Mike Bedford takes us on a tour of public houses of the British Isles, taking in coaching inns, alehouses and taverns, to explore the buildings our ancestors would have known – and the family history clues we can find…
The chances are that your family history fact-finding trips take you to some interesting places you’d never otherwise have stumbled across. And one thing that many of those places will have in common is a public house.
Perhaps you’re drawn to these hostelries to grab a pint and a bite to eat before continuing your travels, but even if a teashop is more to your liking, we’d like to suggest that the pub is worthy of a second look. After all, meeting the locals in a pub can be a good way of getting to know a locality, some of your ancestors could have been regulars at a watering hole you discover, and one might even have been the landlord. What’s more, the names of these pubs, and sometimes also their pictorial signs, will often reveal information about their locality.
Here we’re going to take a look at these important parts of our national heritage. We’ll see how pubs came into being, and investigate something of their historical and sometimes architectural importance. We’ll delve into what you can learn from a pub’s name and signage, and look at a few examples of notable public houses. So, whether you find yourself at a backstreet boozer in Bolton, or a homely hostelry in Hereford, we trust that our exposé of the British pub will help you see them in a new light.
Origins of the British pub
While some of today’s most obviously historical pubs are renowned for their lavish Victorian interiors, the British pub goes back further, much, much further. The first century AD brought turmoil to these coasts with the invading Roman army capturing large swatches of the country for the first time. That invasion resulted in the establishment of the familiar forts and roads. Less well-known, though, is that the Romans also built pubs – or tabernae as they were called – along these new highways to cater for the needs of the invading forces.
When the Roman occupation of Britain eventually came to an end, one thing became clear – the tabernae, or taverns and alehouses as they were now called, weren’t going anywhere. Instead, their numbers were increased by the addition of inns, which offered accommodation as well as the food and drink that had previously been available. While these inns were undoubtedly used by merchants, i
