“From Ugley I next way to Stanstead travell’d,
Upon a plain highway, well ston’d and gravelled.
This town of Stanstead, for distinction’s sake,
Doth unto itself the name Montfitchet take,
From the Montfitchets, once Lords of great fame,
And who erewhile were owners of the same.
There at the Bell, at my old friend George Perrin’s,
We drank and tippled like unto a herring;
For there is ale and stale beer, strong and mighty,
Will burn i’ the fire like unto aqua vitæ,
And that the reason is, as you may know,
That this Bell’s liquor makes men’s clappers go.”
In 1868 there was a Clapper at Woodham which, perhaps, belonged to one or other of the bells just mentioned.
The Castle is a frequent Essex sign, occurring thirteen times in all. It is an ancient sign, which is thought by Larwood and Hotten to have originated in the fact that anciently entertainment was to be had at the castles of the great, as at an inn. In later times the custom arose of naming inns after particular castles, and it is easy to see that the example of the sign now found at Hadleigh, and the two examples now existing at **Colchester, originated in this way. Sixty years ago there was another at *Saffron Walden, which was, of course, named after the old castle there. Not improbably, in some cases, the sign may have been derived from the arms of the Masons’ Company.[95] A castle is represented on the seventeenth century token of Thomas Hewes of Castle Hedingham—being, of course, the fine old castle of the De Veres at that place. Mr. King finds mention in some old deeds dated 1693 of the Castle at Trimme at Rochford in that day. This was probably an inn-sign, but perhaps that of a shop or tenement. It was doubtless so called from the ancient castle of the De Lacys, built in 1220, at Trim in Ireland, which figured in the Civil War. As this castle does not appear to have had any connection with Essex, the most probable conclusion is that the sign was set up by some one who was present at the surrender of the castle to Cromwell in 1649. The following advertisement appeared in the Chelmsford Chronicle on March 2, 1787:
“Cocking. On Friday, March 9th, will be fought a Main of Cocks, at the sign of the Castle, Great Oakley, for Two Guineas a Battle, and Five the odds; where the company of all gentlemen and others will be esteemed a favour, by their humble servant William Rayner. The Cocks to be pitted at eleven o’clock, and a good ordinary to be provided at two.”
Mr. H. W. King writes:
“The present Castle at Hadleigh changed its name (though remaining at the same house) late in the last, or early in the present, century. It was formerly the Blue Boar, and old people persistently called it so within my memory, in spite of the change. I have also found evidence of this change in some old Court Rolls. This kind of change is not infrequent. I conceive that the Blue Boar may have been the sign of the inn for centuries, but the Castle was, I suppose, thought more attractive to the many visitors to the old Castle.”
The Chequers is a sign of great interest and antiquity. It is very common in Essex, as it appears no less than twenty times, including one Old Chequers. It is equally common as a beer-house sign. Robt. Bowyer kept the Chequers at Bardfield in the seventeenth century, as shown by his token, but no house now exists there under that name. Mr. Creed’s list (p. 7) shows inns with this sign at Epping, Nazing, Waltham Abbey, High Laver, and Nettleswell in 1789. The Chequers at Roxwell seems to have existed since 1787, as it is referred to in the Chelmsford Chronicle for February 2nd in that year. As a sign it is said to be found even among the ruins of Pompeii, and, according to Larwood and Hotten, it “is, perhaps, the most patriarchal of all signs.” The same writers say (p. 488) that in England it is “said to represent the coat of arms of the Earls de Warrenne and Surrey, who bore chequy, or and azure, and in the reign of Edward IV. possessed the privilege of licensing ale-houses.” The old money-changers used boards divided up into squares like a modern chess-board, and the sign of the Chequers may have originated, partly, at least, in these “exchequers,” as they were called, being hung up outside their places of business. Not improbably the sign also represents the “chequer,” or board divided into squares, and still used in some country inns for keeping a tally or record of the amount drunk by each regular customer. As the sign is now painted it is almost as often lozengy as chequy. In the year 1764, according to an advertisement of that date in the Chelmsford Chronicle, the present Ipswich Arms at Ingatestone was impaled with a Chequers, forming the Ipswich Arms and Chequers.
The sign of the Coach and Horses, which occurs thirteen times in the county, has already been alluded to. As might be expected, it was considerably commoner forty years ago than now. An inn of this name at Chelmsford has a pictorial sign-board, representing a number of gentlemen, in the costume of fifty or sixty years ago, riding on the top of a coach.
Four houses in Essex, situated respectively at Leigh, Barking, Chadwell Heath, and Nazing, now make use of the Crooked Billet as their sign. Twenty years ago another did so, and there is still a beer-house so styled at Felstead. There is also an Old Crooked Billet at Walthamstow, and a Crown and Crooked Billet (doubtless merely an impaled sign) at Woodford Bridge. It is not by any means clear what this sign was derived from. Larwood and Hotten confess that they “have not been able to discover any likely origin; it may have been originally a ragged staff, or a pastoral staff.... Frequently the sign is represented by an untrimmed stick suspended above the door.” Mr. H. W. King writes that the sign existed at Leigh in the earlier part of last century, being used by a small house which still stands, but is not the inn now displaying the sign in that town. He says: