Heraldry in Pub Names

When preparing my books on the origins of place names I like to include a selection of pub names. Defining such is a different way of looking at the history of place. Many landowners will have had an interest in the local pub and for their support, or perhaps that should be to earn that support, saw the family name used for the name of the pub.

As that name would have made no sense to the largely illiterate locals the sign used their coat of arms, or perhaps a portion of it, which would have been instantly understood. Even today we use imagery to represent the written language – in signs for public transport, in logos used by brands and companies, and in the icons on screens of our phones and computers. Quite quickly it became commonplace for the term ‘Arms’ to be used even when heraldry was not behind the name. Hence we see Arms used with the place name, the message showing the location of the premises and effectively using ‘Arms’ as a synonym for ‘pub’.

Over the years the lords of the manor move on and their name does have a tendency to disappear from the name, particularly in the larger towns and cities. Yet heraldry still plays a part and while the full arms mean a complex and thus expensive sign, to take a particular part of the image and use that as the name retains the link to the family while producing a new name. This imagery, as legible for our ancestors as the written word is to us, is often misunderstood and does produce some creative explanations.

A good clue to a sign taken from heraldry is the many strangely-coloured animals (both real and imaginary) we see in pub names. Examples include White Lion, Blue Boar, Green Dragon, and the most common of them all, the Red Lion. Another pointer is the inclusion of the number ‘Three’ in the name. It just so happens that three was used in heraldry and is seen in names such as Three Tuns (Worshipful Company of Brewers and Worshipful Company of Vintners), Three Horseshoes (Worshipful Company of Farriers), Three Cups (Worshipful Company of Salters), Three Crowns (Worshipful Company of Drapers), and Three Wheatsheaves (Worshipful Company of Bakers) and many others.

There are even examples of heraldry giving first a pub name and latterly a place name. The most famous being the Elephant and Castle which, while often said to be a corruption of the Infanta de Castile, it actually began as the crest of the Cutlers’ Company. The elephant represents the ivory used to produce the handles of the best knives while the ‘castle’ is actually a howdah on the back of the beast.

If there are any specific pub names you would like to see defined, or any definitions of unusual names you have to offer, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Atmospheric Railway

The idea of an atmospheric railway is not unique to South Devon. Trial routes were tried out in Dublin and in London but the most famous is Brunel’s which it was hoped would take passengers the twenty miles from Exeter to Newton Abbot at up to 70mph.

The idea is ridiculously simple. Rather than have the pump on the rails, which is effectively what a steam engine is, position several large pumps along the length of track to evacuate the air from in front of the piston in the pipe, drawing the piston along the pipe and the carriage, which is attached to the piston, is pulled along.

Two advantages over the traditional locomotive were evident to everyone. Firstly travel on the atmospheric railway is almost silent by comparison, while the lack of clouds of smoke, except at the pumping stations, would have made a refreshing change. A third advantage was not so apparent but probably even more important for these trains could not collide despite there being no on-board driver. That the air refilled the vacuum behind each carriage reduced potential motive power to a degree where it was insufficient to move it until the previous carriage had passed the next pumping station. Practical problems beset the project which could not be overcome with the technologies of the day and Brunel abandoned the idea in 1848 after only a year.

Little remains of the route today, save for a pumping station near Torquay and the more obvious building at Starcross. The latter stands alongside the modern railway and is now home to the local yacht club. On the opposite side of the road we find the pub named the Atmospheric Railway. Here the sign-painter has produced an image which some may liken to a GWR King class locomotive or similar. Clearly this individual never took the slightest trouble to ascertain just what the atmospheric railway was.