# Pub Names

Whilst you are out walking and come across a pub with an unusual name, do you ever wonder how it got that specific name? It is most likely that many pubs were named at a time when most of their customers were illiterate but were able to recognise pub signs. They may be named after anything from everyday objects, landowners or rulers, or even mythical creatures.

Here are just a few examples:

**Barley Mow** — A stack of newly harvested barley before it is threshed. A Barley Mow public house was situated at 58 Strond Street, Dover until about 1930. There was also a pub of the same name on Cray Road, Sidcup, but it was demolished in 1974.

**Black Robin** — Believed to be named after a local highway man who is reported to have been a thorough scoundrel, shooting down coachmen in cold blood. The Black Robin pub Kingston has been there since 1741 and is still open. Kingston is in the Elham Valley, where smuggling was rife on the London to Dover route.

**Chimney Boy** — "Chimney boys" or "climbing boys" come from the eighteen and nineteenth centuries and refers to the children who worked for chimney sweeps. A law was passed in 1834, setting the minimum age for sweeps' apprentices to ten years old. This age was raised to sixteen years in 1840. The Chimney Boy in Preston Street, Faversham has recently reverted to its previous name of "The Limes".

**Furze Wren** — A small bird who nests in furze bushes, renamed the Dartford Warbler. The Furze Wren is a Wetherspoon pub in Bexleyheath.

**Hooden Horse** — Refers to the Kentish custom of "hoodening" on Christmas Eve. A group would travel from house to house with a "horse" that was made of wood and decorated with ribbons and brasses. In return, they would be given beer and cakes and sometimes money. Margate still has a Hooden Horse. There is one in Tonbridge that has been renamed, whilst the inn at Wickhambreaux is now a private house.

**Sir Norman Wisdom** — This name needs little explaining other than to say that Norman Wisdom was brought up in a children's home in Deal. He ran away at the age of 11 but returned to the town to become an errand boy in a grocer's shop. This is another Wetherspoon pub located in Deal.

*Gillian Allardyce*