Here we have one of the best things about going back to school, the thought of going shopping, and coming out with new pens, pencils, exercise books, etc.
Now younger readers may laugh at this, because they get a computer, or I-pad. To them, pens, and pencils, and having to physically form letters, are almost antiquated. And, sadly, when I was at school, we used to think much the same when we were shown quills and parchment.
Unfortunately I have not been able to find much out about this public house, only what it says on the reverse, that it was "fairly new", and that "The owners, rather nicely, thought that the locals who might use the pub should name it, and threw the competition open to anyone living within a mile. The name itself was chosen because so many local streets are named after famous writers". From other sources I gleaned that the town was once very rural, and at around the time of Edward the Confessor was on and off the property of the Manor of Chineham. The new town was built in the 1960s, and included an area called "Poets", which were indeed named after famous writers of verse. However the pub itself was sited in the middle of a housing estate, was reportedly a little rough, and is now demolished, to make way for even more housing.
Whitbread`s "Inn Signs" fall into several categories, but the main two are the original selection, issued between 1949 and 1958, of which the first set was solely produced on aluminium, and the more recent "History of Whitbread Inn Signs", one of which we feature today. Then there are what purists may call peripheral, or non-cartophilic, the stamps, business cards, postcards, and general memorabilia, like leaflets and pamphlets, which show the signs to advertise them.
Strangely, neither of these main groups yet have a home page. Findings to do with the first group, the originals, is currently being collated under the listing for the second series, which we used as a Card of the Day for the 1st of April 1925. And, until we feature a card from the "Bournemouth" series of the "History of Whitbread Inn Signs", anything we discover about those cards is ending up with the Stratford-On-Avon set, which was our Card of the Day for the 28th of November, 2023
The more modern cards first appears in our British Trade Index part III, along with three groups of 1950-1958 signs which had been discovered and/or produced after our second volume. Our group is described as
The History of Whitbread Inn Signs. 76 x 50. Rounded corners, on board. Special albums issued, 1973-74. Eleven numbered series. ... WHI-2
1. Bournemouth (25 cards)
2. Devon & Somerset (25)
3. Isle of Wight (25)
4. Kent (25)
5. London (10)
6. London (15)
7. Maritime Inn Signs (25)
8. Marlow (25)
9. Portsmouth (25)
10. Stratford-Upon-Avon (25)
11. West Pennines (25)
This varies very slightly in our updated British Trade Index, it is purely altered by moving the date nearer the start of the entry. But there is a new card code for the group, of WHI-120, which is then suffixed by the fact our set is the eighth down.
As far as the signs in the set, they are :
- "The Fox", Ibstone
- "(The) Emperor of India, Farnham Royal
- "(The) Pen & Parchment", Popley
- "The Merrymakers", Langley
- "The Starting Gate", Newbury
- "The Beehive", White Waltham
- "The Blade Bone", Bucklebury
- "(The) Two Brewers", Marlow
- "The Crown & Old Treaty House", Uxbridge
- "The Fox & Horn", Mortimer
- "The Bridge House", Paley Street
- "(The) Downley Donkey", Downley
- "The Full Moon", Hawridge Common
- "(The) Herne`s Oak, Winkfield
- "The Lion", Reading
- "(The) Newtown Pippin", Harmanswater
- "The Crooked Billet", Marlow
- "(The) Marlow Donkey", Marlow
- "The Bull (Hotel)", Sonning
- "The Woodley Yeoman", Woodley
- "(The) Donnington Castle, Donnington
- "The Heart in Hand", Cores End
- "The Live and Let Live", High Wycombe
- "The Jolly Bodger", High Wycombe
- "(The) Jolly Cricketers", Beaconsfield
The hardest one to get seems to be "The Starting Gate" at Newbury. Not sure why. And I am also not sure why this set was called "Marlow" - when it seems to revolve around the counties on the western side of London. Even the location of our sign, Popley is in Hampshire, near Basingstoke, and almost three-quarters of an hour`s drive away.