Pub/Cafe Gallery and the odd hotel!

[mickthemaverick]

Fred the forester and Xavi the Xantia

[CitroJim]

One's a Xantia

[NewcastleFalcon]

With the only bit of inspiration so far posted today being Jim's POTD submission of the "thatched kangaroo" of the 149 images which featured "Public House" and "Thatched" the random hand selected Image number 121 on that list and look what it produced....

A pub I am very familiar with have my own original images, and a free charger at the village hall just next to the pub, in Etal Northumberland the Black Bull.

Falcon Original's Wednesday April 19th 2023. In contrast to the Black Bull the Village Hall next doory has very heavy duty stone slabs for their chosen roof.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Pub of the Day Selected by The Falcon and inspired by the Swans and Cygnets on POTD, and in the same-ish neck of the woods, is "The Swan Inn", Lower St, Fittleworth, Pulborough RH20 1EL

It looked in a bit of a state and up for sale when the google streetview camera's passed in 2022 but this reports a new start for it and it certainly has a history.

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/pe ... rs-3758032

I came across it as a result of the sign painted by noted pub sign artist Peter J Oldrieve who I have come across before.

The Swan Inn, Flittleworth, West Sussex, Original Studio Artwork by Inn Sign Artist, Peter J Oldreive, 1996 by Pompey Ray, on Flickr

The location of it on a wooden gantry across the road is odd.


Fittleworth from the south
Charlesdrakew at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wiki has this to say...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fittleworth

The Swan on the north side of the Rother Navigation is a coaching inn with history possibly going as far back as the late 14th century. The Ancient Order of Froth Blowers (Motto: "Lubrication in Moderation") was founded here in 1924. The guild was created "to foster the noble Art and gentle and healthy Pastime of froth blowing amongst Gentlemen of-leisure and ex-Soldiers". It attracted an extraordinary half a million members in the 1920s and 1930s. Lager beer was ineligible, The Swan rule book stating: "it is unseemly and should be avoided always excepting by Naval Officers visiting German Colonies.". Many Victorian Artists have left paintings on the panelling of the lounge,including George Cole, Rex Vicat Cole (who sub-let his nearby cottage Brinkwells to Edward Elgar in 1917), A.W. Weedon and Philip Stretton. One of the Visitors' Books contains music and words to 'A Song to the River' by composer Sir Hubert Parry visiting for a boating trip. E.V. Lucas, Lamb's biographer, thought it the most ingeniously placed inn in the world. "It seems to be at the end of all things. The miles of road that one has travelled apparently have been leading nowhere but the Swan."

Neil

[bobins]

I think I visited the Swan Inn once a long time ago, but my memory is hazy on that. IIRC, the wooden gantry was erected - not so ne'er-do-wells can 'swing for it' - but as part of the Millenium celebrations. If you looked the other way from the Streetview image and walked about 100 yards you'd be on the previously navigable bit of the River Rother, and a few hundred yards after that you've got Fittleworth station (former).

[NewcastleFalcon]

Another pub with a link. Duncan Carse, former resident of Fittleworth played the falconer in the 1968 film "The Goshawk" which I have just watched in full for the first time since I was a boy.

The film was set in Devon, in and around Drewstainton, and part of the Hawk's socialisation was going down The Drewe Arms.


Drewsteignton square in May 2019
GN10Gaming, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Screenshot from "The Goshawk" by David Cobham based on the book by T.H.White a 1968 Film With Duncan Carse as the Falconer

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Select a Pub of the Day challenge

Yes quite simple really, involves selecting a pub of the day for whatever random reason or connection.
You will see that the previous one was selected by yours truly, based on its appearance in a 1968 Film "The Goshawk"

Over to you, I've had my turn.

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Well, here's an appropriate suggestion for this week, I have been there a few times and like it a lot but, for the purpose of this thread, I won't say where it is now. I'm sure the detective element will nail it pretty quickly and then find out its interesting history:

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

Looks Great Mick Just flicked through their 104 pics gallery...superb.

https://theoldestpub.com/gallery#&gid=1378454110&pid=1

Even do Haggis Neeps and Tatties




Neil

[bobins]

Stop me if you've heard this before

Not yer average pub - and quite possibly the most exclusive pub in Britain

Down in Wiltshire lies the old Central Govt. War HQ - deep undergound. It was meant to be where the great and good of the government ( ! ) would go off to in the event of WW3. There were rumours aplenty of what lay down there for those oh-so-'special' people Truth be told - it wasn't that nice down there One of the persistent rumours was that there was a pub down there - The Rose & Crown, but in a bizarre plot twist, the pub did actually exist. Sort of.

Back in 1943 Olga Lehmann was asked if she'd paint some murals for the Bristol Aircraft Shadow Factory which was busy making aircrafty things deep underground away from the bombs. She and Gilbert Wood spent about 8 months in total painting various murals in the canteens to brighten up the place. Many of those murals survive and are now Grade II* Listed. Amongst them are a couple of pub/bar related images, and it may well be these that were the start of the Rose & Crown myth.

Rose & Crown 1 - own work

Rose & Crown 2

More info:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/ ... list-entry

Extract: "The Quarry Operations Centre (QOC) Murals, in CGWHQ, below MOD Corsham are designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Artistic: a prolific and accomplished artist of the 1930s and 1940s (latterly a film and television designer), Olga Lehmann's mural work was celebrated at the time, this specially-commissioned series in particular, where each mural has a very striking and highly distinctive design; * Historic interest: the murals are an exemplary illustration of the fashion of the period for secular murals, the need to improve the welfare and morale of staff working underground for the war effort, and clearly show the style that Lehmann continued to popularise in the pages of the Radio Times and elsewhere; * Rarity: the only known surviving murals by Lehmann (fragments also survive in other parts of QOC and the wider Corsham mines). Murals were a popular form of public art in hotels, offices, etc in the interwar years and very few remain from this era; * Intactness: although many of the murals have faded or flaked over time, to varying degrees, the majority clearly retain their theme, strong palette and spirit. They survive remarkably well; * Group value: the themes of English pastimes and rituals, including a wedding, cycling holidays and a day at the races have an intense interrelationship, granting a higher level of special interest of the individual murals."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_G ... adquarters

[NewcastleFalcon]

I've had my turn, Mick's had his, and Bobins has taken us underground to his.

Who is going to provide the next "Pub of the Day.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

I've had my turn, Mick's had his, and Bobins has taken us underground to his.

Who is going to provide the next "Pub of the Day.

Neil

After a couple of months of zero activity, in spite of many pubs no doubt being visited by many of the FCF Faithful, no entries, and joining in couldn't be simpler.

Pub of the Day and Car of the Day...never even went inside but it takes a nice picture and looks nice enough.

Falcon Original

Falcon Original
Right next to the Newcastle-Carlisle line
and the South Tyne.

Falcon Original

Neil

[Rp0thejester]

Well I was present, locked in the corner, so no escape when I met JIM, Mick, James etc. So pubs/prisons are on here just under a different topic heading. Search the under 40s prisoners section and you'll see me trapped!! One thing I was told from Jim was that every Weatherspoons has a different carpet pattern. Guess what idiot is staring at carpets!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Originally on POTD, but very appropriate for this thread

Love them or not to your own preference, but one thing I do find interesting about Weatherspoons, is both the naming of some of their establishments, and the acknowledgement and celebration of locations, former use of buildings, and local history. Even down to bespoke carpeting designed to fit in with the history in some establishments.

So just to illustrate a couple round here...The Wallaw at Blyth in an art-deco former Cinema, and The Harry Clasper at Whickham, and The Electrical Wizard in Morpeth, again in a former Cinema.

Of course I suspect, the names and the history pass most of the assembled customers by, and most establishments will be referred to as "Weatherspoons" or, the less effort and room 101-esque in my book, "Spoons".

So in Ronnie Barker's former stomping ground there is this..


The Four Candles, 51 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2BE on 4 Nov 2012
Philafrenzy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Eldest granddaughter works in a Spoons in Darlington, confused me for a while as it goes under a completely different name, the one it had when they took it over.