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Tuesday 1 December 2020

Pubs and Their Signs Guest Post by Richard Tearle


On his website blog, recently, Richard posted a short story about pub signs. (Link will also be below at the end of this article.) With many modern pubs having nonsensical names such as 'Slug and Lettuce' (whatever idiot thought that one up?) have we lost sight of the importance - and the history - behind the names, and signs, of our British pubs?

Helen Hollick pointing out 
The King's Arms pub sign
(King George III)
 in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia USA...
on 4th July 2015
Independence Day!
(Maybe she shouldn't have shouted
'God Save The King!' quite so loudly!)


The signs were important because many people of the past could not read, so visual information was needed, and the signs could convey much more than merely the name of a pub... over to Richard:



The art of the pub sign is something that I am quite passionate about, but the trade is slowly dying. Pubs are closing daily – and that is without taking Covid-19 into account – and signs are changing; many just showing the name on a blank background. Like barges and funfairs, the style of the artwork of many pub signs is unique and characteristic as well as being extremely skilful. It will be a shame if the skill disappears, perhaps if more people knew about the meanings behind a pub sign, more people would show an interest and care?

Kings and Queens: Whilst medieval kings are not particularly favoured, probably the earliest king represented is King Ethelbert at Reculver, Herne Bay, Kent. He was King of Kent from an early age and reigned until the year 616 AD. Birth Year unknown, but believed to be 550 AD. There is a King Henry VIII at Hever Castle in Kent and The Queen and Castle, unsurprisingly, at Kenilworth showing Elizabeth I with the castle behind her.

Charles II seems to be very popular and I have an example taken in Ross on Wye. Georges abound, including one in Lichfield, the George IV, and a few Williams. Few 20th Century monarchs have been so honoured - perhaps patriotism died with Victoria (of which there are many pub signs!)? Does anyone know of a 'Queen Elizabeth II', or a 'George VI'? Surely, there must be a 'Prince Of Wales' somewhere, (or a 'Princess Diana'?)

The King Charles II
Ross On Wye
King George IV
Lichfield, Staffs


For Pubs named The Kings/Queens Arm or Head, a sign is essential for us to identify the monarch, whereas in the case of the Arms, they may give us a clue as to who they represent simply by the heraldic structure of the sign – are the arms of Scotland present, for example, or the Fleur de Lis of France? 

Princes and Princesses are not forgotten – especially the daughters of Queen Victoria – and the hierarchy is represented  all the way down the scale through Dukes and Lords, Marquises and Viscounts.

(Helen: where I used to live in Walthamstow, there is the Lord Palmerston, named for the Victorian statesman and Prime Minister)

The Lord Palmerston

HERALDRY: Studying pub signs invariably leads to a study of Heraldry: apart from the above mentioned 'Arms' of leading dignitaries,many pubs are named after occupations and Worshipful Companies, such as the Forester's Arms in Swadlincote and the well-known sign of London's Elephant and Castle - although the origin of its name remains disputed. One explanation is an English corruption of La Infanta de Castilla, a reference to a Spanish princess with an English connection, such as Eleanor of Castile or Katherine of Aragon (who before her marriage was la ynfante doña Catalina de Castille y Aragon, "infanta of Castile and Aragon". Previously the site was occupied by a blacksmith and cutler – the crest of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers features an elephant with a castle (a howdah) on its back, which in turn was used because of the use of elephant ivory in handles; this association with the Worshipful Company of Cutlers is considered a far more likely explanation for the name.

The crest of the
Worshipful Company of Cutlers.

Heraldry is a fascinating science with its own rules, symbols and conventions. All knights of the realm, and many other titled people, are entitled to bear arms and these are designed by the Royal College of Arms.

Also part of this are the 'badges' that kings and others adopted: The White Hart was the badge of Richard II, the Red Lion the badge of John of Gaunt – most probably the pub was so named because it stood on land owned by him. One interesting story: the White Boar was the badge of Richard III but following his death and subsequent 'disgrace' nervous pub owners changed the sign to The Blue Boar in favour of the Earl of Oxford, a supporter of Henry VII.

WAR: Wars are remembered in the names of battles, The Maida, The Alma and, perhaps strangely, The Case is Altered, which is a derivation of Casa Alta. Perhaps most prominent in this category are the ships and seamen of the Napoleonic Wars. Examples are The Enterprise, The Good Intent, The Earl St Vincent and, of course, Lord Nelson and the Victory.

FARMING: Just about every small village has a pub recalling its farming heritage – The Bull, The Plough, The Share and Coulter.

TRANSPORT: This is quite well represented, though mostly by pubs situated close to a railway station – The Railway Arms, the Railway Bell, The Station etc. Some famous trains are also featured – The Royal Scot and the Silver Bullet at Finsbury Park which depicts the streamlined train, The Silver Jubilee. At  Swadlincote is the Sir Nigel Gresley, designer of the revolutionary streamlined class A4 (which includes the record breaking Mallard). In Margate, The Shakespeare features not the playwright but a picture of the Britannia Class locomotive of the same name that would often haul the Golden Arrow from Victoria to Dover

SPORT: Very little here though many  sporting venues may have a pub nearby which  represents the club and/or stadium. (White Hart Lane- - Tottenham Hotspur FC as example.) Horse racing is very popular, though, and there are some famous racehorses depicted - the Red Rum, the Altisidora, Brown Jack. Boxers, too, have been honoured, such as Tom Cribb.

SOME ODDITIES AND 'INTERESTING' BITS! Some names may seem to be a strange combination of objects. Often, a landlord would move from one pub to another and remember his old one by incorporating its name with the new one. This is the story behind The Queen's Head and Artichoke, in London. The Uxbridge Arms in Burton-upon-Trent not only honours the Earl of Uxbridge, but also the fact that, on land that he owned, he built streets of houses for workers in the brewery industry which still stand today. He was also the guy who famously lost his leg at Waterloo whilst sitting astride his horse next to Wellington!

The Panniers
depicting the historical indoor market
at Barnstaple, Devon

The Shrew Beshrewed (now demolished) near Canterbury depicted a woman on a ducking stool and the Duke Without A Head showed a picture of a 'toff's' shoulders, a blank space and then a top hat above it! The story is that the Dukes Head stood on a crossroads but a road widening scheme meant it would need to be demolished. The instructions on the plans were marked 'Remove the Duke's Head' and when it was rebuilt it adopted the new name!

The Swan at Fradley Junction, where the Coventry Canal joins the Trent and Mersey Canal, not only shows a fine swan, but also the pub itself in the background!

A humorous one is The Drunken Duck, near Ambleside in the Lake District. Apparently. The story goes that several barrels of beer were spilt over the road and the pub's ducks had a fine time splashing about. A while later the landlady found them all and assumed they were dead - she started plucking one, only to find it was 'dead' drunk!

The Tame Otter at Tamworth shows a lovely little creature – but is it actually tame, or does it inhabit the River Tame? Then there is the often used Rose and Crown, and pubs named after places or destinations...

over to Helen...

Thanks Richard! The lovely old coaching inn pub in my Devon Village of Chittlehamholt is the Exeter Inn (recently under new, highly welcoming management and now boasts a newly re-thatched roof!) The original parts of the building are late 16th Century... but it is thirty or so miles from Exeter - so why 'The Exeter Inn'?

Exeter Inn

The answer is simple: the road it is situated on used to be the 'main' (probably only!) road from Barnstaple (about 12 miles away) to Exeter, and was, therefore, a stopping point for a 'comfort break' and to rest or change the horses. A pity, though, it doesn't boast an original old pub sign. 

What is your local pub - what sign does it show? 

Please leave a comment or email 

authorAThelenhollickDOTnet


READ RICHARD'S STORY HERE:

 https://scrapsandscribblings.blogspot.com/p/stories.html

21 comments:

  1. Thank you for using this and adding to it most wonderfully, Helen! This short article barely scratches the surface of what really is a fascinating subject - have to correct myself though: there are hundreds of pubs called 'The Prince of Wales', though few, if any I fear, refer to HRH Prince Charles. But without a picture, how do we know? Also, The Feathers or The Prince of Wales' Feathers refer to the traditional badge of successive such princes! I could go on .......

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    1. My pleasure Richard - and please DO go on... as second article I think!

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  2. Great and very informative article. I had to invent my own for my books set in 5th century Wales but tried to maintain a typically"British" approach to them. The White Lady, The Rusty Nail, The Queen's Hart, The Sow's Head, and such. A longtime fan of Spinal Tap, I flirted with using The Queen's Lips but passed in the end. ��

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    1. nice ones! Perhaps you could have gone for Ye Olde St Hubbins or The Henge of Stone?

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    2. I enjoy making up the names of pubs in my Sea Witch pirate series - it's fun to have risqué names with innocent but (ahem) also rude meanings. The one I giggled over was the Crowing C*ck...

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  3. Thank you for an interesting post. As you say, sadly, some names get changed. The local pub has just changed its name from The Prince of Wales to The Last Crumb. [Last straw, isn't it?] I used to live on the border of Cheshire near the old, wildish road across the hills to Derbyshire. A very welcome stopping place along the way was the Cat and Fiddle pub. It's a corruption of Caterina Fidelis, named - by a Catholic - for Catherine of Aragon.

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    1. Not a great change, is it! Cat and Fiddle is interesting and I would have assumed it referred to the nursery rhyme. Isn't there one on the Derbyshire hills called the Cat and Custard Pot, allegedly the highest pub in Britain?

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    2. Beth that's so interesting - there was a Cat and Fiddle across the road from where my parents used to live and I never knew the origin of the name!

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  4. I haven't heard of that one. My aunt and uncle ran the highest pub in Wales,a 17th century coaching inn called the Glansevern Arms at Pant Mawr. Sadly it was demolished about ten years ago in order to widen the road to Aberystwyth. We'll never know now if there really was a tunnel from the pub down to the river - but maybe I'll write a story and imagine what went on in that wild region.

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    1. Do it!! There are a lot of pubs with so-called secret tunnels, usually associated with smugglers ....

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    2. Most secret tunnels were really either drains or storage cellars - the number of smugglers' tunnels increased rapidly during the Victorian era when canny landlords realised they could make an extra bob or two from tourists if their inn could boast the legend of a 'secret tunnel'

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  5. We had The Princess of Wales pub in San Diego; it was renamed The Princess when she died, but her picture and all the memorabilia remain. My local remains The Shakespeare on India Street ... just hope they survive a few months longer. (Yes, there were/are hundreds of thousands of Brits from the Mexican border to Santa Barbara, brought here by the Brain Drain of aerospace engineers in the 1050's).

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    1. Good to know that there are some 'modern day' pub names for people from 'our' time!

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  6. Most pubs are in danger here, too but not all due to Covid; many of them have been struggling for a long time and are closing down all the time

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  7. Fascinating article, Richard. I'm a Brit ex-pat in the US, missing visits to some pubs with classic and historical names. Green Man in Horsted Keynes, Sussex was where I first took my American wife. I remember when the Queen's Head in Bolney, Sussex changed its sign to show Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury's head, when he died - a great tribute. Guy Donovan mentioned the pubs he invented in his books, which reminded me of my police procedural series - the pub in my invented Snowdonia village is called Ysgyfarnog a'r Ogof - after a local legend. Yr Ogof by locals. (The Hare and Cave in English.)

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    1. Thank you Roland and I'm glad I have brought some nostalgia to you. In my short story on my Blog, I have a character explain that The Green Man could mean Robin Hood, but more likely to refers to Foresters or a Pagan Deity. Didn't know about Freddie being honoured: very few modern stars have been so honoured, though I do know of a Charlie Chaplin and a Jenny Wren after a music hall singer. Do like that made up name of yours!

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    2. I like that - The Queen's Head for Freddie. Nice one!

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  8. Posting on behalf of Seymour Hamilton...
    The pub sign “Saint Peter’s Finger” is of a man, presumably Peter, holding up his index finger. However, the origin of the pub’s name is “SAINT PETER IN VINCULA” = St Peter in chains.

    I love working back through names to their origins. In the Maritime Provinces of Canada there are many examples of mis-translated names that have changed their meaning.

    In some cases it’s a matter of misreading the French spelling into English pronunciation and thereby turning the meaning upside down.

    “Bay Despair” was originally “Baie d’espoir” = hope bay.

    “Harbour Bushy,” was originally “Havre bouchée” = harbour mouth

    What’s generally pronounced “Manadoo” was originally “Main a Dieu” = god’s hand

    “Magaguadavic Lake” which is Mi’kmaw, the language of the Mi’kmaq (previously mis-written as Mic Mac) Indian tribes of the East Coast for “lake of the eels” is generally pronounced by the (white) folks who live there as “Macadavie” which sound Scottish, but isn’t.

    And of course there’s the defensible position that “Canada” is a re-spelling of “Kanata” which means “village” in Algonquin. The contention is that the white comers asked “Where are we?” to which the Algonquin speaking informant said “you’re in the village” — Kanata. By the way, Kanata is also now a suburb of Ottawa.

    Fun stuff. Tolkien loved this game as well. The Hobbits’ “Brandywine” river was the “Baran Duin” which sound (again) decidedly Scottish. But then Tolkien’s languages are all shorn of French and Latin origins. I kinda think he’d approve of Brexit. (I don’t.)

    Seymour

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    1. Thanks Seymour - Interesting especially about Kanata!

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    2. Thank you indeed, Seymore! it IS a fascinating subject which one c an get well and truly hung up on. I hope there will be more to follow at a later date!

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    3. Interesting additions, Seymour. Always great to follow in Tolkien's footsteps or Inklings. I've used Kanata for the Viking-Algonquin-Mikmaq federation in my alternative history saga - draft from some years back.

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Helen