Folklore: Odd pub names

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 24 Mar 05 - 07:50 PM

"hometown" that is.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: mandoleer
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 04:44 PM

Update on the Blue Elephant - it IS now an Indian restaurant. Slightly odd name for a pub is No 3 - in Blackpool. Used to be at number 3, but has expanded and now incorporates number 1 as well. Whitegate Drive? Pass it occasionally but can't remember road name....

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Pogo
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 05:24 PM

[Schantieman, the Throstle's Nest has been on Scottie Rd in Liverpool for a very long time (a throstle being a thrush). It became One Flew Over the Throstle's Nest when a certain film became popular- just can't think of the name of the film...]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That in turn comes from an old children's rhyme...all I can recall is the last verse " one flew east and one flew west and one flew over the cuckoo's nest! "

Friend of mine came up with The Lusty Chicken as a good inn/pub name for something he's writing {O)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 08:23 PM

Pogo:

Lots of results on Google:

Children's skipping rhymes

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Muttley
Date: 17 Apr 05 - 09:42 PM

There are just SO many names - and really good ones, too! Since I'm going to the UK in September / October - I may just have to record some of the names as I travel.

Here's an Australian offering: "The Coach and Horses" - probably not terribly original, but interesting in that it is in Ringwood, east of Melbourne and was a stopover and team changing station for the Cobb & Co. stage coaches in the late 19th Century.
Ringwood seviced the goldrush town of Warrandyte, 7 or 8 miles to the north as a market-gardening settlement and then hit a 'boom' of its own when antimony and a REALLY small amount of gold were discovered there. Antimony was the paying mineral and Ringwood was honeycombed with shafts - now the town hall and old police station and courthouse are all collapsing into old shafts that weren't backfilled properly and Ringwood Lake was an accident when the heavily mined areas around it sank!

The Coach and Horses served as a way stop to Warrandyte and as well to the goldfields of Healesville / Warburton and then up into the ranges.

Nice history to it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: mandotim
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 03:08 AM

A couple for the pot; along the lines of the pub called 'the office', there used to be a pub in Oldham called 'The Doctor Syntax'. Hence 'I'm going to be late, love, I'm at the Doctors; nothing serious, just feeling a bit wobbly...'. Another one was on the road from Saddleworth to Huddersfied, called 'The Floating Light'. Difficult to see how this pub on the top of the moors had anything to do with water, until you realise that the Stanage canal tunnel runs underneath from Diggle to Marsden. The tunnel has no towpath, so the boats were 'legged' through the tunnel, and the tow horses would be walked over the hills to meet the boat at the other side. They would stop at the pub for refreshment on the way. Must be a song in this somewhere..
Tim from Bit on the Side

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,pinion
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 03:18 AM

In Philadelphia, PA is the "He's Not Here" Tavern. It's great to hear the bartender answer the phone.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 04:31 AM

Nice to see this thread again - I had forgotten about it! Having visted the US last year it is nice to see pub naming traditions getting just as odd there. In downtown Edwardsville, Illinois, I found a really good pub with lots of real ales and a good atmosphere. It used to be called the Stagger Inn a few years ago but got itself a rather bad name as a rough place. They closed it for a while, re-fitted it and re-opened it with the name the Stagger Inn... Again! Yes, the whole bit including the again. Story goes that when the new management were deciding what to call it someone just said why not call it the Stagger Inn again. And it stuck:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 05:35 AM

I think the Floating Light acquired it's name because in some weather conditions when the hillside is shrouded in mist all you can see is a floating light

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,vikster
Date: 03 May 05 - 08:53 PM

weve got

the turks head: who was this turk? and what happened to his head?
the liquorice bush
the orange house: which isnt orange, or a house and recently renamed shout.
scruffy murphys
the groggers rest
theres a swan with two necks in wakefield
the winter seam
the winding wheel
the king billy

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: mandoleer
Date: 10 May 05 - 06:02 PM

Halsall area seems to have a minor thing abour Moors - there's a main road called Blackamoor Lane and (not in it) a pub called The Saracen's Head. Litherland has The Salt Box, which was originally the St Catherine's Hotel until the management bowed to local custom.
In Leyland, it was a thing about stars. There was The Seven Stars, The New Seven Stars, The Old Seven Stars, The Original Seven Stars and a couple of other versions of Seven Stars. Used to be a pub there that served the biggest range of cocktails I've ever seen, and which had a Sri Lankan guitarist accompanying the groups that played there - pub was The Leyland Tiger, after the buses of course. Long gone now, though.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 11 May 05 - 04:53 AM

I don't think anybody has mentioned the Eel's Foot in Suffolk.
It's an absolutely great pub, and this July there is a step dancing weekend happening there.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Bainbo
Date: 11 May 05 - 07:19 AM

Gnomad asks (a long way up the thread and about two years ago!) about a Lake District pub called the Drunken Duck, which a I remember from years ago, and which apparently derives from a landlady who used throw throw the beer slops out, where they'd be lapped up by the fowl around the pub. The last I heard of it, it's now an expensive restaurant of the kind that draws broadsheet food writers from London.

Also in the Lake District, I've enjoyed the Golden Rule in Ambleside (which has golden ruler hanging outside. Gold-coloured rather than gold, I suspect) and the Mortal Man at Troutbeck, near Windermere.

The last explains its name as being from the verse:
"O mortal man, that lives by bread,
What is it that makes thy nose so red?
Thou silly fool, that looks't so pale,
Tis drinking Sally Birkett's ale."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: mandoleer
Date: 11 May 05 - 04:42 PM

The Eels's Foot sounds like a relation of Ormskirk's Snig's Foot.... Some more from Liverpool area - The Boffin (in Kirkby), The Dispensary, The Tenterhook, Gregson's Well, The Lutine Bell, The Philharmonic Dining Rooms (the most fantastically decorated pub you will ever find - well worth a visit if you are in the area - still all original, too), The Mole of Edghill, The Salutation, The Elm House (one in Bootle and one in Anfield!), and The Flat Iron. Lost, I'm afraid, is one of my favourites - Hengler's Circus. Oh, and I nearly forgot The Weighing Machine, and The Volunteer Canteen. One in Crosby, The Edinburgh, doesn't have an unusual name, but has (or at least had) a distinctive nickname. In the days when the teachers from my school used to go to the BS (Blundellsands Hotel - now flats), the sixth form used to nip out to the Bug and Bite knowing we were safe there. End of term, we used to have one in the Liver (rhymes with diver not river), another in the Vollie (see above) and one in the Raven (with a pickled egg there).

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Chris Green
Date: 11 May 05 - 05:45 PM

When Wetherspoon's were opening what is now the Flying Standard in Coventry City Centre, they asked for suggestions for a name that would sum up what the City Centre is all about. I sent in two suggestions. The first was The Town Planner's Head. The second was The Bomb And Bulldozer. Strangely, they didn't use either of them!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 12 May 05 - 01:59 PM

Edinburgh has a former bank, now a pub, called "the standing order". Only worth mentioning as it always has about 10 diffrent real ales on.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 12 May 05 - 03:07 PM

There used to be a pub beside Emmet Bridge in Harold's Cross, Dublin, called the Old Grinding Young, with a sign outside showing an old man in heavily repainted 18th-century dress being fed into a grinder, while out the other sign came an equally heavily-painted and antique-dressed young man.

And of course there's the Dying Cow in Kilquiggan.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,marc
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:26 PM

We have a few pubs and we currently have one called the swan with 2 necks. We also used to have a king billies.
Probably the most unusual name of a pub we have is the shinnon, in chesterfield.
The Reason for the name is because the old lanlady used to always have her hair tied up and said it was called a chignon. A lot of misspelling later the pub was then called the shinnon and the name was officially changed

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Joe Fogey
Date: 19 May 05 - 07:23 PM

I live in Plymouth, There are at least two "Who'd Have Thought It"s locally, one in East Cornwall, the other, in Milton Combe in South Devon. There is also the No Place Inn on Eldad Hill in Stonehouse, and the Nobody Inn in Doddescombleigh. The Victualling Officers Tavern is also in Stonehouse.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Fidjit
Date: 20 May 05 - 06:49 AM

Are we missing the point? I wouldn't call any Weatherspoon's a "Pub". With the spate of so called Irish pubs abroad. We have, "The Dubliner", "The Kilkenny" and "Dirty Nellies", too. We also had an "O'Mally's" which was run by some pakistan brothers. We nicknamed it "O'Malicks" of course. But none of them are real pubs. I stay at "The Bee" When at the Straw Bear in Whittlesey. Didn't know that story. I'll ask Chris, the landlady, next time I'm there.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Terry K
Date: 20 May 05 - 01:37 PM

My local is "THE CROSS KEYS".

Nothing unusual about that, except that when the landlord was away on holiday, the lads changed the letters around (with a bit of applied ingenuity) so on his return he was greeted by the new name across the front of the pub

"CHEEKY TOSSERS"

Funny, he's not been away since.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 May 05 - 07:32 PM

Turks's Head is a knot - possibly the original Gordian Knot.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 May 05 - 12:29 PM

Driving home from Luton Airport, by way of side roads I came to the Reading village of "Skermit". Being Muppett fans I turned to my wife & said "Look, it's 's'Frog!"
Shortly we rounded a corner to spot the village pub. "The Frog"

Nigel

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 31 May 05 - 10:42 AM

In my German hometown we have an Irish style pub called "Dirty Duck" (sailor's dress?)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 08:20 AM

The Dirty (or Mucky) Duck is often a nickname for a pub called the White Swan or Black Swan.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: mandoleer
Date: 05 Jun 05 - 06:24 PM

One I've not seen before spotted on A41 in Soho (Birmingham, not London!) - The Frighted Horse. Sign has a rearing white horse so far as I could see when driving past.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jun 05 - 04:29 AM

What about the Egypt Cottage in (I think) Dundee, there used to be a sign in there saying that if anyone could produce evidence of another pub with the same name they would get free beer (or something like that). Anyone remember the Royal Oak in Burton on Trent that was only ever known as "The Sump Hole"? This will run forever methinks.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 01:58 PM

The Two Nicks could refer to Old Nick (the Devil) and St Nick (Father Christmas.)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 04:40 PM

There is a pub nearby called 'The Ordinance' - no idea if there is a military connection to the site but the place where they made guns and ammunition for the army isn't that far away.... Someone in their wisdom tried to rename it 'The Orange Kipper' about 10 years ago. It never caught on and the next owners restored the original name. Ordinance is the miltary parlance for ammunition and arms. Ordinance Survey maps started out as detailed maps for the carriage and storage of weapons for the army.


The Rat Pit, Aldershot... I remember it well, but considerably later than 1959. In 1984, when I lived in Aldershot for a while, it was my preferred drinking hole when trying to escape from my crabby sister, her even crabbier husband and their first baby.... It used to be the preferred drinking hole of the SAS too.... Crabby husband didn't approve of this (he was RAMC) so it was the best place to avoid him!

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 01:28 AM

The strangest one I've heard of recently was a pub in Oldham, Lancashire called ' Help the Poor Struggler ' it was run by the famous British Hangman Albert Pierepoint.

eric

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: ad1943
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 03:14 AM

In Sydney, Australia we have the "Bull and Bush", the "Bat and Ball" the "Three Swallows" and the "Friend in Hand"

Allen

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 03:59 AM

Has anyone else noted the demise of proper painted pub signs?

Pubs in Britain are increasingly held by conglomorate chains who put their corporate image over everything, from menues to decor. This has resulted in the demise of the traditional painted pub sign. No more does the Green Man oversee the carpark at the pub near Mt Vernon.... the Queen Victoria looks no longer down her nose at the clientelle in the Broadway, and the Queens, formerly two beautiful ocean liners, is now just a nasty characature of the present incumbent.

Anyone else bemoan the loss of the traditional pub sign?

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Sonnet
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 05:14 AM

The Tommy Treddlehoyle near Barnsley celebrates a local character reputed to have ridden a donkey backwards from Pogmoor to Barnsley. The Postcard, Holmfirth, refers to Bamforth's who made saucy seaside postcards. Knocked down last year was The Bonny Bunch o' Roses,dating from the Napoleonic Wars, at Silkstone Common. Near Thurgoland is The Dog and Partridge, more commonly known as The Monkey. The Fat Cat is at Kelham Island in Sheffield and The Slubber's Arms (a weaving reference) is in Huddersfield.

Did there used to be a pub in Sheffield called The Wapentake?

Jay McS

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Dave Earl
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 05:29 AM

The pub on the corner of the road where I work used to be called the Volunter and had a hand-painted sign showing the recruiting sargeant and the young lad signing on.

When the Volunteer changed hands and was renamed the Mash Tun and the original sign was about to go in the skip when the landlord of the Waggon and Horses (on the opposite corner) rescued it and it now hangs in the bar of the Waggon and Horses.

The Volly used to be a traditional type pub with decent beer. It's now a youngsters lager, juke box and trendy food type of boozer that does not get my custom. The Waggon and Horeses is still an old style pub which I do frequent.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: JennyO
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:40 AM

I saw one on Saturday night in Oxford St Paddington (in Sydney), called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow. Strange combination!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Mr Happy
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 07:15 AM

echoing some of the sentiments raised above, it's a great pity & an affront to 'traditional' British pubs [and thier customers] that many of them suffer trendy alterations to not just the name, but also to the very fabric of the buildings- additional eating areas, extensions,adding huge tables to small rooms so there's hardly space to move, losing real ales to be replaced by watery, insipid chemical 'brews'.

one of the greatest tragedies of all being the change of use of pub premises.

in Chester where i live, there's 'the Old Nag's Head' in town which has been incorporated over the last 20 or so years as part of Boots chemists, & there's the Old Oak opposite which is part of Dixons.

in other parts of the area, 'Ye Olde Wheatsheaf' is an antiques emporium.

anyone similar experiences up their way?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:41 AM

In Halifax there is an old pub called The Old Cock, it is where in the back room, the Halifax Building Society was formed. When the brewers Marstons bought it they renamed it ' Ye Olde Cocke ' what the feck does that mean ? Thankfully now it's original name has been restored.

eric

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:06 AM

Somewhere around Farnborough/Aldershot way was the Tumbledown Dick, in West Sussex somewhere (I think) is the Shoulder of Mutton and Cucumber and near Petersfield is the Pub With No Name which has a name (The White Horse) but has had no sign swinging on its pole for many years.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,Barrie Roberts
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 02:19 PM

Has Reading still got the 'Jack of Both Sides'?

Bilston, West Midlands, has a pub universally known as 'The Trumpet' despite the fact that its name is actually the 'Royal Exchange'. Rumour says it used to be called 'The Angel' and bore a sign with an angel blowing a horn. This led to it being nicknamed 'The C**t and Trumpet'. Who knows?

Then there was the white horse who went into a pub for a drink. The landlord served him a beer and said, 'It's funny you coming in here'.

'Why?' asked the horse.

'Well, the pub's named after you'.

'Really -- that's extraordinary. Why did someone call a pub "Eric"?'

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 01:39 AM

The Tumbledown Dick is just outside the Farnborough Aerodrome and it referes to Richard Cromwell who succeeded his father for a short time before retiring from public life. This reminds me of the 16 String Jack, named after a highwayman who sported strings on his jacket, just north of Ongar,Essex.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST,AnneMC
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 06:45 AM

And way down under ( Palmerston North, New Zealand) you have "The Fat Ladies Arms".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 07:46 AM

Yes, Sonnet, I remember the Wapentake in Sheffield. Don't know if it's still there because I'm not.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 06:07 AM

Two nicks is almost certainly a reference to nicking the swans beak to tally the count of the Queens swans. A swan with two nicks was quite rare as it had survived two cenuses. There were, very occasionaly, swans wuth three nicks! Swan with two necks is usualy a corruption. Two nicks on it's own will be a more unusual shortened version of swan with two nicks. The usual abreviation is just the swan.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: IanC
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 08:00 AM

See Swan Upping (above) ...

"The Dyers and the Vintners Companies are now the only owners of private swans on the Thames, the Worshipful Company of Dyers marking theirs with a nick on one side of the beak, and the Worshipful Company of Vintners marking theirs with a nick on each side. The latter is the origin of the inn sign 'A Swan with Two Necks'. (i.e. two 'nicks'). Royal swans are now left unmarked."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Essex Girl
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 08:59 AM

There's a pub just off Hanover Square called The Black Lion and French Horn, but the picture on the sign gives it the nickname "Dog & Vomit".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Mr Happy
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 11:43 AM

Some time ago, I was working in a small village on the Eng/Wales border.

There were 2 pubs, The New Inn & The Old New Inn!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 12:38 PM

There's a The Case is Altered in Sutton Coldfield - can anyone explain the origins of the name?

I remember the Old Mother Redcap in north London - maybe Camden or Islington? I used to know the story attached to the name, but can't remember now. Something about a local witch?

What about The Quiet Woman? One pub sign I remember shows the woman in question carrying her decapitated head, and I'm sure I remember hearing a story about another one who was drowned in a well - very sinister.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Grimmy
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 01:04 PM

I (barely) remember from my student days in Hull two pubs:

The Botanic and The Zoological.

What's all that about?

(Are they still there, anyone?)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: rabbitlegs
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 01:46 PM

There used to be one called the Steam Pig in Huddersfield, a rugby league term. It's got some daft name now. I can also remember when the Drunken Duck was a proper pub. Now it.s the Rule every time!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Odd pub names
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 07:46 PM

"I saw one on Saturday night in Oxford St Paddington (in Sydney), called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow. Strange combination! "

How else is an elephant supposed to transport his trunk, Jenny?

Don T.