Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 'Roy Bailey[_2_
The problem may be that the art of good pub signs is dying out; partly
because the traditional elaborate ones like coats of arms are expensive
to produce and partly because a lot of modern pub owners have no idea of
history and tend to go for childish signs that attract a particular type
of mentality.
|
There used to be a really nice one at Ilkley which showed (IIRC) on one side a traditional flying duck, and on the other a duck flying Lancaster-like with bombs fastened to its wings. The pub is now under new ownership and renamed The Albert :-(
When I was a kid, I used to 'collect' inn signs, by spotting them on car journeys (I persuaded my parents on quite significant detours), and finding out the histories behind the names - eg how you could get really improbable linkages when one pub took over another and decided to keep both names. I used to know, for example, not just the usual red and white lions, but also a golden lion, a yellow lion and a blue lion - and - to keep on the gardening theme - the Round of Gras.
It's no fun now, as pubs change their names almost on an annual basis and there is no longer any history to find out.