In the Roman Road at Colchester appears the sign of the Roman Urn. One would conclude that the house had been named after some Roman urn that had been dug up on its site, did it not figure in the list years ago as the Roman Arms. Possibly, however, this is a misprint, although the sign of the Roman Arms does actually occur elsewhere, namely, in the Roman Road, London, E. Mr. Walford, in Greater London (vol. i. p. 385), says that there is another example of the sign of the Roman Urn just over the county boundary at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire. “It is to be seen embedded in the front of the inn in Crossbrook Street. The urn was found on the spot many years ago, but its date is far from certain.” Messrs. Larwood and Hotten do not allude to the sign, which is certainly very uncommon.
One of our very strangest signs—that of the Coal Hole—occurs at Leigh. It has only appeared there within the last few years, and Mr. H. W. King is of opinion that it is probably named after the once-well-known Coal Hole Tavern in the Strand. At the same place another beer-house is known as the United Brethren, probably after a Friendly Society there; but their club-house is now the Crooked Billet.
The sign of the New Inn, which is the commonest sign in Devonshire, and occurs no less than one hundred and four times in that county, is only twice met with in Essex, but there is also a beer-house so called at Romford. Evidently the Conservative nature of the majority of Essex folk leads them to prefer things old, instead of new. At Plaistow there is a Green Gate, and forty years since there was a *Blue Posts at Witham, in both of which cases the colour of the portals probably served the same office as a sign in distinguishing the house. Neither sign is mentioned in the History of Sign-boards, though the former is certainly a century old, as it is mentioned in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 5, 1787, and the latter is referred to in another advertisement on the 23rd of the following month. It was an old house of good standing, as it is also mentioned in the Very Young Lady’s Tour from London to Aldborough and Back (1804, see p. 37). The writer says:
“Travellers frequently boast of the charms of an inn,
But the Blue Posts at Witham’s the best I have seen,
The rooms are so clean, so delicious the diet,
The landlord so civil, so spruce, and so quiet,
The servants all round so desirous to please,
That you find yourself here most completely at ease.
So we supp’d, and we slept, and we breakfasted too,
And then bid to Witham a parting adieu.”
The house was closed as an inn some time since, and is now a china shop, kept by a prominent Witham teetotal advocate. Its door-posts are still painted blue. Sixty years ago there was another inn of this name at *Colchester. No Essex inn now displays the sign of the Gate, but there are beer-houses of that name at Saffron Walden, Bardfield, and Dagenham. At the two last-named places the houses bear the following very unpoetic couplet:—
“This Gate hangs high, and hinders none,
Refresh and pay and travel on.”
At Wanstead there is a Red House, presumably so called from its colour. In 1789 there was an Epping Place Inn at Epping, and a Bush-fair House at Latton. The Essex Inn, No 41, Aldgate High Street, London, E., is, without doubt, so named because it forms the stopping-place of many hay-carters and other travellers by road from Essex up to town.
Railways are referred to thirty-one times in all on Essex sign-boards, although, as might be expected, mention is very rarely made of railways among the signs of forty years ago. Thus we have five examples of the Railway Inn, one of the Railway Arms, two of the Railway Bell, seven of the Railway Hotel, and sixteen of the Railway Tavern.
Twenty years ago there was an Abbey Gate in Stanwell Street, Colchester, doubtless named after the beautiful gateway of St. John’s Abbey, which still stands. At the same time there was a Betting-stand at Galleywood, where the Chelmsford Races are held, as well as an Exchange Inn and a Chelmer Inn, both at Heybridge. There is a Mark’s Gate in Markgate, Dagenham; and a Marsh Gate at Stratford. Eight Essex inns are named after the great Globe itself, while the World’s End appears, at last, to have been discovered near Tilbury Fort. This is a very proper name, if, as has been thought, Tilbury is derived from two Saxon words, Til, end, and burgh, city, i.e., the city at the end of the river road. A beer-house keeper at Paglesham, however, seems also to consider that the World’s End is situated in the vicinity of his house. Probably both are equally right and equally wrong. The Globe at *Epping is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 13, 1786. At Bocking there is a beer-house known as the Dial, a device not named by Larwood and Hotten. At the same place there is a Park End beer-house, and at Felstead another, known as the Pye’s Bridge tavern. A beer-house at Chigwell styles itself the Retreat. At Waltham Abbey is a Flower Pot. A beer-house at Inworth is known as the New Times, while another not far off styles itself the Old Times, probably out of rivalry. At Great Baddow a beer-house appears as the New Found Out. At Chelmsford there is a United beer-house, and a Cornucopia at Southend.
No less than forty-two Essex inns display the sign of the Bell. Bells were set up as signs as early as the fourteenth century. The origin of their use in this way is probably due largely to our national fondness for bell-ringing, but partly also to the great veneration in which bells were held in superstitious times. Advertisements which appeared in the Chelmsford Chronicle refer to the inns with the sign of the Bell at Castle Hedingham, Sible Hedingham, and Purleigh on January 6th, July 21, 1786, and March 2, 1787, respectively. These houses all exist at the present day. The Bell at *Saffron Walden, though it does not now exist, must formerly have been a house of some standing, for it is fairly often referred to in the records of the Corporation. It is mentioned, for instance, in 1642, in 1645, and in 1650. In 1664 3s. was “paid at the Bell when the Quakers were committed,” and in 1714 4s. 4d. was “spent at the Bell when Lord Suffolk took the oaths.” Tokens are extant, issued by “Will. Mason at the [Bell] in Thaxtead, 1662,” though the sign does not now exist there. The Bell at Castle Hedingham, still a first-class hostelry, was a house of considerable note in the old coaching days. It was a stopping-place for the “Old Bury Coach,” which passed through the town. The building is ancient and extensive, though now much cut up and divided. The spacious kitchen is roofed with massive timber, black with age. In the large room upstairs have been held for many years the annual meetings of the once-famous Hinckford Hundred Conservative Club. In times past these meetings regularly formed the subject of a leader in the Times, and addresses were delivered by Disraeli and other prominent Conservative statesmen, but the club has now lost its old importance. The ornamental sign-iron is represented elsewhere (p. 150). Of the Bell at Leigh, Mr. King writes that he has no particular account, but he believes “it has been an inn for probably a century, and that it was pulled down to make way for the railroad, but rebuilt on part of the same site.” The present rectory at West Tilbury was once an inn with the sign of the Bell. The house was built by a speculator about the year 1780, and opened as an hostelry for the accommodation of the gentry that always crowded to the Fort during war time. Six years later, however, it had to be closed, and about the beginning of this century it was purchased for the sum of £700 by the Rev. Sir Adam Gordon, Bart., who then held the living, and presented to the parish as a rectory. A certain number of Bells frequently appear on a sign-board. In such cases the peal of bells in an adjacent belfry is generally alluded to, as may be seen on reference to the Rev. H. A. Cockey’s List of Essex Rings. In 1662 there was a house with the sign of the One Bell at Romford. It is mentioned in the Account of the Murder of Thomas Kidderminster, already referred to (p. 56). Taylor also, in 1636, mentions a Bell at Romford, probably the same house. The sign of the Five Bells occurs at Vange and Colne Engaine. At the latter place there are five church bells, but at the former only one, although there may formerly have been more. There was another example of the sign at Bocking forty years ago, when perhaps there were only five bells there. Now, however, there are six, and the sign of the Six Bells (probably the same house) appears there, as also at Dunmow and Great Waltham. At the former place there are six bells, but at the latter eight. At Boreham a beer-house is known as the Six Bells, that being the number at that place. At Mashbury is a cottage still known as the Bells. In a MS. dated 1761 it is spoken of as the Five Bells, and was probably then an inn with that sign, though no church in the immediate vicinity has that number of bells. The sign of the Eight Bells appears at *Saffron Walden, Great Tey, Belchamp Walter, and Bures Hamlet, at all of which there seem to be peals of eight bells. In addition to these, we have a New Bell at Harwich, and two Railway Bells, one near the station at Maldon, and the other in Trinity Street, Halstead. The bell also enters into numerous combinations, most of which are impalements, and therefore quite meaningless. Thus we have a Bell and Anchor at Canning Town, a Coach and Bell (a sign not referred to in the History of Sign-boards) at Romford, the Old Windmill and Bells, also at Romford, and examples of the Cock and Bell at High Easter, Writtle, and Romford. The latter has apparently been in existence since 1786, as it is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 13th in that year. Twenty years ago there was a Bell and Feathers at Stanstead, which seems now to have returned to the use of its former sign, which was a Bell simply (see p. 102). Though the fact is not mentioned by Boyne, tokens with the following inscriptions are extant: “George Perrin at ye Bell in Stanstead. His Half Peny. 1669.” The same house and the same landlord are also mentioned in Poor Robin’s Perambulation, already referred to (p. 66). The writer (one cannot say poet) says: