands passed to his daughter, Fanny Wright-Fereday. She married Edward Lloyd Gatacre, but they were divorced in 1877. Around that period, the inn was known locally as "Fanny"™s".
Sam Lowe"™s Long Tenure : on BCC here :
http://bcconnections.tribalpages.com/tr ... =118567769She stayed at "The Bell" until 1895 when Mr Samuel Lowe purchased the public house which he owned until his death in 1934. It was then acquired by Messrs Grigg and Brettell, who were subsequently "taken over" by Ansells Brewery
. WHEN I FIND HER, I WILL HAVE STRONG WORDS! 
What can I say? Those that were will know the truth.