I’m hoping that this post will get the Talbot Hotel out of my system, so without further ado let’s get on with the show. The two KP’s (Kitchen Porters), had started work at the Talbot when they were young boys, both coming from the same children’s home, they had already been working there around 16 years when I’d joined the payroll. Neither could read or write, although Kenny knew enough to be able to study the horses and did like a daily bet, when he passed away a number of years ago there was a column in the Stourbridge News, he’d been such a popular fixture! There were several waitresses who were employed just to work on functions, two had been there for over 35 years, Nellie and Annie. The manager Ted occasionally appeared with a black eye or bruising, which he used to laugh off, but we all knew that Dawn’s temper could sometimes get out of control even in the public bars, if she’d had one too many, so it was fairly obvious where poor Ted had received his injuries. We’d survived an infestation of cockroaches which the brewery had quietly exterminated under the cover of a complete redecoration and revamp of the highly successful Buttery Bar. The damn insects had gotten so brazen that I had even seen them under the seats and feet of customers during the busy lunchtime trade. It had reopened with no-one ever the wiser. One night Dave had suggested a midnight stargazing/photography session, you could easily reach the peak of the Talbot roof by exiting a member of staffs’ bedroom, crossing a flat roof and scrambling up. Thing was that when it came to getting down I froze and it took a great deal of cajoling and help from Dave and Vicky, whose bedroom window we had used to reach the steeply sloping rooftop. It was very embarrassing, I’m no lover of heights but had climbed the roof in sheer excitement and it was only thinking about retreating that had made me freeze. By now you will have realised that the beard I now sport is a result of being a chef and when a few years back I had shaved it off I hadn’t recognised myself in the mirror and a regrown it within six months. At some point in 1970/71 I treated myself to a Sanyo portable stereo record/cassette/radio, as it was so easy to take down to the workplace and help pass the long hours…that is until the banning of any music in the kitchen! Those of you who studied the small sketch of my room will have noticed that there were fire doors either side of my room. After 4 years or so, new fire regulations meant that the room was no longer deemed safe and my final years were spent in a room up the corridor to the right, a room between Peter and Kenny. I was able to decorate this room to my own taste and it was in this room that I would show the Derann 8mm prints I had on loan. Finally- The Talbot had a large ‘Gents Only’ bar that was generally only home to one to two customers. One regular was an elderly retired Scotsman who answered to the name of Jock. He had been the film critic for some tabloid and was a ‘good’ friend of Josephine Hutchinson, (she’d co-starred with Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone in the 1939 film ‘Son of Frankenstein’), I was never able to get very much out of him and by 9.00pm he would always be too far gone to hold a conversation. Happy times.
Footnote: The Talbot has had a number of owners since my time there and in 2019 closed and was boarded up. There were numerous rumours as to its future, but after extensive refurbishment it reopened on the 31st July 2023! Minus most of it’s bars (turned into additional bedroom accomedation. It has 56 rooms now, compered with just 32 when I worked there), it felt a little strange to me, with new doors and old ones now sealed up. I had a short conversation with its new manager who admitted that there had already been several visits from former staff.
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