The Last Drop & The Bucket of Blood: The Folklore of Odd Pub Names

The pub is well entrenched in the cultural life of Britain. As a hub of social contact and often a provider of decent food, pubs offer a central meeting point for many groups of people. Yet how often do we think about pub names and what they tell us about local history, famous figures, or half-forgotten stories?

Indeed, my friends, pub names can actually be a treasure trove of the weird and wonderful aspects of local life that we may not know (but love when we hear them). Pub signs even preserve these legends through their choice of imagery.

When I started researching pubs and the folklore attached to them, I realised I was going to have to split the content across two posts. So this week, we’ll look at some of the weird legends attached to unusual pub names. Next week, we’ll look at stories associated with a selection of pubs.

There are far more strange pub names than I can include here, but I’ve tried to choose ones that had interesting stories associated with them.

Now, not all of the pubs attached to the names in this post still exist. According to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), you could find 46,800 public houses in the UK in 2020 (BBPA n.d.). That number is now lower thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the hospitality industry. But the fact that the pub did exist still makes them worthy of study.

So let’s take a look at the legends and folklore behind some strange pub names!

What are the UK’s most common pub names?

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the Red Lion is the UK’s most common pub name. At the time of writing, 534 pubs held the name. The Crown comes in at #2 with 488 pubs, followed by the Royal Oak (413), the White Hart (307), and the Plough (286) (Pubs Galore n.d.).

Pub signs actually date to the Roman era. Tavern owners hung ivy branches outside to show they sold alcohol. Painted signs updated this practice in the 12th century. Once literacy rates improved, pubs added names to their signs (Smith 2019).

So why the fascination with the Red Lion? Rory Smith notes that the figure is thought to come from John of Gaunt’s coat of arms. He was the younger brother of Edward the Black Prince, and the father of Henry IV. The red lion became popular during the reign of James VI of Scotland (and I of England). He insisted the red lion, part of Scotland’s Royal Banner, be displayed on important buildings—including pubs (2019).

So let’s have a look at some unusual pub names!

The Bucket of Blood

You can find The Bucket of Blood in Hayle, Cornwall. There are two theories as to where this 18th-century pub got its name. The first is that a local smuggler was murdered and his body was dumped in the pub’s well. The landlord brought up what he thought was a bucket of water, only to find it was actually a bucket of blood. There’s also a theory the corpse was the local revenue officer, not a smuggler (Hale 2018).

The second explanation is more prosaic, referring to the red water present in areas with high levels of tin mining (St Austell Brewery 2022).

Either way, the sign depicts the rather horrified look on the landlord’s face when he realises the bucket contains more than he bargained for!

The Case is Altered

The phrase itself comes from the legal profession, first used by lawyer Edmund Plowden to describe new evidence impacting a case-in-progress (Voelcker 2015). Ben Jonson took it up as a title for a comedy, but then it became a popular choice as a pub name. Each pub has different reasons for using the name, but a common theory is that the landlord’s situation had changed.

Another theory includes a reference to soldiers returning from the Peninsular War, who had stayed in a house on a hill, or Casa Alta. Yet another explanation is that it is a variation on La Casa de Saltar, or ‘the dancing house’ (Voelcker 2015).

According to the pub in Bentley, Suffolk, there are two versions as to the choice of name. In one, a landlady was flexible about payment for beer, until she got married, and ‘the case was altered’. In the other, the pub actually stood down the road, but the landlord took over a nearby house and altered it to create the current pub (The Case is Altered, n.d.).

The Briton’s Protection

You can find The Briton’s Protection in Manchester on the corner of Great Bridgewater Street and Lower Mosley Street. It opened in 1806, and its name apparently comes from the fact that people went there to avoid being recruited for the Napoleonic War.

That said, there could be an alternative reason for the name. Erik Merriman found links between the name and the 1819 Peterloo Massacre (quoted in Britton 2017). Soldiers stormed a peaceful protest and killed 15 people while injuring 400.

There’s a wall mural inside the pub and an image of the protestors on the pub’s sign to commemorate the event. A sign on the outside of the pub also notes that it was the only place to commemorate the protest since it happened just outside the pub. Merriman suggests that the pub’s name refers to a British protest for democracy (quoted in Britton 2017).

The Headless Woman

The Headless Woman pub stood in Duddon, in Cheshire, until 2014. This one apparently refers to a local legend, dating to 1664. As the story goes, a woman named Grace Trigg was a servant at nearby Hockenhull Hall. The Royalist owners fled the hall, leaving Trigg behind, and Parliamentarian soldiers found her hiding in a cellar (Chester Chronicle 2013).

They turned to torture to try and find out where the family kept their valuables. Yet Trigg didn’t tell them. Either she didn’t know, or she just refused to let on. The soldiers beheaded her in the attic of the inn, before dumping her body in the river.

250 years later, the inn’s owners learned of the story and did some research. They discovered the bloodstains in the attic. Trigg apparently still haunts the area, where people reported seeing her carrying her head under her arm.

Sadly, the pub is no more

There were campaigns to save the pub from demolition in 2013. The developers claimed the building had deteriorated to a point where it was no longer salvageable. Those wanting to protect it pointed out that it had been left to rot to make demolition the only choice (Chester Chronicle 2013). The current owners of The Cooperage in Newcastle upon Tyne appear to be doing the same thing.

Campaigners tried to save The Headless Woman based on its historical significance. It turns out it could have been even more significant due to a particular visitor it once had—Washington Irving.

Irving visited while travelling between Birmingham and Chester. The pub’s name caught his eye, so he asked where it came from. The landlord told him the story, adding that seeing her was a bad omen (Seal 2017). Irving stayed the night and insisted on sleeping in the attic. He didn’t see the headless woman but he did “claim to have heard a woman sobbing in the night and, in the morning, found a patch of blood on the floor of the attic”.

This snippet of English history prompted his interest in headless ghost tales…which led to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

The Three-Legged Mare

The name of this pub has nothing to do with horses but rather refers to the gallows. In York, they created their own Tyburn as one of four execution sites. Each site had its own justice system, and the Tyburn site was used by the Crown.

York Castle administered justice at the Tyburn site, but the gallows didn’t stand at the castle. Instead, the site stood at Knavesmire on the old city boundary beside the main road to London. The gallows at the site became known as the three-legged mare due to the fact it was triangular-shaped. The state could execute three men at a time using this design.

And yes, the Tyburn site did take its name from the London execution site. The first execution took place here in 1379, with the last in 1801. The most famous execution here was undoubtedly that of Dick Turpin in 1739. The gallows were finally removed in 1812. This pub thus references the site that saw executions for over four centuries (History of York, n. d.)

In typical English fashion, the pub is also known as the Wonky Donkey.

The Last Drop

York isn’t the only city with a pub related to public execution. Edinburgh’s Grassmarket boasts The Last Drop. The area used to be where the gallows stood, and the drop thus refers to a hanging, and not the end of your drink. Walter Scott even refers to the dreadful spectacle of “a huge black gallows-tree towards the eastern end of the Grassmarket” (1832: 33)

One legend claims the condemned had their last meal at this very pub, and their final whiskey actually gave the pub its name.

The Legend of Oily Johnnies

The Legend of Oily Johnnies actually has a much less exciting backstory than I expected. Previous names included the Royal Oak and Oily Johnnie’s Inn. It seems an earlier landlord, James Kirkpatrick, once sold paraffin oil from a shed beside the pub. This gave him the nickname of Oily Johnnie, and the rest is history (Oily’s n.d.).

The John Snow

Of course, not all pubs have weird or strange names in a bid to remember local events. The John Snow on Broadwick Street preserves a slice of social and medical history.

In the mid-1800s, a water pump stood at the corner of Broad Street and Cambridge Street (now Broadwick and Lexington Streets respectively). In 1854, a cholera epidemic broke out in London, and Dr John Snow traced its origins to this particular pump. Almost 500 cases could be traced to this pump. Snow ordered the pump handle to be removed (Raju 1997: 1863). While the pump was back in use six weeks later, this discovery did prompt the new understanding of cholera as a waterborne disease.

In the 1870s, a pub was built nearby called the Newcastle upon Tyne. It was slightly fortuitous since John Snow was an apprentice to a Newcastle-based surgeon in 1827 (Frerichs n.d.). In 1955, the pub changed its name to the John Snow, in honour of the legendary doctor. It’s slightly ironic since Snow was teetotal.

Remember this next time you go for a drink!

There are far more unusual pub names than I can include here. From The Moon Under Water to Fanny’s By Gaslight, many pubs across the British Isles have names that stick in your mind. They might preserve a quirk of local history or commemorate an event. In doing so, they become a unique record of things that might otherwise be forgotten…until the story is forgotten and all that remains is the name.

Plus, The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn is a far better choice than The Plough any day of the week…

What are your favourite strange pub names? Let me know below!

References

BBPA (n.d.), ‘Pubs’, British Beer and Pub Association, https://beerandpub.com/statistics/pub-numbers/.

Britton, Paul (2017), ‘The fascinating stories behind the names of some of Manchester’s oldest pubs’, Manchester Evening News, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/fascinating-stories-behind-names-manchesters-12898361.

Chester Chronicle (2013), ‘Protests at demolition plans for historic pub’, Chester Chronicle, https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/protests-plans-demolish-headless-woman-5720446.

Frerichs, Ralph R. (n.d.), ‘John Snow Pub’, UCLA: Department of Epidemiology, https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowpub.html.

Hale, Rick (2018), ‘Bucket of Blood Pub: The Macabre Story Behind Its Gruesome Name’, The Spooky Isles, https://www.spookyisles.com/bucket-of-blood-pub/.

History of York (n.d.), ‘Executions in York’, History of York, http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/executions-in-york.

Oily’s (n.d.), ‘About Oily’s Pub and the legend of Oily Johnnies’, Oily’s, https://oilyspub.co.uk/oily-johnnies.php.

Pubs Galore (n.d.), ‘Most common names of open pubs listed on Pubs Galore’, Pubs Galore, https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/stats/pubs/pub-names/.

Raju, Tonse (1997), ‘A doctor’s pub’, The Lancet, 350 (9094), p. 1863.

Scott, Walter (1832), The Heart of Mid-Lothian, London: Collins Clear-Type Press.

Seal, Bobby (2017), ‘Washington Irving and the Headless Horseman’, Psychogeographic Review, https://psychogeographicreview.com/washington-irving-and-the-headless-horseman/.

Smith, Rory (2019), ‘The 5 Most Popular Pub Names in the UK’, The Culture Trip, https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/articles/the-5-most-popular-pub-names-in-the-uk/.

St Austell Brewery (2002), ‘Bucket of Blood, Phillack’, St Austell Brewery, https://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/pub/phillack/bucket-of-blood.

The Case is Altered (n.d.), ‘The Pub’s Name’, The Case is Altered, http://www.thecasepubbentley.co.uk/pubname/.

Voelcker, Tim (2015), ‘Pub names – The Case is Altered’, Ipswich Society, http://www.ipswichsociety.org.uk/newsletter/newsletter-july-2015-issue-200/pub-names-the-case-is-altered/.