RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Oxfordshire Lookup Requests => Oxfordshire => England => Oxfordshire Completed Look Up Requests => Topic started by: Vicwinann on Thursday 12 March 09 14:17 GMT (UK)
-
Hello
Can anyone tell me anything about a pub in Nettlebed in 1913 called The Cat? I have this address on a birth certificate of Richard Brakspear but cannot find anything online about such a pub.
Yours
Vicwinann
-
Vicwinann,
There is the hamlet of Catslip nearby to Nettlebed, but I wasn't aware of a pub there (I'm too Young ;D). I have a friend who has a fairly extensive database of pubs in the Reading area (I know that he has pubs as far out as Ewelme) - so I'll ask him.
Harry
-
Vicwinann,
I found this article relating to the history of Nettlebed. The pubs are listed but there is no sign of "The Cat".
http://www.nettlebed.org.uk/nettlebed_history.htm
Harry
-
Thank you both.
The certificate very definitely says The Cat Nettlebed in two places. I am now wondering if it was a place and not a pub. The certificate, although for the year 1913, is a copy dated Dec 1948. Richard's marriage cert for 1937 says he was then at Port Hill which is the place his mother was recorded at on his father's Commonwealth War Graves citation in 1916.
Could it be The Cut? It doesn't look like it at all on the birth cert?
Vicwinann
-
Vicwinann,
I've tried a google for "The Cat", Nettlebed and an estate agent's site is listed which looks as though there is an area called "The Cat".
I have to say it's new to me - I thought I knew the area.
Harry
-
Thank you, Harry. I have never heard of it before either.
Vicwinann
-
There is reference to The Cat at Crocker-end, Nettlebed in three issues of the Jackson's Oxford Journal in 1854. I can recall my grandfather, who lived at the bottom of Crocker-end common in the early 1900s, saying he could hear the sound of the inn sign swinging in the wind as he tried to go to sleep. Since the defunct Carpenters Arms was already in existence at that time it is possible The Cat was close by or The Cat was the original name of the Carpenters Arms.
Reg
-
Another reading of the advertisements in the Jackson's Oxford Journal, which contain the phrase "situated at the Cat, in the parish of Nettlebed", suggests it is the local name for what is now Catslip rather than a pub. And since Catslip and Crocker-end Common are cheek by jowl my restless grandfather probably heard the sign of the Carpenters Arms rather than the mysterious Cat inn.
Reg
-
Many thanks Reg,
Looking at maps and the estate agents sites mentioned previously I think I have come to the same conclusion. The Cat seems to be synonymous with Catslip.
Next time I am up in that area, possibly later this year, that is one of the places I will expore.
Yous
Vicwinann
-
Hi
I don't know if anyone is still following this thread but I came across it while also looking into "The Cat" at Nettlebed. My Great Grandfather George Steptoe lived there 1891. I just asked my mother if she new of "The Cat". her instant reply was yes it's the row of house in Catslip your cousins live there. We always referred to going down "The Cat". The funny things people ask me these days.
My Great Grandfather was landlord of the Carpenters for years. His and my Great Grand Mothers names were engraved on one of the glass panes. Don't know if they are still there.
There was a Cat Pub near Bix but that was demolished in 1861 I believe.