Pub names

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The sign of the Saracen's Head in Broad Street, Bath, England

Pub names are used to identify and differentiate each public house. Modern names are sometimes a marketing ploy or attempt to create 'brand awareness', frequently using a comic theme thought to be memorable - Slug and Lettuce for a pub chain being an example. Interesting origins are not confined to old or traditional names, however. Names and their origins can be broken up into a relatively small number of categories:

As many public houses are centuries old, many of their early customers were unable to read, and pictorial signs could be readily recognised when lettering and words could not be read.[1]

Although the word The appears on much public house signage, it is not considered to be an important part of the name, and is therefore ignored in the following examples.

Likewise, the word Ye should also be ignored as it is only an archaic spelling of The. The Y represents a now obsolete symbol (the thorn, still used in Icelandic) which represented the th sound and looked rather like a blackletter y.

Similarly, other archaic spellings such as "olde worlde" are not distinguished below.

Contents

[edit] Alcohol related

  • Barley Mow: Barley is laid in a malting, watered and heated gently until the grain germinates. Cooking then kills the germination process, and the result is called malt. Malt is the ingredient in beer which gives it its sweet taste and colour. The mow is a stack.
  • Barrels: A cask or keg containing 36 Imperial gallons of liquid, especially beer. Other sizes include: pin, 36 pints; firkin, 9 gallons; kilderkin, 18 gallons; half-hogshead, 27 gallons; hogshead, 54 gallons; butt, probably 104 gallons.
  • Brewery Tap: A public house originally found on-site or adjacent to a brewery and often showcasing its products to visitors; although, now that so many breweries have closed, the house may be nowhere near an open brewery.
  • Hop Inn: Hop flowers are the ingredient in beer which gives it its bitter taste, though this name is really intended as a pun.
  • Hop Pole: The poles up which hops grow in the field.
  • (Sir) John Barleycorn: A character of English traditional folk music and folklore, similar to a Green Man. He is annually cut down at the ankles, thrashed, but always reappears — an allegory of growth and harvest based on barley.
  • Leather Bottle or Leathern Bottle: A container in which beer or wine was carried around as a handy drink, now succeeded by a bottle or can.
  • Malt Shovel: An implement used in a malting to turn over the barley grain.
  • Three Tuns: Based on the arms of two City of London guilds, the Worshipful Company of Vintners and the Worshipful Company of Brewers.

[edit] Colour

Colour appears in a number of pub names, sometimes associated with an object which may have been used to identify the pub, such as Blue Post or Blue Door, or as a symbol, such as blue for hope, which could be combined with another symbol such as an anchor, to create the popular Blue Anchor name.[2] Blue could also be used as a symbol of political allegiance to the Liberal Party, such as with the Manners family in Grantham,[2] or it could be incidental, as with the Blue Pig in Telford, which acquired the name due to the local workers producing blue pig iron.[3][4]

Other popular colours are red as in Red Bull and Red Lion (the second most popular pub sign with over 600 examples[5]), black as in Black Bear and Black Cap, and green as in Green Man.[2]

[edit] Food

[edit] Found objects

Before painted inn signs became commonplace publicans would identify their establishment by hanging or standing a distinctive object outside the pub.

  • Boot
  • Copper Kettle
  • Crooked Billet (a bent branch from a tree)

[edit] Heraldry

The ubiquity of the naming element arms shows how important heraldry has been in the naming of pubs.

[edit] Items appearing on coats of arms

  • Bear and Ragged Staff: a badge of the earls of Warwick. Refers to bear baiting (see Dog and Bear in the Sports section).
  • Checkers or Chequers: Often derived from the coat of arms of a local landowner (see Variation of the field#Chequy), this name and sign originated in ancient Rome when a chequer board indicated that a bar also provided banking services. The checked board was use as an aid to counting and is the origin of the word exchequer. The last pub to use the older, now American spelling of checker was in Baldock, Hertfordshire but this closed circa 1990; all pubs now use the modern "q" spelling.
  • Horns: Although this is often seen as a derivation of Richard II's white hart emblem, it may also be an echo of a pagan figure, Herne the Hunter.
  • Ostrich feathers have been used as a royal badge since the time of Edward III, particularly the Three Feathers badge of the Prince of Wales.
  • Red Dragon of Cadwaladr: the symbol of Wales.
  • Red Lion is the name of over six hundred pubs, outnumbered only by The Crown[6].[7] It thus can stand for an archetypal British pub. The lion is one of the most common charges in coats of arms, second only to the cross, and thus the Red Lion as a pub sign probably has multiple origins: in the arms or crest of a local landowner, now perhaps forgotten; as a personal badge of John of Gaunt, founder of the House of Lancaster; or in the royal arms of Scotland, conjoined to the arms of England after the Stuart succession in 1603.[7]
  • Talbot or Talbot Arms refers to an actual breed of hunting dog, now extinct, which is also a heraldic hound, and badge of the Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury.
  • Black Lion is the name of an ancient pub opposite the railway station in Northampton.
  • Unicorn
  • White Bear
  • White Hart: The emblem of King Richard II of England. It became so popular as an inn sign in his reign that it was adopted by many later inns and taverns. Richard II introduced legislation compelling public houses to display a sign, and at one time the White Hart was so ubiquitous as to become almost generic, in the same way that we call a vacuum cleaner a Hoover today.
  • White Horse: The sign of the House of Hanover, adopted by many eighteenth century inns to demonstrate loyalty to the new Royal dynasty. A white horse is also the emblem of the County of Kent. The name can also refer to the chalk horses carved into hillsides.
  • Black Griffin: a pub in Lisvane, Cardiff, named after the coat of arms carried by the lords of the manor.
  • Rising Sun: symbol of the east and of optimism.

Names starting with the word "Three" are often based on the arms of a London Livery company or trade guild :

[edit] Landowners

Many coats of arms appear as pub signs, usually honouring a local landowner.

[edit] Location

An "arms" name can just derive from where the pub actually is.

  • Bedford Arms, Bedford Road, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, shows the arms of the town of Bedford. The more usual derivation is for the Duke of Bedford whose seat is at the nearby Woburn Abbey.
  • Harpenden Arms, in the middle of Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Was originally called the Railway as the pub is along the road from the railway station.

[edit] Occupations

See also Trades, tools and products below

Some "arms" signs refer to working occupations. These may show people undertaking such work or the arms of the appropriate London livery company. This class of name may be only just a name but there are stories behind some of them.

[edit] Historic events

  • Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham, one of the claimants to the title of oldest pub in Britain, said to have been a stopping-off place for the Crusaders on the way to the Holy Land. "Trip" here has the old meaning of a stop, not the modern journey. The pub was once called the Pilgrim, which is probably the real story behind the name. The pub has the date 1189 painted on its masonry, which is the year King Richard I ascended to the throne. Like many elderly pubs, the Trip carries "Ye" before its name, with an E on the end of "old" another "olde worlde" affectation.
  • Trafalgar: commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar. There are many pubs called the Nelson and an Emma Hamilton pub too in Wimbledon Chase where Nelson squired her. Famous is the Trafalgar Tavern: part of the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage site at Greenwich.
  • Rose and Crown: King Edward III used a golden rose as a personal badge, and two of his sons adapted it by changing the colour: John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, used a red rose, and Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, used a white rose. The dynastic conflicts between their descendants are collectively called the Wars of the Roses. In 1485 Henry Tudor, a descendant of Lancaster, defeated Richard III of the York dynasty and married Richard's niece Elizabeth of York. Since then the combined red-and-white Tudor rose, often crowned, has been a symbol of the monarchy of England.
  • Royal Oak: After the Battle of Worcester (1651) in the English Civil War, the defeated Prince Charles escaped the scene with the Roundheads on his tail. He managed to reach Bishops Wood in Staffordshire, where he found an oak tree (now known as the Boscobel Oak near Boscobel House). He climbed the tree and hid in it for a day while his obviously short-sighted pursuers strolled around under the tree looking for him. The hunters gave up, Prince Charles came down and escaped to France (the Escape of Charles II). He became King Charles II on the Restoration of the Monarchy. To celebrate this good fortune, 29 May (Charles' birthday) was declared Royal Oak Day and the pub name remembers this. The Royal Naval ship HMS Royal Oak gets its name from the same source. Early ships were built of the heartwood of oak.
  • Saracen's Head and Turk's Head: Saracens and Turks were among the enemies faced by Crusaders. This is also a reference to the Barbary pirates that raided the coasts from the Crusades until the early 19th century.
  • Man on the Moon, Northfield, Birmingham: originally called The Man in the Moon and renamed on the day of the first moon landing in 1969.
Further information: public houses and inns in Grantham

[edit] Literature

[edit] Myths and legends

Images from myths and legends are evocative and memorable.

  • George and Dragon: St George is the patron saint of England and his conflict with a dragon is essential to his story. This sign is a symbol of English nationalism.
  • Green Man: a spirit of the wild woods. The original images are in churches as a face peering through or made of leaves and petals; this character is the Will of the Wisp, the Jack of the Green. Some pub signs will show the green man as he appears in English traditional sword dances (in green hats). The Green Man is not the same character as Robin Hood, although the two may be linked. Some pubs which were the Green Man have become the Robin Hood; there are no pubs in Robin's own county of Nottinghamshire named the Green Man but there are Robin Hoods.
  • Robin Hood, sometimes partnered by his second in charge to form the name Robin Hood and Little John. Other Robin Hood names can be found throughout Arnold, Nottinghamshire. These were given to pubs built in the new estates of the 1960s by the Home Brewery of Daybrook, Nottinghamshire: Arrow, Friar Tuck, Longbow, Maid Marian and Major Oak.
  • Captain's Wife, near the medieval trading port of Swanbridge on the south Wales coast near Penarth. The pub was converted during the 1970s from a row of fishermen's cottages. There is a local legend of a ghostly wife keeping endless vigil after her husband's boat was lost in a storm.

[edit] Personal names or titles

  • Marquis of Granby: a general in the 18th century. He showed a great concern for the welfare of his men upon their retirement and provided funds for many ex-soldiers to establish taverns, which were subsequently named after him.[8]
  • Prince of Wales: see Royalty below.
  • Duke of Cambridge
  • Nell Gwyn: mistress of King Charles II.
  • Lord Nelson: Quite a common name (in various forms) throughout England but especially in Norfolk, where the admiral was born. The Hero of Norfolk at Swaffham, Norfolk, portrays Nelson.
  • Duke of Wellington
  • A number of pubs are known by the names of former landlords and landladies, for instance Nellies (originally the White Horse) in Beverley, and Ma Pardoe's (officially the Olde Swan) in Netherton.
  • General Burgoyne

[edit] Places

[edit] Politically incorrect

  • All labour in vain or Labour in vain. At various locations. Probably of Biblical origins, in past times the name has been frequently displayed on the sign as representing the vain efforts of a person in trying to scrub the blackness off a black child. Now deemed offensive, the signs have been mostly replaced with more innocuos depictions of wasted effort.[10]
The Racist Black Boy Inn?
The Black Boy Inn, North Wales, has received numerous complaints over its name
  • Black Boy Inn, Caernarfon, North Wales, has received at least a dozen complaints from visitors over the name, which dates back at least 250 years. However, the police say they have not received any formal complaints.[11]

[edit] The pub itself (including nicknames)

  • Crooked Chimney, Lemsford, Hertfordshire : The pub's chimney is distinctively crooked.
  • Crooked House, nickname of the Glynne Arms, Himley, Staffordshire. Because of mining subsidence, one side of the pub has a pronounced list — so much so it is difficult to put one's glass on a table without spilling beer. It is said if after leaving the pub you turn round and the building is perfectly perpendicular, you've had too much to drink.
  • Cupola House, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: This is so named as it has a cupola on its roof.
  • Hole in the Wall. The official or nick-name of a number of very small pubs.
  • Nutshell, Bury St Edmunds: one of the foremost claimants to be the smallest pub in the UK and maybe the world.
  • Red House, Newport Pagnell, and on the old A43 between Northampton and Kettering: red or reddish painted buildings.
  • The Swiss Cottage was built in Swiss chalet style. It gave its name to an underground station and an area of London.
  • White Elephant, Northampton, Northamptonshire. Originally built as a hotel to accommodate visitors to the adjacent Northampton Racecourse, the building became a "white elephant" (useless object) when horse racing was stopped at Northampton Racecourse in 1904.
  • The Kilt and Clover, Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada, named after the owners. The husband is of Scottish descent whereas the wife is of Irish heritage. The split theme runs throughout the pub.

[edit] Puns and corruptions

Pub heritage: Nowhere Inn Particular, now closed

Although puns became increasingly popular through the twentieth century, they should be considered with care. Supposed corruptions of foreign phrases usually have much simpler explanations. Names for pubs that appear nonsensical may have come from corruptions of old slogans or phrases, or of certain nobles' or politicians' names. Often, these corruptions evoke a visual image which comes to signify the pub; these images had particular importance for identifying a pub on signs and other media before literacy became widespread.

  • Bag o'Nails: Thought by the romantic to be a corrupted version of "Bacchanals" but really is just a sign once used by ironmongers. The pub of this name in Bristol, England was named in the 1990s for the former reason, though the latter is more prevalent.
  • Bull and Mouth: Believed to celebrate the victory of Henry VIII at "Boulogne Mouth" or Harbour. Also applies to Bull and Bush (Boulogne Bouche).
  • Case is Altered: Probably a corruption of the Latin phrase Casa Alta ('high house') or Casa Altera ('second house').
  • Cat and Fiddle: a corruption of Caton le Fidèle (a governor of Calais loyal to King Edward III).[12] Alternatively from Katherine la Fidèle, Henry VIII's first wife.
  • Cock and Bull: a play on "cock and bull story". This term, in fact, derives from the Cock and the Bull, two pubs in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, which are close neighbours and rival coaching inns. There was a great rivalry between the clientele of the two houses and they would tell increasingly unbelievable stories of their own prowess. Thus, stories containing fictitious tosh are now known as "cock and bull stories".
  • Dew Drop Inn: A pun on "do drop in".
  • Dirty Duck. The Black Swan, as in Stratford-on-Avon.
  • Dirty Habit: Sited on the route of the Pilgrims' Way, the name is a play on the contemptuous phrase and a reference to the clothing of monks who passed by on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.
  • Elephant and Castle: Possibly a corruption of "la Infanta de Castile". It is popularly believed amongst residents of Elephant and Castle that a 17th century publican near Newington named his tavern after the Spanish princess who was affianced to King Charles I of England. The prohibition of this marriage by Church authorities in 1623 was a cause of war with Spain so it seems unlikely to have been a popular name. A more probable and prosaic explanation is that the name derives from the arms of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers, a London trade guild; an elephant carrying a castle-shaped howdah can also be seen on the arms of the City of Coventry.
  • Goat and Compasses: Believed by some to be a corrupted version of the phrase "God encompasseth us", but more likely to be based on the arms of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers. Cordwainers made shoes from goat skin.
  • The Honest lawyer, e.g. in Folkestone
  • Hop Inn: similar to the Dew Drop Inn.
  • Jolly Taxpayer in Portsmouth.
  • The Library: So students and others can say they're in 'the library'.
  • Nag's Head. Pub signs can play on the double meaning of Nag — a horse or a scolding woman.
  • Nowhere, Plymouth; Nowhere Inn Particular, Croydon: Wife calls husband on his mobile and asks where he is. He answers truthfully "Nowhere".
  • Office: as above.
  • Ostrich, Ipswich: originally Oyster Reach (the old name has since been restored on the advice of historians).
  • Pig and Whistle: a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon saying "piggin wassail" "meaning good health".
  • Swan With Two Necks: In the United Kingdom, swans have traditionally been the property of the reigning Monarch. However, in the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I granted the right to ownership of some swans to the Worshipful Company of Vintners. In order to be able to tell which Swan belonged to whom, it was decided that Vintners' swans should have their beaks marked with two notches, or nicks. In those days, 'neck' was another form of 'nick' and so the Vintners spotted that a Swan With Two Necks could afford them a rather clever pun, and a striking pub sign.

While these corruptions are amusing there are usually more substantiated explanations available.[citation needed]

[edit] Religious

Public houses can take their names from religious symbolism

  • Anchor, Hope & Anchor, Anchor & Hope: From the Letter to the Hebrews (6:19): "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope."
  • Cross Keys: The sign of St Peter, the gatekeeper of Heaven.
  • Lamb & Flag: From the Gospel of John (1:29): "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." The Lamb is seen carrying a flag (usually of St. George) and is the symbol of the Knights Templar, the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, and St John's College, Oxford. A pub of this name appeared in the popular BBC sitcom Bottom.
  • Five Ways: Possibly referring to the "Five Ways" of Thomas Aquinas, five reasons for the existence of God.
  • Lion & Lamb: The lion is a symbol of the Resurrection, the lamb a symbol of the Redeemer.
  • Mitre: A bishop's headgear, a simple sign easily recognisable by the illiterate. In Glastonbury the Mitre is adjacent to a church.
  • Salutation: The greeting of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary when informing her she was to carry Jesus Christ.
  • Shepherd & Flock may refer to Christ (the Shepherd) and the people (his flock) but may also just mean the agricultural character and his charges.
  • Three Crowns: The Magi, but also see Heraldry above.
  • Three Kings: The Magi.

[edit] Royalty

Royal names have always been popular (except under the Commonwealth). It demonstrated the landlord's loyalty to authority (whether he was loyal or not), especially after the Restoration of the Monarchy.

See also Heraldry above.

[edit] Ships

[edit] Sports

[edit] Games

  • Bat and ball: a reference to cricket used by a number of pubs, one of which gave its name to a railway station.
  • Boathouse, Cambridge — not far from the real boathouses.
  • Cricketers: can be sited near or opposite land on which cricket is (or was) played.
  • Cricket Players: a version of the Cricketers found in Nottingham and probably elsewhere.
  • Hand and Racquet, Wimbledon, near the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. A fictional version is referenced several times in Tony Hancock scripts.
  • Larwood and Voce, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire: Harold Larwood and Bill Voce were two internationally renowned fast-bowlers who played for Nottinghamshire and England between the world wars. This pub is at the side of the Trent Bridge cricket ground, the home of Nottingham County Cricket Club.
  • Test Match, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire: an international game of cricket. This beautiful art deco Grade II listed pub is to be found near Trent Bridge at the other end of Central Avenue, a ground on which test matches are played.
  • Trent Bridge Inn, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, the most famous of cricketing pubs sited on the edge of the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, is not named after the ground but for the bridge itself. This was a strategic crossing place of the River Trent protected by Nottingham Castle. Ben Clark, the owner of the Inn in 1832, was a cricket enthusiast and decided he would like a cricket pitch in his back garden. It was that small pitch which evolved into one of the world's premier test match venues.
  • Wrestlers: Great North Road,Hatfield, Hertfordshire.


Football club nicknames can be used for pub names:

[edit] Hunting and other "blood" sports

[edit] Topography

  • Bishop's Finger: after a type of signpost found on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent, said to resemble a bishop's finger.
  • Castle: usually a prominent local landmark.
  • Fountain Inn: Might refer to an actual fountain or natural spring.
  • First In, Last Out: A pub on the edge of a town. It's the first pub on the way in and last on the way out. Does not refer to the habits of any of the pub's clientele as some signs suggest.
  • Half Way House: This one is situated half-way between two places; but with the pub of this name at Camden Town it's anyone's guess which two places it's half-way between.
  • First and Last, nickname of The Redesdale Arms, the nearest pub to the border between England and Scotland, on the A68 between Rochester and Otterburn in Northumberland.
  • (number) Mile Inn : Usually the distance to the centre of the nearest prominent town, as in the Four Mile Inn at Bucksburn, Aberdeen, and the Five Mile House, near Cirencester.
  • The Strugglers, near a gallows, refers to how people being hanged would struggle for air. Ironically the famous executioner Albert Pierrepoint was landlord of the Help the Poor Struggler at Hollinwood, near Oldham, for several years after World War II, and had to hang one of his own regulars, James Corbitt.
  • Windmill: a prominent feature of the local landscape at one point. Pubs with this name may no longer be situated near a standing mill, but there's a good chance they're close to a known site and will almost certainly be on a hill or other such breezy setting. Clues to the presence of a mill may also be found in the naming of local roads and features.
  • World's End. A pub on the outskirts of a town, especially if on or beyond the protective city wall. Examples are found in Camden and Edinburgh.

[edit] Trades, tools and products

[edit] Transport

[edit] Air

  • Flying Bedstead, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire: Name given to the prototype aircraft which eventually led to the development of the Harrier VTOL jet. It was based at Rolls Royce's test station near Hucknall and now can be seen in the Science Museum, London. The Harrier is also the name of a pub in Hucknall, and one in Hamble-le-Rice, Hampshire.
  • Red Arrow, Lutterworth, Leicestershire: a pub with a sloping triangular roof, named after the RAF aerobatics team. The pub was formerly called the "flying saucer" for its unusual shape, and has also been described as a Star Destroyer from the Star Wars films.
  • Flying Boat (now demolished) in Calshot, Hampshire, commemorated the part that the area played in the development of these aircraft between 1920 and 1940.
  • Hinkler road and pub in Thornhill, Hampshire, named after Bert Hinkler.
  • Comet, Hatfield: In the 1950s the pub sign depicted the de Havilland DH.88 wooden monoplane racer named "Grosvenor House" , famous for its winning of the 1934 McRobertson Cup air race race from England to Australia and for its distinctive Post Box red colour. Also known as the DH Comet, this plane is not a precursor of the famous civilian jet airliner of the same name, but rather of the WW2 fast bomber, the DH Mosquito.[citation needed]

[edit] Rail

Five stations on the London Underground system are named after pubs: Royal Oak, Elephant & Castle, Angel, Manor House, Swiss Cottage. The area of Maida Vale, which has a Bakerloo line station, is named after a pub called the "Heroes of Maida" after the Battle of Maida in 1806.

Mainline stations named after pubs include Bat & Ball in Sevenoaks.

[edit] Road

  • Coach and Horses: A simple and common name found from Clerkenwell to Kew, Soho to Portsmouth.
  • Perseverance: Name of a stage coach. The Perseverance in Bedford probably alludes to John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Bedford being Mr Bunyan's home town.
  • Steamer, Welwyn, Hertfordshire: It is found at the top of a steep hill where carriers required an extra horse (a cock-horse) to help get the wagon up the hill. After its exertion the cock-horse could be seen standing steaming on a cold day as its sweat evaporated.
  • Terminus: Usually found where a tram route once terminated, sited near the tram terminus.
  • Tram Depot, Cambridge: Occupies the building which once was the stables of Cambridge's tramway depot.
  • Waggon and Horses: Another simple transport name (prior to American influence, the British English spelling of 'wagon' featured a double 'g'[13], retained on pub signs such as this one).
  • Wait for the Waggon, Bedford and Wyboston, Bedfordshire: This is the name of the regimental march of The Royal Corps of Transport (now The Royal Logistic Corps), whose troops frequently use this route; the latter is sited on the Great North Road.
  • Traveller's Rest, Northfield, Birmingham: a historic coaching inn on the main road to Bristol.

[edit] Water

[edit] Most common

One of the 451 Swans, this one in Stroud, Gloucestershire

An authoritative list of the most common pub names in Great Britain is hard to establish, owing to ambiguity in what classifies as a public house as opposed to a licensed restaurant or nightclub, and so lists of this form tend to vary hugely. A 2007 survey by CAMRA of pubs contained in their database gave the following as the ten most common.[5] The number of each is given in brackets.

  1. Crown (704)
  2. Red Lion (668)
  3. Royal Oak (541)
  4. Swan (451)
  5. White Hart (431)
  6. Railway (420)
  7. Plough (413)
  8. White Horse (379)
  9. Bell (378)
  10. New Inn (372)

[edit] Unusual names

Q in Stalybridge has the shortest name in Britain. The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn, also in Stalybridge, has the longest. I am the Only Running Footman is the longest pub name in London.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Culture UK - Pub and Inn Signs
  2. ^ a b c "Dictionary of Pub Names - Google Books". books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k-4SrdUPNFoC&pg=PA7&dq=pub+names&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 
  3. ^ "A Guide to Shropshire - Google Books". books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Txby6_Lrm0cC&pg=PA232&dq=%22Blue+Pig%22+pub+name&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-07-28. 
  4. ^ "The Old Canals of Telford - Bits, Speculations and References". www.telford.org.uk. http://www.telford.org.uk/canal/bits.html. Retrieved 2009-07-28. 
  5. ^ a b "press release". CAMRA. http://www.solihullcamra.org.uk/features_archive.htm. 
  6. ^ Strange Names
  7. ^ a b Dunkling L, Wright G (1994) [1987]. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pub Names. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Reference. ISBN 1-85326-334-6. 
  8. ^ "Dictionary of Pub Names - Google Books". books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k-4SrdUPNFoC&pg=PA250&dq=Marquess+of+Granby+pub&as_brr=3&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 
  9. ^ History of the Twelve Pins (brief). Retrieved on 2009-04-05.
  10. ^ "The present sign is the innocuous replacement for one that became the centre of a storm a dozen or so years ago. As readers may remember, the original illustration was of a white couple trying to scrub the blackness off a black child in a tub. It was deemed by many to be in poor taste and potentially offensive, but there was an outcry when it was removed following a protest by two schoolgirls." [1]
  11. ^ [2] Is Historic Black Boy Inn Racist?
  12. ^ "E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898". http://www.bartleby.com/81/13751.html. Retrieved 2008-10-17. 
  13. ^ Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue, Penguin Books p169

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pub_names"