Gough's Butchers

Does anybody recall the Gough butchers of Coventry Street? I was told their mother Flo delivered milk on a horse and cart from the nearby dairy.

Hi Stoke1 - welcome to our forum - hope you enjoy your stay Were they related to Gough's bookmakers, do you know? I seem to think they were - I knew "young Jim" very well in his later years (not through betting, but as a member of Hearsall GC!)

Jimmy Gough Snr and Jnr were both trained butchers as well as bookmakers (and boxers for that matter). Don't know if they were the same 'Goughs' as the ones in Coventry Street? I doubt it though as their main business was located in Stoney Stanton Road.

Harry and Jimmy Gough were both master butchers in Coventry Street which was started by their mother (Flo nee Boneham) who later worked on the milk cart and went on to outlive both her sons settling in Cubbington. I believe their father built the premises which incorporated a slaughterhouse to the rear. The shop is now a furniture restorers or the like and is located a few doors up from the Barras Club opposite the old Barbers shop. Nowadays there are car repair units to the rear which to this day are still referred to as Goughs yard. Harry and Jimmy both boxed and Jimmy was a bookmaker having shops just over Priestley Bridge on the Stoney Stanton Road and I believe in Willenhall and Whitmore Park. Jimmy was also a Boxing Promoter and I believe he was involved in promoting a Randolph Turpin fight which was held in Birmingham to raise money for charity, which I believe was for a Welsh Mining Disaster although of the exact details I am not too sure. I do not know too much about Jimmy Gough junior (Jimmy's son) but I believe he was a good golfer and sadly died young. I believe they were all connected to Hearsall Golf Club in the 70s. I think Harry Gough lived in Stoneleigh Avenue backing onto the Golf Course and Jimmy round the corner on the Leamington Road. Harry (born 1909) died in 1978 and Jimmy (born 1911) a couple of years later.

Definitely the same family then. I knew Jimmy Gough Jnr and his beautiful wife Brenda from when I lived in Gosford Street in the early 1960s. Jimmy was then captain of the trophy winning Mermaid Inn darts team and took his dart playing very seriously as he did every competitive sport he was involved in. I only ever met his lookalike father Jimmy Gough Snr once, much later when he visited the Coombe Abbey Inn with Jimmy Jnr. I don't recall Jimmy Jnr ever mentioning his uncle Harry which is odd as there wasn't very much about his personal life that Jimmy didn't discuss openly in a public bar!

I don't believe Harry Gough was involved in the bookmakers. He finished working his later years helping out in the butchers on Walsgrave Road although I do believe he played the Hearsall on Thursday afternoons when butchers shops were closed. During a haircut discussion with "Derek" the narber in Coventry Street (opposite Goughs butchers) I was told about Harry's broken cheekbone which made him more awkward to shave. This, I am told, was acquired from a policeman (off duty I presume) in a fairground style boxing challenge which I believe might have been on Barras Common and no doubt arranged by his little brother Jimmy!

For the first ten years or so I knew Jimmy Gough (jnr), I had no idea there might be another 'Jimmy Gough' (snr). I can't remember whether it was Jimmy (jnr) or his gorgeous wife Brenda who told me this story but both confirmed it as absolutely true. Brenda was in the habit of inviting her posh friends around for Sunday dinner. When it came time to carve the roast, Jimmy (being a trained butcher) would have nothing to do with anything so mundane as a carving knife. Instead he insisted on using a butcher's meat cleaver which he would raise high above above his head and then slam it down loudly on the roast many times to leave a dozen or more perfectly spaced slices. Meanwhile the invited guests would be cowering in fear at the sight and sound of this whilst Brenda struggled desperately to hide her embarrassment at having married someone with such humble origins.

I used to play darts with a smashing guy called Jack Pratt who worked at the Dunlop. When Jack passed away, his wife asked me to deliver some butcher's knives that Jack had sharpened for a friend. The guy who ran the shop was called Gough and the shop was in Spon End, just up the street from the Railway Club. Any connection?

I lived in Cromwell Street and my gran used to tell me that Goughs butchers was situated on a corner there. She told me that grandad came home from fire watching duties and she gave him a piece of steak and this was in wartime. He never did find out that it was a fine piece of... HORSEMEAT, that Goughs had cut for him. I have eaten horsemeat in France and very tasty it was too.

Hi gangan We lived just around the corner in Cobden Street until 53, totally agree about horse meat, we used to have it often. I wonder if the Gough in Spon End was a distant relative?