Arms and the man, and various beasts

Pub signboards have been a feature of the English landscape for centuries but, being exposed to both the elements and changing fashions (and the lifetime of the pub), each board tends to have a fairly short life. Several years ago, noticing some familiar old signs had been replaced, I began a photographic ‘archive’. I then became intrigued about what or who they depicted. The signs described here are mostly from South Cambridgeshire, because that’s where I live.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Twisted

The Old Spring, Ferry Path, Cambridge

Yeah, right. Ha bloody ha. I suppose someone was trying to be clever. I won’t waste more words on this.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Mind your manors!

The Queen Edith, Wulfstan Way, Cambridge

According to Domesday Book, before the Norman Conquest the manor of [Cherry] Hinton (in which this part of Cambridge once lay) was held by one Edeva the Fair (‘Eddeve pulcra’), who is generally assumed to be Edith Swanneck, wife more Danico of Harold II Godwinson, though the authors of Cambridge Street-names: Their origins and associations propose that it may instead be his sister, Editha, wife of Edward the Confessor. Whichever one of the two it was, after the Conquest she was replaced as lord of the manor by the rapacious Count Alan of Brittany, who did rather well out of the redistribution of land after 1066. So I suppose having a pub named after her some 1900 years later is a small consolation.