Above photo 2014.

Above photo 2014.

Above sign, August 1986.

Above sign left 1989, sign right 2007.

With thanks from Brian Curtis and Roger Pester www.innsignsociety.com.

I was a service engineer at Whitbread's & did the draught beer install on the new build I guess about 1983.

A few things stick in my mind, it was to be the Snooty Fox, the name apparently was for a fox that used to sit on the roadside nearby watching the traffic and locally called the Snooty Fox, but there was a pub in London of that name owned by someone with powerful friends (or husband). Legal action was threatened and the name was changed.

The area manager forgot to apply for a licence and the pub was opened on occasional licences from , I think, the "Poachers Pocket."

The same area manager had had the idea of creating a bar for children and this was at the end of the main bar fronting into the kid's play area. We set it up with draught soft drinks, just finished when the Licensing committee arrived for an inspection and pointed out that it was illegal for alcoholic drinks to be served in the sight of children. Soft drinks hastily removed and a partition was put up.

Pete Mason.