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![]() Signs From The Spirit World
By Elaine Saunders
The idea of the pub sign came to Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. Wine bars in ancient Rome hung a bunch of vine leaves outside as trading signs but when the Romans came here they found precious few vines in the inhospitable climate. Instead, they hung up bushes to mark out the inns and the names Bush and Bull & Bush still survive.
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What’s in a name? Even after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th Century, some of the names denoting religious connections survived, such as The Mitre, The Ship (symbolising the Ark) and The Anchor (the Christian faith). However, many of the landlords thought it more politic to show allegiance to the monarch and hastily adopted titles like The King’s Head or The Crown. Henry VIII who ordered the Dissolution is, unsurprisingly, the most popularly depicted monarch.
Anyone who caught the public imagination was likely to be immortalised such as Lord Nelson or Wellington and even loveable rogues like Dick Turpin get a mention.
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In the days of a largely illiterate population, pictorial signs were an essential way of advertising the inn or the type of entertainment on offer inside. Any pub called The Cock Inn or The Cock-Pit would once have been a venue for cock fighting. Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans, (which also claims to be the oldest pub in Britain!), was originally the dovecote for St Albans Abbey. After the Dissolution, it was realised that its circular shape made it a perfect venue for cock fighting. Just to confuse things, any pub called The Cock & Bottle has nothing to do with sport. It simply denotes that both bottled and draught beers were available.
As to other entertainments, The Bear denotes bear baiting, The Dog & Duck, hunting, The Bull & Dog, bull baiting and The Bird in The Hand, falconry. Nowadays, the more modern sports are represented by names like The Cricketers’ Arms, The Anglers’ Rest or The Huntsman.
In the 18th Century the population became more mobile and a need for coaching inns grew with predictable names such as The Coach & Horses and The Horse & Groom. Later the advent of steam gave every town its Railway Inn or Station Arms.
There is a story that, in Stony Stratford, the London coach changed horses at The Bull and the Birmingham coach across the road at The Cock Inn. The passengers from the respective coaches would swap news whilst waiting for the change and it is from this that the phrase “cock and bull story” is said to have originated.
Plenty of cock and bull stories and local legends have found their way onto pub signs. Take, for example, The Drunken Duck at Barngates. The landlady one day found all of her ducks dead in the yard. Unaccustomed to waste, she plucked them ready for cooking. As she finished, the ducks began to revive and a search of the yard revealed a leaking beer barrel surrounded by webbed footprints. She was apparently so contrite that she knitted them all little jackets until their feathers grew back.
It is rare to take time to consider the sign outside the pub in the rush to get inside but few pubs were named by accident. Almost every name has a story behind it and, together, they illustrate the social history of England. With names enduring for centuries it is possible that the sign above the door is as old as the pleasure of drinking itself. Elaine Saunders is a freelance writer based in England. She writes on a wide range of topics for magazines around the world and can be contacted on el.saunders@ntlworld.com
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