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OLD ENGLISH PUB SIGNS
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Pub Signs - Saving Our Heritage
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This site is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of a unique symbol - the Pub Sign.
At this early stage, only a sample of signs are on this site, some real, some copied. But with your help, it is hoped to show many more and their origins.
Your aid is important.
Send me an email at the address below if you have anything to offer.
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As with the pub itself, the origin of inn signs goes back to the Romans. The tabernae
would display vine leaves to signify that they sold wine - in Britain, as vine leaves are
rare, small evergreen bushes were substituted.
Early alehouses followed the tradition and hung long poles or ale stakes, which might
have been used to stir the brew, outside their doors. Obviously, if you sold both wine
and ale, you hung both bush and pole outside.
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The Origin Of Pub Signs
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Pub Signs And The Law
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The tradition persisted for over a thousand years, with the naming of inns, taverns and
alehouses becoming common practice by the 12th century. With names came signs -
as the majority of the population was illiterate. And in 1393, King Richard II passed
an Act making it compulsory for alehouses to exhibit a sign, primarily to identify
alehouses to the official Ale Taster, but they soon became a useful method of
advertising.
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