Contrived Pub names

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 09 May 07 - 10:41 AM

Of course, in my day nobody felt it was necessary to actually change the name on the pub sign to call it by some other name. The Fleece at High Eldwick (already mentioned) at one end of a long footpath across Ilkley Moor (with or without your hat) was always referred to as Dick Hudson's despite the official name. In Holmfirth, isn't The Nook actually named the Rose and Crown? In Beverley, Nellies also had a real name (White Horse?).
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Pilgrim
Date: 09 May 07 - 05:23 AM

In Stalybridge we are proud to have the pub with the longest name in England; The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn.

Pilgrim

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Doktor Doktor
Date: 09 May 07 - 05:14 AM

Who remembers the Whore's Bed in Noarridge - great for Jazz.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Lady Nancy
Date: 09 May 07 - 04:22 AM

The Elephant & Castle in Holmfirth - is it still going? Will it be a venue for the Festival of Folk this weekend?

Keighley's Weatherspons is called the Livery Rooms and - ha ha - it is in the old Temperance Hall!

My local years ago in Dewsbury was called the Bath. When I once left a note saying is was in the Bath, my pal spent ages terrifying another bedsit dweller by hammering on the bathroom door.

LN x

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 09 May 07 - 02:41 AM

Kevin - 32 High St Wealdstone, HA3 7AB (not far from Peel Road). The others are HA3 6SE (Old Redding) and HA5 2EG (Eastcote)!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bernard
Date: 08 May 07 - 11:31 AM

Pierrepoint also was publican for a time at the Rawsons Arms, Farnworth (near Bolton, Lancs), which was just around the corner from my house. The pub was always referred to locally as 'The Stumps' or 'The Stump', referring back to some stumps which were used for tying up dray horses during deliveries.

It was a 'calendar pub' - 365 panes of glass, 52 rooms, 12 staircases, 4 floors (including cellar!) and other calendar-related features I can't just recall. It seems it was built to be a private girls' school, but the money ran out so it became a pub instead, conveniently situated by the Farnworth and Halshaw Moor railway station.

In the mid 1980s I ran a folk club there, and again in the mid 1990s. It wasn't doing very well as a pub, and was pulled down following a (convenient?!) fire around 2000.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,faith
Date: 08 May 07 - 09:56 AM

the Corner Pin in Long Eaton is a name that makes me giggle to myself, due to the fact that the pub is situated on the corner of the high street and the Market place. it has, for years, had some kind of resemblance to "the Corner pin" in different variation, except when it was turned into an irish theme pub called Shift oshays.
If anyone else has any info on the pub, id like to kno.
:D

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 08 May 07 - 05:53 AM

In Normanton there is a pub (not a new renamed one) named Hark to Mopsey. The pub sign has fox hunters in full red jackets.

Quack!!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 08 May 07 - 05:50 AM

There's a fairly useful if not comprehensive list of pub names on Wikipedia. It explains some of the old pub names and mentions some of the new contrived variety with explanations of some of the wittier ones.

Some of the names people think are contrived are actually pretty legitimate. Origind for the Goat and Compasses is definitely under dispute, and will probably never be known for certainty. Just remember that most people could not read, so the pub sign was painted as a picture. Some of the names used derive from what the locals thought the picture looked like rather than what the painter thought he was depicting.
Lots of pubs were named after trade guilds and used their "coat of arms". The cordwainers guild had goats on its arms (the trade was shoemaking) so the Goat and Boots may not be particularly contrived.

Albert Pierrepoint was born in the village I grew up in. There is a good article in Wikipedia about him, his father and his uncle (also hangmen). According to Wikipedia, the pub near Oldham, which Pierrepoint ran was named "Help the Poor Struggler". Perhaps it had been renamed in later years?
There is also a recent film about Pierrepoint, starring Timothy Spall.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 08 May 07 - 03:42 AM

Thanks Kitty

I don't know Old Redding so I guess that's the one I didn't know about!

The Wealdstoen one is the one I called Harrow Weald, I thought it was further up the road but it was a long time ago.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 07 May 07 - 06:15 PM

No Kevin, there were 3 The Case is Altered - one in Wealdstone, one in Eastcote and one in Old Redding.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 07 May 07 - 03:58 AM

From memory of when I lived in Wealdstone 76-78 approx there were two Case is Altered pubs locally, one near Harrow Weald and one in Eastcote/Ruislip area. That may have changed of course.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 06 May 07 - 07:45 PM

Bubblyrat!! Apparently it's aallreet te sell them little black-faced dolls, dressed in aall the colours of the rainbow, again but ye hev te caall them 'GOLLIES'

The name originates from the large 'O' shaped mouth showing a surprised expression (as in "Oh Golly!!")

Aah hev te say that aah had one, me sister's bairns had one but my bairns never did becos they wez withdrawn to pacify the PC crowd.

They ARE popular with kids of aall ages again - My eldest (She's 20) went oot and bought one cos she's never had one. She says it's the only instance she can claim me as bein' a crap dad! Aah nivvor bought her a Golly.

Aah also knaah a VERY un-PC joke aboot one and if ye PM uz aah'll send ye it

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 May 07 - 12:17 PM

'The Case is Altered' is in Eastcote, not too far from Ruislip.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: bubblyrat
Date: 06 May 07 - 10:52 AM

The last time I looked at the pub that used to be the HQ of the long-lost New Express folk-club in Bournemouth , it had metamorphosed into the Goat and Tricycle, not the Goat and Compasses,and,being just up from the Triangle , was very -um- " gay" ( In the modern sense of the word ).The last time I visited Nottingham ( probably 1968 ! ) , the " Trip to Jerusalem " was just that-----No "Ye Olde " !I mean, it"s Bleedin' Obvious !! Why put Ye Olde ?? Sad to relate, In Henley -on-Thames, to which I have but recently relocated, there is , in the town centre, an accursed " Slug and Lettuce " , but at least JD Wetherspoon have retained the name of their acquisition, The Catherine Wheel in the main drag ( Hart Street ).I also note that "The Black Boy", on the way in to Henley from the A4, is now called " Black Boys Inn", presumably as some kind of PC compromise ? Although the shop " Asquith's Teddy Bears " , at the top of New Street, has a whole window relating to AND displaying----GOLLIWOGS !!!
There is hope for us yet ,in this troubled land !!

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Adrianel
Date: 05 May 07 - 09:12 PM

I don't know how contrived it is, but there used to be a "Frog and Nightgown" on the Dover road in South London. We used to point it out to the children, if they were still awake, driving from the Ostend ferry on visits home.
I heard the derivation of the "Goat and Compasses" was "God Encompasseth Us", but it sounded a bit of a stretch.
In North-West London (?Harrow) there was "The Case Is Altered". I heard it used to be a brothel, run by an Italian (or Spaniard), known to the clientele (also mainly Latin) as "Casa Saltera" - roughly "the joint is jumping".
It's nice to find someone else who knows what a merkin is. I always got strange looks in cinemas laughing at the President's name in Dr. Strangelove; even with the giveaway surname of Muffley, very few people get it.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 05 May 07 - 11:41 AM

The Wetherspoon's in Southampton is caalled "The Giddy Bridge" but aah'd hev te gan back in there te read why it's caalled that again. It's summat te de with a real bridge anyways!

Lonesome EJ!!! The MERKIN & Firkin??? Can ye eat it??? Ye rude buggah!! Ye might get a hair in your beer Man! Made uz laugh anyway

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 05 May 07 - 11:23 AM

Waston & Holmes. Don't know if it is still there in Rome NY. Even more annoying than the name was that they carried the theme troughout the menu with cutesy name like the Hound of The Baskervilles Sandwich, often you had to read the whole description befor you could figure out if you asked for The Dancing Man you were ordering a BLT.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 05 May 07 - 09:55 AM

I must have hit the submit in error.

I was not referring to a pub called The Blank, honest.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 05 May 07 - 09:52 AM

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Betsy
Date: 05 May 07 - 09:09 AM

Liz , as Dick Emery used to say "You're VERY naughty, but I like you!" you reminded me of Garbutt singing Warwick Hunt.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 May 07 - 06:28 AM

There's worse... there was a pub in Dorchester, whose original name I no longer remember, but was changed in the early '80s to 'The Country Gentleman' and outfitted to look like the sort of place you took other people's wives to.

It didn't take long for a new abbreviation to form, and believe me, it wasn't 'I'll see you in the Gent'...

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST
Date: 05 May 07 - 05:48 AM

That's more like it .I suspected they were there amd Lo! they ARE ....Fatling and Firkin,The Sweyn Forkbeard ,Goat and Boots (sheep shagging?),The Tipsy Toad,The Goat and Compasses,Goose and Firkin - awful.
I wouldn't arrange to meet anyone in any of these pubs as would be embarrassed to place any of these names in sentence.
I liked "Our Mutual Friend" ,though,I suppose they all could be reduced, as in, "I'll see you at the Friend".
Mikefule triggered a memory with Dew Drop In.
I remember doing a gig many years ago near Bolton as I recall, at a place called the Last-Drop Inn.
So what you say ? Not very outstanding, well, the hotel ( and a tiny complex) was owned by Pierrepoint ( was it Albert?), who was as most of you will know ,was Britains last official Hangman - and still is, for all I know !!!.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 05 May 07 - 04:04 AM

The penny has dropped! the Fatling and Firkin used to be the Bull. Even though the name is contrived in this case they are acknowledging the history of the place.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 05 May 07 - 03:59 AM

"The Sweyn Forkbeard". Used to be a row of shop premises in our town centre. Acquired by JD Wetherspoon and turned into a big barn where young ne-er-do-wells assemble in order to sup pints of lager two at a time to impress their friends, sport with the sundry young ladies (or 'slags' as the lads are wont to refer to them) gathered there, fuck and blind at the tops of their voices, and challenge one another to bouts of fisticuffs.

Sweyn Forkbeard was the son of King Canute (s/be Knut, I believe, but hey-ho!), and was the leader of the Gainii tribe of vikings who founded the town by camping on the small hill overlooking the River Trent.

Here endeth the lesson, back in the cupboard under the stairs now...............

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mikefule
Date: 05 May 07 - 03:18 AM

Presumably "Moon and Sixpence" is something to do with the full moon looking like a sixpence held at about arm's length. You know: they're both round and silver and, um... well that's it really.

Somewhere (Grantham?) I've see a Dew Drop Inn.

In Long Eaton (and no doubt other places near canals) there is the mildly amusingly named Barge Inn.

In Grantham there is a "Muddle Go Nowhere" which sounds like it might be a local expression, although I don't know.

I dislike it when a traditional nick name is officially adopted by the pub. Contracting a name - "Queen Victoria" becomes "The Queen Vic" or "Vicky's" - is even worse.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 May 07 - 01:31 AM

Ah goats... near my office is a pub called the 'Goat and Boots'. Absolutely no idea why, there were no goat pens nearby, neither were the boots made from goats... it's a 'city' pub - no beer, expensive lagers, cheap shots and no garden.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 04 May 07 - 10:34 PM

In Bournemouth two adjacent pubs were knocked into one and renamed "The Goat and Compasses". Wadworths, the brewers, were trying to get away from the old names, the Pembroke Arms aand the Pembroke Shades, which had become synominous with the drug-taking community.
The name was the winner in a competition for the brewery's workers.

In Wiltshire, near Melksham, is "The Tipsy Toad".

Colyn.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: emjay
Date: 04 May 07 - 04:24 PM

Okay, not what you'd call a pub, just an "out the road" bar, but owner called it the Pole Lock Farm. His name was Ski Rebishke. Later he added a few hotel rooms above and called that the Hill Ten. Closed now and owner gone.
And there was a restaurant and bar a few miles away called Nobody's Inn. Name has been changed to something unremarkable. They made a lot of different plays on the name Nobody's. Can't remember anything special right now, but the food was pretty good.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bainbo
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:30 PM

Liz - re the Firkin chain

The one in Newcastle - fornerly the Barley Mow - was called the Fog & Firkin. It overlooked the Tyne. Fog ... Tyne ... d'ye see? A vaguely folky link.

Anyway, it is no more. It's now called Stereo.

(Links are to reviews from The Burglar's Dog, a hugeley opinionated and entertaining site.)

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:00 PM

Geoff the Duck.........yes the Pie Factory is still going in Tipton and now boasts on its menu Chicken Balti Pie

Frank

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 May 07 - 12:22 PM

I would like to humbly offer my suggestion for a colorful pub name..how about "The Merkin and Firkin"?

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:35 AM

That's more likely, but it's still contrived and not at all obvious to those who know nothing about young cows being fattened for slaughter...

I was driving past and trying not to knock little old ladies over so I didn't see the name properly.

Ordinarily I wouldn't have bothered avoiding the little old ladies but your mum was with me in the car so I thought I'd better be sensible.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:30 AM

perhaps the Fatling and Firkin?

Hornchurch was a centre for leather trade and nearby Romford had a large cattle market well into the last century.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:15 AM

No one has mentioned the Firkin chain in the UK. They started off with the Goose and Firkin, then added more pubs to the chain. They all have 'and Firkin' in the name but the later additions to the chain started to get a bit contrived. I can understand the Friar and Firkin, near an old abbey; the Flintlock was a bit less easy to understand, but I passed one today in Hornchurch - the Flatling and Firkin... what the hell is that about?

I recall with longing and much regret, the passing of the Phantom and Firkin, in Plaistow, and their house beer, 'Spook'. My kidneys do not share the sentiment.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Dick The Box
Date: 04 May 07 - 08:52 AM

A friend in Abbots Bromley referred in passing to "The Jewish Pub". When I asked which one it was I was told it was the Coach & Horses, or the Kosher Horses as they pronounce it......

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: The DeanMeister
Date: 04 May 07 - 05:14 AM

I always liked "The Packet Inn" on the banks of the Chesterfield canal in Misterton.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Bugsy
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:26 AM

There's "Our Mutual Friend" in Stevenage. It's a new-ish pub and was named after the original "Our Mutual Friend" was demolished in the '60's. That one had been there for well over a century. As Charles Dickens used to stay in Stevenage and wrote some of his novels there (reputedly) I wonder, which came first?
The Book or the Pub??

Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 09:39 PM

Thing is, most of those nasty pubcos are subsiduaries of the same big three companies.

The local one here is the East London Pub Company... dedicated to painting nice tiled buildings orange, and putting nasty boring signs up instead of proper pub signs.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: TheSnail
Date: 03 May 07 - 05:22 PM

At least Weatherspoons has a traditional sound to it. Some of the other pubcos are pretty cringeworthy. I keep seeing Innbusiness on pub signs and the Royal Oak in Lewes is run by a company called Pubsulike.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Peace
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:42 PM

"Purveyors"

The last purveyor of any ale is the sewage system.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:36 PM

The Swan and Sugarloaf in Croydon hsd a folk club. I remember singing there but can't remember when. Burl

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 02:58 PM

There's the 'Ship and Shovel' near Dagenham.... there but for a typographical error...

It's got a picture of a steam ship on it, so I suppose that is how it got the name.

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Betsy
Date: 03 May 07 - 07:38 AM

I suppose there's only a couple of dozen cloned names (i.e.Scruffy , Durty etc ) and those terrible ones which Bainbo mentioned.
The Elephant & Wheelbarrow is plain silly and I suspected that there were more of them about - but - there appears not. Just unusal names with (usually)nice stories about their roots, so, I take their lead.........
There used to be in South Croydon(think it was South)when I worked their in the 60's, a pub with the name The Swan and Sugarloaf.
I'm sure it will have proper "roots" and I've always found it to be the type of name that the inventors of contrived names couldn't come up with. Does that make sense ?

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mick Tems
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:41 AM

Years ago The London Inn, Swansea, changed its name to The Swansea Jack, in memory of a dog who was not only a good swimmer but a good life-saver as well. As a founder member of that late lamented group, Swansea Jack, I heartily endorse improvements designed to remember the band's (and the dog's) name!

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:40 AM

Mention of the French bar above reminded me of a bar in the Dordogne village of Allemans called L'Arsenic, though I don't know why.

My friend Pinky, who lives in Allemans, is prone to asking "Do you fancy one up the Arsenic?"

Nick

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:36 AM

we have a "moon and sixpence "in whitby.its a wine bar! i like the "first in last out "in whitby. its a good name for a folk venue, dont you think?

          old salty X

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: GUEST,Bainbo at work
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:33 AM

I'm glad to say that - after that spasm a few years ago of renaming pubs, and fitting them all out from the smoked-glass-and-chrome catalogue - most of the ones near us have reverted to their original names. I say glad, because the new names included The Pink Domino; Porcupine Park (used to be the Queen Alexandra); and the Ginger Giraffe.

The annoying thing, though, is that with the return to the original names, there was a fortune spent making the pubs look like they always had done in the first place. Only this time round, it's all fake.

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:22 AM

Then of course there is what is reputed to be the oldest pub in the UK, 'Ye olde Trip to Jerusalem'... One wonders when it acquired the 'Ye Olde'...

LTS

Subject: RE: Contrived Pub names
From: Mick Tems
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:20 AM

There's The Moon And Sixpence at Tintern, in the Wye Valley, and The Goose And Cuckoo about three miles from Llanover, Gwent, with a breathtaking view and a good reputation for real ale - both ancient inns with ancient exotic names. I must digress, however - at the beautiful Breton village of La Cheze ("ville fleurie") there's a little bar, standing opposite the river, which is called (translated from French): "It's Better To Drink Here Than Over There". Good thinking...