Reg…a regular for 85 years

As pub regulars go, Reg Onions, aged 90, is more regular than most – he’s been going to the same pub every day for the last 85 years.

“I had my first drink here when I was four and I must have liked the taste because I’ve been here ever since,” he says, appropriately sitting in the corner of Coalbrookdale Inn that has become his second home.

“My mum used to be the charwoman here and clean the floors. We used to live about 50 yards away in Darby Road and when I came to see her she said ‘What have you come to see me for? I suppose you want a drink’.

“She gave me a little glass of home-brewed beer and I’ve been here since then. Coming in here was one of my first memories.”

That was in 1922, when horses and traps would be tied to the wall outside and, like many pubs around Ironbridge, the Coalbrookdale Inn would would be heaving with thirsty foundry workers from the Coalbrookdale Works.

That was where, as a moulder casting iron lamp posts, his father Isaac worked and where Reg too would work. That was the way of the world back then.

Pubs and beer was an important part of life for hardworking men between world wars. It was two-and-a-half pence a pint at a time when nobody had got any money and only the top moulders went home with £2 for a five-and-a-half day week that ended on Saturday lunchtime – at the pub of course.

“You never saw a woman in a pub then,” says Reg. “And anyway, there was no money for them to drink after they had been there.”

When he was about 10 years old, Reg’s regular appearances at the Coalbrookdale Inn were put to better use when he assumed the informal role of delivering bottles of beer to the foundrymen in the Dale.

“They would order the beer and I used to put it on the bank down the road for them. They would give me a penny and that was that.”

At 16 he joined the army of ironworkers as a moulder’s assistant and, with a bit of money in his pocket, became even more of a regular at the Coalbrookdale Inn.

“You were supposed to be 16 for the pub but it was a bit before that – I don’t think there was any starting time.

“It was hard work and all the moulders would come in. If they had had a ‘bad box’ on the Monday morning they would go home, or say ‘beggar it, it’s boiler day’ – meaning washing day – and go down the pub.

“It was nice to go to the pub after a hard day’s work.”

Reg didn’t last long at the works, becoming a wagon driver before conscription to go war in 1935, the year his father was killed when a moulding base fell on him.

WIth 3 Tank Company he was mobilised in 1942 to El Alamein, 150 miles west of Cairo, for what was seen as one of the most decisive battles of the Second World War and would not see the inside of his beloved pub for the next four years.

But war had its compensations and would bring romance. Travelling through Italy on his way home he met his future wife Placida Wanda De Franceschi. They were married in Venice in 1946 and she would come to live with Reg just a stone’s throw from his favourite pub.

Sitting in the bar with his obligatory pint, 85 years of fond memories continue to flow.

How Sunday lunchtime the pub was always packed; how the off-licence that used to be here was rather popular among the men.

“The off-licence used to do a tremendous trade among men from the works on a Sunday,” he says. “The men used to come in and have a couple of pints, then fill a couple of quart bottles with home-brewed beer and take them home.”

How fights were more gentlemanly in the good old days. “If anybody had a fight they would go out on the yard there and have a go.”

How he used to run a gambling room upstairs here. “Me and my mate used to go up there after time and play solo until 3am – or until the kitty had gone. It nearly ruined my marriage, that. ‘Any more of that and I’m away,’ my wife said. I soon stopped.”

And how it is rumoured the pub is haunted. “The only ghost I’ve seen after midnight is Reg,” another regular interjects.

Unlike many veteran old-timers, Reg doesn’t have a regular seat; he’s happy to sit anywhere, playing darts and dominoes and chatting to whoever is in the pub at the time.

“I never miss a day – until there’s nothing in the rose bowl,” he says before remembering all the landlords that have come and gone down the years and whom Reg has outlived.

Like he has done for the last nine decades, Reg is still sitting in his favourite boozer, still going strong and looking younger than his 90 years – perhaps due to the elixir of a nice pint.

“Yes, the time has gone quickly,” he says. “Life still revolves around this pub, I’ve lived here all my life and I’m a bit of a drinker so that’s that.”

• Does your local have a long-standing regular of several decades like Reg? Or do you know of one which does? If so, we would love to hear from you. Contact Ben Bentley, Features Desk, Shropshire Star, Ketley, Telford TF1 5HU, or e-mail bbentley@shropshirestar.co.uk or phone (01952) 242424.

See Also:

• Share your news, photos, audio clips and videos with the Shropshire Star