The Rodney Inn is named for George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney of Rodney Stoke, Somerset. Rodney was perhaps the most celebrated naval hero of the mid-18th century. Born in 1718 and baptised at Walton-on-Thames in February of that year, his family were well-connected but became comparatively impoverished following his father’s loss of a substantial portion of his wealth through...
Paul Corballis in his book Pub Signs (Lennard Publishing 1988) writes “…if you see a pub with this sign look around for a church. This ancient sign originated with pubs attached to or near early churches.” It is possible that there was in pre-Reformation times an ecclesiastical establishment of some kind on or adjacent to the present Meneage Street site of the Bell...
“After God, Shakespeare has created most” - Alexander Dumas Bristol boasts four inns named in honour of the Swan of Avon. The one now at 68 Prince Street owes its name to the proximity of the Theatre Royal, Britain’s oldest purpose-built playhouse, in more or less continuous use since 1766. The present Shakespeare Tavern comprises half of a double-fronted, stone-built house dating from...
THE CORNISH HOTELS OF NEW YORK CITY PART ONE Some time ago, while researching in the Cornish Studies Library at Redruth into the history of an old Cornish public house, I encountered on microfilm copies of the West Briton newspaper’s shipping columns dating from the 1890s a series of advertisements connecting the area of Lower Manhattan where I spent my childhood and...
The Seven Stars Inn – AKA Fitzsimmons Arms From its inception until c.1982 the house was known as the Seven Stars Inn. For a 25 year period during the 1980s, ‘90s and into the present century the house was known by the sign of the Fitzsimmons Arms. In the middle ages the Seven Stars was a religious sign, representing the seven...
The Old Punter’s Cautionary Tale of a Ditty - The History of "Dublin Lady" I might have followed the example of Noel Coward when he warned “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington” in advising my children against becoming songwriters. As it is, in the case of my eldest son, the counsel would have come too late. He’s already...
My admiration for Seamus Ennis – always fairly idolatrous – reached its peak one night in March 1971 at Thurso Folk Club. Seamus, the Scotish folk singer/songwriter Archie Fisher and I had driven from Aberdeen; stopping only for a flat tyre in Dingwall, and making the last hundred miles in a slithery drizzle along a serpentine coast road, stretches of...
THE OLD PUNTER’S ADVICE TO YOUNG MUSICIANS & SINGERS 1.) Ditch the music stands and the lyric crib sheets. Unless you are performing in the context of a recital room, a classical or jazz concert hall rather than a club or a pub, you ought to have some grasp of the tunes you’re playing. As to words, if you have not managed...
Having, thankfully, been "unpublished" by Amazon KDP the Memoirs have been returned to their own category and to the Main Site. I offer below an outline of the work. Following that, by way of further information for the curious, is a brief personal literary C.V. and partial credit list.* * * * * * * * * * *Notes of a...
On March 15th, 1889, the first competitive game was played at the newly completed Gloucestershire County Cricket Ground at Ashley Down, Bishopston, in the historic English seaport city of Bristol. The contest was not a cricket match but rather an exhibition game between two teams of American professional baseball players. The press coverage given the event – including stories headlined...