BS: Pub Names

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 08:17 PM

*G*

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Folkiedave
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 07:37 PM

One of the great sessions pubs (most nights of the week) in Sheffield is called Fagan's after a long-standing landlord Joe Fagan of whom there are many legendary stories.

Go in and ask Tom the current landlord to tell you some of them.

Joe was a Lancaster bomber pilot and used to tell how not only was he blown out of the sky and had to parachute down, he caught a fellow airman on his way down without a parachute. Not only that but he smoked a Woodbine on his way to earth.

When asked how he lit the Woodbine, since he was holding his fellow airman, Joe answered "flak".

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:54 PM

Geoff Higginbottom tells a canny story aboot a toon in Cheshire (aah think) with two pubs - The Red Lion and The Golden Lion

A third pub wez built as the toon grew and was caalled The Pavillion but everyone referred to it as The Pavil Lion

Aah aalwez thowt a great name for a pub wad be 'The Frog & Nightgown' or 'The Ghost & Gumboil'

Divvent ask uz why - It's just summat me marra and me used te think ab oot when we wez kids

Gerramonsgstit Man!

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 04:40 PM

A few of my favorites, from my youth:

Mickey & Vinnie's Dew Drop Inn
Lift a Latch
Cus from Ho (short for 'cousins from Hoboken')
Tavern at the Inn (the owner bought two generic neon signs)

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Martyn
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 03:26 PM

Re the "Hark To Mopsey" in Normanton. When I was a kid the pub sign didn't show a hunt, but we were told that in years gone by there had been a fire at the pub and the Landlords dog Mopsey had raised the alarm and woken everyone up. The landlord then renamed the Pub.

It's a nice story but I suspect it's a fairytale.

Martyn

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 09:15 AM

Well a relative of a relative (if you see what I mean) used to live between two pubs in Knighton Wales) - one is still there.

"The Lion" and "the Lamb" (probably "& Flag")

so his friends called him the Peacemaker.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:54 AM

The "Queens Heid" in Burley in Wharfedale - not an unusual name but a damned good pub nevertheless.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Paul Burke
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:52 AM

About the point that the Red Lion is replaced by the Yellow Line.

I've always liked that name "The Gate Hangs Well"- which is apparently a reference to turnpike toll gates. The one at Chapel-en-le-Frith still has the little jingle outside:

This gate hangs well
And hinders none.
Come in, refresh,
And travel on.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:26 AM

At what point, as you travel into London, are the pubs called the 'Jolly Farmer' replaced by the 'Jolly Gardener '?

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 05:46 AM

Ah, a goo d can o' worms there, Guest.
Certainly there seem to be other views on The Case is Altered. And the Elephant and Castle would certainly seem to have nowt to do with infantas - or even Fanta - and more to do with knife handles.
There are some links and wittering here, and some more talk of fabled names on Wikipedia.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 05:35 AM

Lot's of myths or near-myths about pub names, like the Elephant and Castle coming from Infanta de Castille, or the Square ond Compasses from the supposed puritan phrase His Care Encompasseth Us. Perhaps The Bulls Head came from Double Zed, the Wheatsheaf from The Witch Heath (as in Macbeth)

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 04:58 AM

Some vague memory in the recesses of a gin-sodden brain tells me that the name 'The Case is Altered' was thought to have been brought back by soldiers from Spain, and refers to the casa altera (sp?), or high house, selling hooch.
But I may be horribly wrong, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Bob Hitchcock
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 06:08 PM

Why not call it "Free Beer"? be great for attracting customers.

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 05:59 PM

Kitty, you got that just ahead of me - I only know the Eastcote one, though.
And in North Oxford, Tolkien's favourite pub is commonly known as "The Bird and Bastard" (Eagle and Child). Indeed, the first time I went out with 'er indoors, we sat on the bench with his commemorative plaque...

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 05:43 PM

We have 3 pubs called "The Case is Altered" within a few miles of each other - Old Redding, Wealdstone and Eastcote (the latter being where the Herga Mummers start their Boxing Day tour). I don't know of any further afield.

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: eddie1
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 01:38 PM

Reading (UK) has a "World Turned Upside Down" - known as "The Double - ewe Tup.
I always liked the name Ronnie Corbett used for his local. "The Rat and Handbag"!

Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Scrump
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:43 AM

Ah, so she was a hairdresser then?

ah... I see...

... I'll get me coat.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Toobusybee
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:07 AM

Not quaint, just trying to spare some people's sensibilities, but if you insist in giving it a name - a blow job.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,jimlad(guest)
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 04:01 AM

Toobussybee

I don't suppose you got her name or telephone number.

Jim ( no distance too far)

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Rowan
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 01:36 AM

" a girl providing sexual relief to her boyfriend"

I love those deliciously quaint expressions.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Toobusybee
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 08:46 AM

Further to the Church mentioned by Lady Penelope.
The Church took place every sunday in Bagley's club at Kings Cross - I live on a narrowboat there and it was murder! Every Sunday we had a self imposed curfew from 11am until 1pm and 4pm until c6pm. I know the majority of the users were just being friendly - I found out my nephew had been a visitor when he was in the army; but there was a nasty minority who used to urinate in the gate of the mooring, throw things from the bridge above the canal - once it was a two litre bottle of water, another time I found a half bottle of gin (I think). They shouted abuse and really rude remarks, I also once saw a girl providing sexual relief to her boyfriend (?) on the Bridge on York Road. Eventually the club was moved to the Forum in Kentish Town. I am not averse to drinking and a bit of malarkey - I am know to partake every now and then but it used to be an absolute nightmare!

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Essex Girl
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 08:31 AM

Like Lady Penelope, my father always navigated by pub names. He was a fireman in Essex and the best landmarks, especially at night were the pubs. Where the roads had no names you could say "left at The Royal Oak", then past the Green Man" etc. When Harlow New Town was built all the new pubs were named after butterflies and the signs depicted the butterfly on one side, i.e. The Scarlet Admiral and a suitable picture on the other. The fact that most of the pubs were dreadful to drink in was beside the point.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Mingulay at work
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 07:12 AM

Another pub I used to frequent was called the 'Horse and Panniers'nicknamed by the locals as 'Whores and Fannies'. Looking back, I seem to have spent a lot of time in pubs many with odd nicknames!!

Irthlingborough (Northants) has the 'Sow & Pigs'. One side of the sign shows a sow with piglets and the other an old method of making cast iron ingots with a main channel (sow) and side channels (pigs), a reference to former local ironworks.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 06:21 AM

Captain Ginger

'Miners' - 'Miner's Lamp' - 'Ramp'?


There used to be a pub in Bagshot called the Hero of Inkerman. The official name got shortened to The Hero, presumably because the full name was more than the clientele could cope with.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: gnomad
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 05:29 AM

ThreeSheds: I think the pub you saw will have been the "Hark to Mopsey" in Normanton, just NE of Wakefield. The sign shows a picture of a hunt in progress, so I would imagine that Mopsey was a particularly famous hound.

We have a "First in, last out" here in Whitby, that is its official name rather than a nickname.

I rather liked the pub in Tarrington [Herefordshire] which was called the "Glass Pig". Last time I passed I noticed it had reverted to its earlier name of the Tarrington Arms, more traditional I suppose, but somehow less fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Scrump
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 05:25 AM

Nicknames:

- there was (is?) a pub in the centre of Stevenage New Town, Herts, called the "Edward the Confessor", known to locals as "Ted the Grass".

- a pub in Cambs (I forget the nearest village), "The Downing Arms" featured a poorly painted sign showing the aforesaid family's coat of arms, a lion rampant on a shield. The locals called it the "Scratching Cat" (sadly the pub has long been closed and is now a private house, like so many country pubs in England).

Talking of intoxicated animals, mucky ducks etc., there's a pub in Barngates near Ambleside "The Drunken Duck", apparently so named after a duck consumed some of the Barngates brewery's ale - the pub and its ales come with a personal high recommendation from me, incidentally :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: The Barden of England
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 04:43 AM

The "Salmon and Ball" on the corner of Bethnal Green Road and Cambridge Heath Road in East London was always known locally as "The Trout and Knacker" - I thought that sounded much better.
John Barden

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Mo the caller
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 04:19 AM

Pubs in Beverley have tend to have 2 names.
The one with the rocking horse over the door (real but no rockers) called The White Horse is known to all as Nellies after a long gone publican.
Mills & Sowerby was always known as Push (well, thats what it said on the door). Its now officially called The Push.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 03:49 AM

A lot of pubs have two names, the 'official' name that's on the licence and sometimes on the sign outside, and the colloquial. I used to go to a pub near the assizes in Norwich which everyone knew as The Murderers, but I have no idea what its 'real' name was.
Another was the pub under the old Daily Mirror building off Holborn Circus where many of the hacks would go to drink and grumble. Officially 'The White Hart', everyone knew it as 'The Stab'; as in 'the stab in the back'.
My local is called 'The Ramp' - no idea why, because the real name is (I think) 'The Miners'
Corruptions of existing names seem to occur all over the English speaking world, from the Mucky Duck and Brass Cat already mentioned to numerous others. I used to frequent a folk club held at 'The Lady of the Lake', which was known locally as 'The Bitch in the Ditch'

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 07:55 PM

Two not far from where I live in Kent.

"The Duke Without a Head", and "The Who'd 'a Thought It".

Neither, as far as I know, particularly recently named.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: lady penelope
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 07:22 PM

Actually, if you ask my Dad for directions, be prepared to remember many pub names rather than roads. It's just how they used to navigate....

Favourite pub names?
Anchor and Hope - Clapton (just 'cos it's contrary to the usual Hope & Anchor)
The Cheshire Cheese (Fleet Street)
The First In Last Out (FILO)
The Ring - Southwark (which was called such because of the boxing matches that used to go on in the back, but some opera nut re-did the sign as a gold ring with a bloke with an eye patch in the background....)
The Pond - Brighton.

An awful lot of years ago, the Kiwis and the Aussies back packing through London, nicknamed a pub in Tufnell park The Church, so they could honestly tell their parents that they went every Sunday.....

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 07:13 PM

The Cock & Balls.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Rowan
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 07:13 PM

In Sydney the Rose, Shamrock & Thistle has, for years been known as The Three Weeds. In Melbourne there is (was?) a pub named the Grace Darling, after a famous rescue. But it's always called the Grey Starling.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 06:12 PM

A pub in Weymouth, Dorset, was refurbished and, being on the harbour was renamed 'The Oar House'. Cynthia Payne was booked to open it but someone on the council decided this might not be the sort of thing a family resort like Weymouth should do...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Anne Lister
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 05:53 PM

All I know is that in these parts it's quite customary to navigate by pub names. Easiest way to find our house ... past the Labour in Vain and just down from the Sally.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Topsie
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 05:06 PM

Have you ever noticed that if you follow a footpath in a town or village it almost always leads to a pub?

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 04:46 PM

Recently I set a sat nav to shortest route rather than quickest and as a result I've been travelling all sort of odd routes,anyway somewhere near Wakefield (West Yorks) I spotted a pub name "Hail to Mopsy". Any Wezzies know the story behind this name?

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Allen in OZ
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 04:35 PM

There is a pub along Parramatta Road Sydney named the "Wentworth". However, it is located where the sheep and cattle saleyards once operated and it was then known affectionately as the " Sheep Shit Inn" . Aaah , Halcyon Days indeed .

We also have the "Bull and Bush" and the "Jolly Frog" nearby

There was a thread along these lines about a year ago

Best wishes

AD 1943

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 03:44 PM

Talking of stupid/intoxicated criminals A policeman frind ofmine was called to a break-in at a out of town pub. The miscreant had hidden in the adjacent field until the pub closed. Nature stepped in at this point and he needed a bowel movement. The only paper he had to wipe with was the addressed envelope that his Giro had been in. Yep! they got him.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Scoville
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 03:25 PM

Houston has the Mucky Duck (which is the official name, not a nickname) instead of the Dirty Duck, but the mascot is still a black swan. It's carved wood and sits on a shelf over the bar. It used to sit by the cash register but some idiot tried to steal it. While the bar guy was processing his tab, the dude grabbed the swan and ran out the back door. Fortunately, he had paid by credit card so the pub had all his information and the swan was recovered in short order. Don't you love stupid/intoxicated criminals?

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,jimlad (Guest)
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 02:42 PM

In this area, Lancashire (aka Gods Country) it is common to give pubs nicknames eg

The Golden Lion becomes the Brass Cat

The Black Swan becomes The Dirty Duck

Stanley Arms became Sally Up-Steps (the brewery eventually renamed it to its nickname)

The Horseshoe is known as 'The Last Chance Saloon ( If you haven't pulled yet)



Some less PC ones are The Eagle and Child whose sign is an Eagle and Child (surprised eh?) becameThe Bird and B**st**d.

And finally The angel Gabriel whose sign is an angel in a long white robe blowing a trumpet Is known as The C**t and Trumpet

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,jimlad (Guest)
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 02:20 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Schantieman
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 01:05 PM

A pub in Liverpool used to be called "One Flew Over the Throstle's Nest". Clearly, the landlord and his mates (or the brewery?) didn't know what a throstle is (a mistle thrush, I believe) as the sign was merely a question mark. More recently the name has changed to merely "The Throstle's Nest" but there's still no picture.

And what flew over it?

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,John Keeps
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 12:24 PM

Please write to my sister, she will come up with some great names for pubs:- Miss Mary Keeps, The Old Cock Inn, Tillet, Herts.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Rasener
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 12:18 PM

There's a road in Portsmouth called Fawcett Road, which has a pub called the Fawcett Inn. Their speciality drink used to be their own brand Fawcett Inn cider.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:42 AM

Ah, the Ram Jam Inn - that beacon of civilisation on the Great North Road. A place that puts all your hideous Welcoime Breaks and tacky Moto stations to shame. I go misty-eyed at the thought of the place...

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: GUEST,Mingulay at work
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:32 AM

Paul, the Jackson Stops is actually in the village of Stretton in Rutland right by the A1 and not far from the 'Ram Jam Inn'.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Scrump
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:19 AM

I've seen more than one "Quiet Woman" shown as a headless woman. I think it was just a joke in most cases (albeit one that would be frowned upon by the PC brigade).

There was a pub "The Nag's Head" (I think in Islington IIRC) that showed the 'correct' horse's head one side, and a stereotypical picture of a harridan with curlers in and rolling pin on the other.

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Rasener
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:12 AM

In Sutton Coldfield ther is a pub called Beggars Bush

I presume it was named after a female beggar

Subject: RE: BS: Pub Names
From: Paul Burke
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:06 AM

The Flat Horse and Slug- that's the pub name my daughter came up with when she was 3.

I always liked the Railway and Naturalist on Bury Old Road, Manchester.

And the Flying Saucer in Lutterworth.

There was one in Peterborough that was on the market so long that they renamed it after the estate agent- the Jackson Stops.

NON PC ALERT
Then there's the Quiet Woman at Earl Sterndale- complete with pubsign showing a headless woman. A former landlord is supposed to have been provoked to murder by his wife's nagging.