A Dictionary of Pub, Inn and Tavern Signs: An A-Z Reference Guide to Pub Names - Their meaning, origin and history. This item is unavailable.A Dictionary of Pub, Inn and Tavern Signs: An A-Z Reference Guide to Pub Names - Their meaning, origin and history

There are few things that symbolise British culture better than the good old-fashioned pub. Over centuries, their colourful hanging signs have become an integral part of the country's backdrop. But how much do you really know about the names of these pubs, and how they came to have them?

Have you ever found yourself at the Red Lion, the Swan with Two Necks, the Jolly Roger, the Golden Fleece or the Beetle & Wedge, and stopped to wonder how it came by its name? Or what that name might reveal about the history of the building?

The answers to all these questions, and hundreds more, are contained with A Dictionary of Pub, Inn and Tavern Signs.

Here you'll find out how public drinking houses have changed through history, progressing from the simple custom of hanging grapes outside to boards depicting a name and illustration; how, after the Norman Conquest, some inn-keepers found themselves obliged to display elements of their new lord's coat of arms - a lion, griffin, deer or hart; how some pubs' names  (the Plough & Harrow or the Three Horseshoes, for example), came to represent the livelihoods of many of the inn's customers.

This illustrated reference book, arranged alphabetically, provides a brief guide to the meaning, origin and history of these names and sheds light on an important part of Britain's heritage.

Colin Waters is also the author of A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles and Occupations and A Dictionary of Saints' Days, Fasts, Feasts & Festivals.

A handy reference guide to the history of pub signs, with illustrations of the most interesting.