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I WAS delighted to see, the other day, that
The Talbot pub in Oat Market had dropped its modern name of The Frog
and Ferret and reverted to its original title.
I have never liked the
breweries' trend for strange names, especially when they don't seem to
make sense. Fox and Hounds, yes. But Frog and Ferret? However, if
they want to keep business I suppose the public houses sometimes have to go with the trend.
Fortunately, none of the other
Nantwich hostelries felt the need to follow suit - although we have
other establishments where drink is sold that don't have pub-style
names. Curshaw's at the Cat (cafe, bar, eaterie and rooms) was once The Cheshire
Cat, among other names. At Nakatcha - converted
 from the Three Pigeons
pub (not just a rename) you can eat, drink and dance. Both those are in
Welsh Row. On the other side of the River Weaver bridge is
Harrison's Bar which does food as well as drink and has the appearance
of a restaurant rather than a pub.
But the other names remain. The
Black Lion, The Wilbraham Arms, The Oddfellows, The Union Vaults, The
White Horse, The Railway, The Red Cow and the Leopard are just some of the pubs in
town. Of course, we lost The Lamb when it became the apartments and
shops complex, Chatterton House.
So congratulations to Marston's,
the brewery, and Mark Garrett (the licensee - who also runs the nearby
pub, The Union ) and Sandra Cooper (the manager) for bringing a piece of
history back to the town.
Gone is the peach-and-black
decor of The Frog and Ferret. Back is the black-and-white exterior. I
won't go into the changes made in a £60,000 renovation. I will leave
customers to find out about the locally sourced food, the car park at
the rear, the planned dining terrace, and the "family-friendly"
atmosphere.
I have just noticed from the before
and after pictures that a feature of the gables has been removed. But I
don't know when this happened. In the renovation, possibly. The pub in
its former mode (below) was pictured by Andrew Lamberton and Robin Gray
(of "Lost Houses in Nantwich" fame) for an exhibition on
local public houses at Nantwich Museum a few years ago. (They are used
here with Andrew's kind permission.)
lThe
Talbot has a fine open forecourt where customers sit at tables to drink. Now I see two
of the tables are covered which I assume
are for the use of smokers in rougher weather now that the new law has come in. But
the view has not always been so open. Many years ago there was a cottage or two built on the street line with the
pub situated behind them, presumably up an
alleyway.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? Did you know
that name Talbot comes from a breed of dog first put on their coat of
arms by a family called Talbot? The dogs were used for hunting (like a fox hound) or
for running alongside stage coaches. That makes sense as we were a
coaching halt in the old days. There are a number of pubs
throughout the country with the name. In some signs, the dogs are
spotted, in others "plain", as here.
lThere
is a Talbot's shoe shop in Beam Street (on the corner of Pepper Street)
- named after the owner, of course.
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