Black Swan change of name

Subject: Black Swan change of name
From: Fiolar
Date: 17 Mar 01 - 08:22 AM

The Black Swan Inn in Alnwick, Northumberland is having its name changed to the "Hairy Lemon" by the new owners. It is rumoured that the poet Robbie Burns once stayed at the 18th century coaching house. The mayor of Alnwick is protesting and a petition is being set up. Apparently many such old inns are having their names changed to fit in with new owners think of as trendy.God protect us from such vandalism.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: GUEST,Cookieless Morticia
Date: 17 Mar 01 - 08:39 AM

I couldn't agree more, one of my local pubs used to be called the Royal Exchange to denote the historic place where Ann Bolyns dowry was handed over to Henry 8th. It's now called Saints and Sinners of all absurd things, the George is now the Goose and our history is trickling through our fingers. Bloody tragic!

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 17 Mar 01 - 09:13 AM

Morticia,

Where is the George-turned-Goose to which you refer? Not, I hope, in Norton St. Philip, Somerset? Judging from the Ann B. reference, your pubs are closer to London than to the Westcountry, but I'm curious. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Morticia
Date: 17 Mar 01 - 10:34 AM

The George is/was in Aldershot, Hampshire.The local history suggests that George the somethingth ( sorry, crap at numbers and history)was directly responsible for the build up of troops and for spotting it's potential as a military training ground, hence the pub name.This is vandalism of the worst kind as far as I am concerned and all for lager swilling, or barcardi breezer guzzling louts who wouldn't appreciate a decent pint if you dressed it up with an umbrella and stuck a cherry in it...you might have noticed this topic pushes a few of my unhappy buttons.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 17 Mar 01 - 11:29 AM

Oddly enough, I saw a black swan yesterday - a pair of them swimming on a pond near Salthouse, Norfolk. Never seen a black one before.

Jon

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 01 - 12:23 PM

I think the re-naming is the advert to what's inside. It's their reaison detre.

A Black Swan might serve real ale and if your are exceedingly lucky a palatable cider.

The Hairy Lemon is going to serve alco-lemonade and Foster's.

They want us to vote with our gizzard.

I prefer real lemonade from Mrs Lemon - see her at Upton upon Severn Folk festival Mayday BH. Ask her about the song! Juicy ain't the word.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Fiolar
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 05:34 AM

I remember seeing black swans in the grounds of Cherry Hinton at a Cambridge Folk Festival I attended in the early 1980s. They looked magnificent birds and were together with some white swans.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Fiolar
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 05:35 AM

Incidentally if I found a "hairy lemon" in my fridge, it would go into the dustbin.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 07:33 AM

G'day,

Mr Red: Maybe you could persuade them that, if they insist on serving Fosters, the name Black Swan is reasonably appropriate, since black swans also come from Australia (found all over the country ... at least where ever they can find water). They could even introduce a different Aussie brew: Swan, which is brewed in Western Australia, which has the black swan as the state's avian emblem.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Inukshuk
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 11:28 AM

I once took the remnants of Bill Haley's band to the Black Swan (a Coffee House of the sixties)in Hamilton Ontario. We rocked that place until the plaster fell on the chess players below. What a really great time.
But you have to stick with tradition. It was a fine old house. Torn down now for high rises. Gone soon all those great memories. It was there I first heard "Rambling Boy."

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Terry K
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 11:50 AM

My local is "The Cross Keys" which is written on the wall of the pub with individual wooden letters.

One year when the landlord took his annual holiday, "the lads" changed the letters around so when he got back he was surprised to find his pub was now called the "Cheeky Tossers" (with a little help from an extra cardboard letter).

It made the TV and national press - famous for five minutes.

Cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 01:00 PM

Unfortunately it has always been so, I remember in Coventry years ago the first change of pub name to The Bug and Black Bat, you had to be wearing an ankle chain and no knickers to get in and the lager was naff-i don't even think it is there anymore God I feel old!

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 01:13 PM

Is hairy lemon like shandy? - A doddling Yank

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Helen
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 05:00 PM

A local pub called The Family Hotel, which used to have great rhythm and blues bands for decades has recently changed its name to The Ducks Nuts Hotel, to attract the football crowd. If the Hairy Lemon is anything related to the reasoning behind calling our pub the Ducks Nuts, then you have my complete sympathy.

Helen

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Bugsy
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 08:25 PM

There you go Jon, over here in Western Australia, Black Swans are the only ones we have. we don't have white ones.

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 09:39 PM

As far as I can make out, this pair must have been brought in from Australia/ New Zealand by someone - they don't seem to exist anywhere else. It was funny really, I was travelling with my mum who told me to look at them and I thought she was making fun of me as my identification of birds is so bad - I had quite a shock when I saw them.

Jon

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Mar 01 - 09:58 PM

HEY! You guys can't DO this.........what will happen to "The Only Running Footman?" Will he have to be the Boston Marathon mascot, and be called "Lopum Aqua Vitae"? Unfair.........!!

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 12:52 PM

Bob Bolton

Yea G'day

No dis-respect to OZ. BUT lager ain't real ale, anyway our Fosters only uses the Ozzie brand image but is brewed in Slough or Basingstoke or some appropriate urbanity. I could have referred to XXXX but that would have invoked the jokes about Ozzie spelling.

I used to prefer Bulmers cider when I lived in NZ - and there it is imported from OZ.

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 01:02 PM

When I first tried Fosters in around '77, I thought it was quite a nice drink and different to the other lagers I tried (I mostly drank Harveys and King and Barnes bitter then as did most of my 17-18 yr old friends - the lager craze did not seem to get to us). I'm just wondering whether it was just my imagination or whether they did change the brew.

Jon

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 Mar 01 - 09:41 PM

G'day again,

Mr Red: I was not suggesting that you drink the stuff ... just use it to persuade the idiot that owns the pub that there is a connection to the traditional name. I drink local old beers and the odd Guinness, so i have no brief for Swan or Fosters.

Incidentally, the founder of Fosters was an American. He probably came out here and got into lager early because Australia is a big country and sparsely settled. If you wanted to ship bottled beer or despatch it on bullock carts, it had to be lager, which was brewed to be laid down (German: lagerbier = beer brewed for keeping, from lager regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 08:36 AM

Bob Bolton

Lager = beer brewed for keeping.

Er didn't realise. I only see it disapear very quickly in pub here. Cider suffers from the same problem - brewed for marketing not for the avicinado.

They had all the familiar brews in the "Three Weeds" (Rose Shamrock and Thistle) in Rozelle when I dropped-in for the Sat session in Sydney. Even Woodpecker cider on tap! I wonder if they still run them?

Subject: RE: Black Swan change of name
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 20 Mar 01 - 08:45 AM

1)Pub names: yes, I also get annoyed when long established local names disappear when ownership changes. At least one local to me has gone back from being one of the chain Slug & Lettuce pubs to the original Winkfield (village name).[another near us has a sign "Duke of Edinburgh famous for fresh fish" which always makes me smile- I can just picture him with his barrow!]
2)Black swans were popular imports to stately home and other lakes and seem to breed quite happily in this country. Norfolk ones might have originated at RSPB Minsmere or a country house estate.
RtS (but I could be wrong....)