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Unusual Pub Names

I Am Nico

I Am Nico

master brummie
I have tried to search to no avail. So, as Carolina mentioned Bell End, my ex Brummy colleague bought a hotel call The Bell, his colleagues call it the Bell End. Nan used to go on about The Labour In Vain in Stourbridge and the sign that went with it. Not nice or politically correct, it doesn't have one now. I know why The Stewpony is so called too, as a kid I used to look for the 'pony'. Are there any pubs in Brum with unusual names? I have been in The Sack of Potatoes a long while ago. Stourbridge also has The Old Cat nan added "yer mother in law to it." As bus conductors, in bygone days you will recall, shouted the stops, hers were often noted by a pub name.
We used to have The Bug and Black Bat the former Climax, I guess named after Coventry Climax and Oz. Now we have The Aardvark and bars with just one name, Dogma, Enigma, Embargo, Praque etc.
There is The Blue Lias somewhere I don't what a lias is. My parents liked the Eel's Foot in Norfolk.
We also have the Butts Retreat but the s and the Re disappeared. Nico:abnormal:
 
Nico, when were used to go on holiday to Great Yarmouth one of the "Mystery" coach tours we went on from the boarding house always ended up at the Eels Foot.
 
davidfowler said:
Nico, when were used to go on holiday to Great Yarmouth one of the "Mystery" coach tours we went on from the boarding house always ended up at the Eels Foot.
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I have never been there but they loved it. Like your crest. Miine should say Brummie by accident.
 
I love the name of the pub in Yardley The Old Bill and Bull.
 
Nico I have been to the Blue Lias many times it is situated looking over a canal I can't quite remember the village it is near but not far from Dunchurch. Lias is a type of soil we were told.
 
sylviasayers said:
Nico I have been to the Blue Lias many times it is situated looking over a canal I can't quite remember the village it is near but not far from Dunchurch. Lias is a type of soil we were told.
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Ah, my former boss told me it was a sort of dinosaur but he used to wind me up. Yes it's by a canal. In the Malt Shovel, Barston, in the gents were you stand.....etc. etc... they have done in posh tiling, "small, medium large and liar". I know there is a Frog and Nightgown somewhere too and in Keswick there is the Twa dogs, the old way of counting.
Nan and grandad took me to The Crooked House at Himley, where it appears wonkey inside but I am told the real name is The Glynne Arms. Cov used to have The Leg and Cramp if it's still there and The Painted Lady. Near my mum in laws there are bars that translate as The King of Zinc and the Little Virgin and the Golden Fez. I was taken to the supposedly oldest pub in Dublin called The Brazen Head and in Co. Dublin The Stoop Your Head. Guess who forgot to duck!
 
Wendy said:
I love the name of the pub in Yardley The Old Bill and Bull.
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Its interesting to note Wendy that the coat of arms above the main door for this old police station,is for Worcestershire, It seems hard to believe it was once part Worcestershire .
 
Big Fella said:
Its interesting to note Wendy that the coat of arms above the main door for this old police station,is for Worcestershire, It seems hard to believe it was once part Worcestershire .
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From the top of Malvern you can see several counties I am told.
 
I like the pub called "The Cat & Custard Pot" at Shipton Mayne in the Cotswolds. Here is a photo of the Blue Lias near DunchurchBlue Lias Inn.jpg
Lovely spot for a pub.
 
Blue Lias is limestone where the dinosaur remains were found trapped within it so I was told. hence both the name and the sign.
 
long since gone rowan but this pub may have gone well next to the bucket of blood....the vampire gt hampton row lol..

lyn

VampireGtHamptonSt-2.jpg
 
Nico said:
From the top of Malvern you can see several counties I am told.
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You certainly can, there's a big circular plaque on a plinth
on the top of Worcestershire Beacon, a bit like a massive
sundial, showing the direction of the various counties you
can see.

Kind regards

Dave
 
There's a pub not far from here called "The Shroppie Fly" but the one I liked was near where I lived in Woolwich - "The Bag 'o Nails".
(Apparently a corruption of The Bacchanals).
 
We also had the Mysterious Monk and we still have the Phantom Coach opposite the cemetery and The Dog and Trumpet used to be in town.
My family The Parry's owned or ran The Essex Arms in Hereford. My Aunt & Uncle had your Pen & Wig for a time, BF had the Crown in Broseley now the Ironmaster, another aunt's family had The Old Cat at Kinver. Cousin had The Granby Arms, Nuneaton. Ordinary names but explains a lot maybe?
 
davidfowler said:
What a load of great pub names! Love your Vampire Lyn.
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Fantastic name, my former London Colleagues were in The Beehive every lunch time at Vauxhall Bridge. There is a Drunken Duck somewhere I have been and the Dirty Duck in Stratford, the Lazy Trout, a café in Church Stretton I am diversing a bit there and again with The Kettle Sings, Malvern and The Purty Kitchen, Dublin.The Foggy Dew Dublin and The Dame Tavern, and The Elbow inn, they are pubs.Oh and The SLug and Lettice Leamington Spa.
 
My only complaint nowadays is the way pub names are changed. You can't direct people by pubs now either...
 
In Stourbridge (I presume it is still there), on Glasshouse Hill, there is a pub called The Labour in Vain. The board shows a housewife with a black child in a tub, and she is scrubbing at the child to make the child clean. At one time I believe, because it was not very PC, the name was due to be changed, but the locals protested vigorously and the name remained.
 
Here is an image from the 1851 census of my gt gt grandfather James Freeth. He was born in Smethwick and became a publican. He had this pub in Albert Road West Brom. I found the details funny if it is as I read them.
Albert Road, Pheasant, Fox and Grouse shop...SHOP!!

James_Freeth_James_Freeth_1861.jpg
 
The 'Huff Cap' is the type of the Hat the woman is wearing on the pub sign.

Near Five Ways, Hasley is 'The Case Is Altered'.
 
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There's the Swan with two necks in Longdon Green,between Lichfield and Rugeley and of course our own Pretty Pigs. Also local pub in Shuttington known as the Knob - reaal name is the Wolferstan Arms
Sue
 
Sue, pity the Sandyback was demolished named after the Tamworth Pig.
 
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