The Olde Trip is almost certainly one of the oldest pubs in England (there are many claimants to the 'oldest pub' title, but it's difficult to prove absolutely). It claims to be over 800 years old. I believe it was named because it was where the crusaders drank before leaving England.

I assume even GK wouldn't presume to rename this particular pub. As for the sign, I don't know - it's happened in many other places. The old pictorial pub signs are regarded by many as part of the local heritage (even though many of the signs have been repainted, sometimes by different artists, many times over the years). GK has been removing these signs and replacing them with a sign just showing the GK logo (as far as I know, they haven't actually renamed the pubs though). In one village (I forget where, for the moment) the villagers were up in arms and GK were forced to restore the old sign - so there's hope! I've seen plenty of GK pubs where the 'logo' sign has replaced the old one, though, so I guess GK are aiming to do this everywhere (there doesn't seem to be a 'campaign for real pub signs', unfortunately).

I used to like the Olde Trip too, but I wouldn't now, having seen the list of ales on their website (GK IPA and Abbot, 'Hardy & Hanson' mild, 'Morland' Old Speckled Hen - the new, significantly weaker version, of course - and 'Ruddles' County). What have these apparently different ales got in common? They're all made at the Greene King brewery in Suffolk, that's what :-(