History And Naming Of Old English Inns

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29240, 25 June 1960, Page 10

History And Naming Of Old English Inns

is the most popu> lar name in England for an inn or public house?

These and other questions aroused the interest years ago of Mr Walter Bentley, of Kaikoura. One of his hobbies since then has been collecting the names of English inns—his total is 4526. His other hobbies are fishing and bowls.

Mr Bentley, who was born in Westminster, London, in 1886, served in the Yorkshire Borough Police and was awarded the Police Medal. He served in France during the First World War. He came to New Zealand in 1920 and was for a few years a member of the New Zealand Police.

Mr Bentley’s hobby of collecting names of inns has put him in touch, through correspondence, with licensed victuallers in many parts of England. It has also given him a better acquaintance with English darts clubs than that of most New Zealanders. He has gathered something of a reference library on old inns—books, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets and booklets published by brewing firms.

Mr Bentley has found that there are many claimants to the title of “oldest inn” and there have been recurring spasms •> of newspaper correspondence on the subject. A reply to an inquiry by a reader of the “Daily Mirror,” London, in 1953, said the Fountain’s Inn at Canterbury, Kent, was there at least by 1029, according to> records. “The oldest house, now an inn, is the Old Fighting Cocks at St. Albans.” It was built in 800 as a dwellinghouse but it did not become an inn until 1543,” says the same newspaper. It has been fairly easy to find the most popular sign for an inn. The Red Lion leads, but it is followed closely by The White Horse. In London there are 52 Red Lions and there are also Golden, White, Blue and Black Lions; but one is just The Lion. Other popular signs found in all parts of England are The King’s Head and The King’s Arms. More than 50 licensed houses in London bear the sign King’s Head. Other signs frequently found are The Bull, with its variants in colour, and The Rose and Crown, the last-named dating from the sixteenth century. The Bell is a popular and ancient sign. A Bell Inn is mentioned by Chaucer. The most famous Bell Inn is the one at Edmonton, because of its association with John Gilpin, that citizen of credit and renown whose horse galloped off with its rider. It is a far cry from these to the sign of The Flying Saucer. Strange Names From his list of more than 4500 names, Mr Bentley has selected about 100 which have impressed him as being decidedly unusual. Many of them seem to be corrupted forms of earlier names. Others may have a history and meaning which have become overlain with the years. Why should an inn in England be called the Alligator Arms? One sign is The Silent Woman. .She is headless. He must have ‘been a sad husband who first hung up .that sign outside his premises. This . sign is more

Which is the oldest inn in England?

usually called The Good Woman. An elaborate and eccentric sign is The Five Alls. It shows the ecclesiastic (“I pray for all”), the lawyer (“I plead for all”), the farmer (“I feed all”), and the soldier (“I fight for all”). These four surround the picture of the fifth “all,” the Devil (“I take all”). Sometimes the sign depicts a king (“I govern all”), a bishop (“I pray for all”), a lawyer (“I plead for all”), a soldier (“I fight for all"), and a labourer (“I pay for all”). The Drunken Duck, the Pig’s Nose, the Hole In The Wall, and the Noah’s Ark are unusual but not beyond explanation. The Crooked Billet is a curious name though it is an attractive sign. A “billet” in this meaning is a log of wood. Why should it be the sign for an inn? Then there is The Butt and Oyster. The butt here in this instance is a local name for a flounder.

Many licensed houses used to have the sign Load of Mischief. It shows a man carrying his wife on his back, a monkey on one of his shoulders and a magpie on the other. Round his neck is a chain fastened by a padlock inscribed “Wed-lock.” An old engraving of the sign is marked: “Drawn by Experience” and “Engraved by Sorrow,” says “In Signs, their History and Meaning.” “Inns Of Sport” In .the literature of inns, one of the outstanding productions is “Inns of Sport,” by J. Wentworth Day. There are inns of the turf, inns of angling, inns of rod and gun, inns of hunting. A reproduction of a coloured print of about 1844 shows Charlie Simonds riding his horse bareback in the dining room of the White Hart at Aylesbury, and jumping it over a dining room table. These old inns have produced many strange stories of horse racing, fox hunting, shooting, cock fighting, bull baiting, and simpler sports. But none can surpass, for simplicity and effect, the story of the sporting landlord of an inn on the Norfolk coast. When out duck shooting one night he shot a duck which, falling at great speed, struck him on the forehead and broke his neck. These old inns, with their dart boards, their skittle alleys, and their bat and trap, are part of the social history and tradition of England, Mr Bentley says.