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| At Bidford-on-Avon we have the
'Anglo-Saxon'. An excavation behind the pub in the 1920s revealed a Saxon cemetery, from
which event the pub took its name. 'The Pleasure Boat', also at Bidford looks back to the time when Bidford was a local tourist centre, with trips on the Avon. |
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Sambourne has the 'Green Dragon': one suggestion has always been that this appellation may have had something to do with the drovers' roads from Wales; in fact, a green dragon was part of a coat of arms of the Earls of Pembroke and the sign is not uncommon. On the Ridgeway we have the 'Why Not', recalling the Grand National winner in 1889 and 1894, the 'Red Rum' of that time: the name is found mostly in the West Midlands.
Of pub names in our area which have died with the buildings themselves one of the most curious was the 'Bug in the Blanket', an ale house on a country lane in Studley; but there was apparently, no local significance. A hostelry with an historical significance was the 'Cat and Bagpipes' in Alcester (site unknown). The cat was surely a reference to the caterans, Scottish raiders across the Lowlands. Alcester is a long way from Scotland but the town and area generally had the misfortune to suffer the presence of Scottish mercenaries in the Civil Wars of the 17th century. The 'Turk's Head', also in Alcester, became a shop in High Street. Its original sign showed the head of a Turk or Saracen but the term also applied to an ornamental knot in ropemaking and Alcester had a ropemaking firm in the 19th century; the derivation, therefore, is only to be guessed at. 'The Mug House' on Birmingham Road, Alcester, had a name also found elsewhere: it always indicated an ale-house, as indeed, the Alcester site was.
