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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Mark1973 on Friday 30 August 19 14:00 BST (UK)
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Hi all ;D
Does anyone know where to begin if I wanted to find records of certain pubs and when they changed names?
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You could narrow down the timeframe for a change by tracking the location through several censuses.
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Local directories.
Until local authorities became the authority for licensing, you could go to the magistrates’ clerk and ask to see the records, but that has all changed.
A
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Trade directories seem to be the best sources. Censuses quite often omit the name of the pub - it's extra writing, and EVERYBODY knows it's the Red Lion anyway.
Occasionally you find references to the name for family events in parish registers, but that depends on the habits of the clergyman.
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Not quite sure what you may want but Kevan's site:
https://pubwiki.co.uk/
And newspapers quite often mention the changing over of licensees.
Maureen
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This is just a bit of a rant, and my personal view only, but I really think pubs should only be allowed to change names under extreme situations. I think it should be subject to planning permission. These names are part of local history.
Martin
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This is just a bit of a rant, and my personal view only, but I really think pubs should only be allowed to change names under extreme situations. I think it should be subject to planning permission. These names are part of local history.
Martin
A pub in my home town was called "The Black Boy", and a negro head was featured in cement work over the door. The area was prominent in coal mining, and the name was actually an indication of the skin colour of its clientele as they left work. It was between the "Collier's Arms" and the "Black Horse", the cement work over the door of which features not a prancing stallion but a sturdy pit pony.
Under pressure from the Political Correctness Brigade, it changed name, to the relatively innocuous "Moor Inn". Poet Lemn Sissay made a radio programme about the loss of "Black Boy" pub names, pointing out that, as a black person, the PC Brigade were denying his heritage by removing references to black people having been in Britain in centuries past.
The "Moor Inn" was quite a good choice. It is on Moor Road, and documents show that it spent a century or so named the "Blackamoor".
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This amazing article gives me hope that political correctness is on the way out.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7415169/Religion-political-ideals-replaced-dogma-turned-beliefs-hate-crimes.html
Martin
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I know of one Black Boy pub that survives at Knowle, Solihull by the canal. Apparently there was a move to change the name a couple of years ago but the locals weren't happy and the name was kept.
I have never been inside but do remember as a little girl walking along the canal towpath with my family to get to the pub garden. Grandad used to escape the back to backs of Birmingham (and nan) to pitch his little tent in a field on the other side of the canal. He used to ride his bike there and back and we used to go visit him!
Happy days.
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There are some local "old pub" websites. I only know about those for pubs in Lancashire.
Some "Black Boy " pubs were named for King Charles 2nd as that was one of his nicknames.