Unfortunately the heritage is aslo being eroded in other ways.
Pub signs were a combination of traditional names, local history, culture and moral tales
When Greene King decided to remove all its pub signs for a generic company log this was a direct attack on the history
The other problem is the PC Brigade
There was a pub near here called the "Black Boy" and the sign showed a mother scrubbing a black child.
It was considered offensive and removed
The true story was a moral tale of infidelity about a Naval wife who has an affair with a coloured sailor whilst her husband is at sea. The picture is a vain attempt (The "Labour in vain" pubs sometimes have similar) to hide her sins..... a warning to others not to follow her example
ah, I well remember the old Eagle and Child sign in Hurst Green as a kid. Somewhat alarming - baby being snatched in the talons of an eagle I seem to remember. Last time I was that way they had prettied it up to something like a pic of an eagle suckling a grateful baby. I seem to remember Vespa-ing past a pub called the Headless Woman on one of the back roads to Brighton - I seem to remember that that sign, and maybe the name as well, fell foul of the censors. I'm pretty politically correct myself but think that sort of stuff barmy.
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