I've posted something on a different thread about this, in case anyone's interested.
There is nothing in the article to justify the headline about "avoiding offending vegans", and in fact the owner mentions that the proposed wedding business is another reason for the change. So it's all about marketing - but at least it provides an opportunity to have a go at vegetarians and vegans, so that's one good thing to come out of it.
As for history, the pub is described as Victorian but as having been called the Shoulder of Mutton since the 1950s. I'd be interested to know what it was called for the first part of its history, and if anyone vowed never to darken its doors again when it changed in the 1950s. Snowflakes indeed.
Come On You Hatters!
The landlady seemed happy enough with their "good name" at some point this year on their as yet unchanged website.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
One of the golden rules of historians is not to apply the standards, beliefs and values of today to the past. As A.E. Houseman said "the past is a different country, they do things differently there". From a 1950s perspective the change of name of a pub or indeed any other business would have been viewed as the prerogative of the owner. Thirty years previously if the pub was one of "ye olde Inns of England" the concerned middle class may have been up in arms about an unwarranted attack on English values otherwise probably no problem, thirty years before the middle classes would have varied their opinion depending upon whither it was a "sordid drinking house frequented by the lower orders" which should be closed forthwith or some sort of respectable establishment. Views change with time. The working classes who actually used the pubs probably couldn't care less and neither would the upper class; sadly it's the upset middle class that have long been the engine of social change through their moral outrage about whatever is their fixation of the day.
However in the 1950s anyone changing a business name for the reasons cited in this press story, if known, would have been regarded as a loony*, some people may have visited the pub just to see this weirdo** but most would have given it a wide berth for fear of being thought "odd" themselves. Unfortunately the neo-puritanical, illiberal, intolerant, and downright feeble values of today echo those of the 1950s in a grotesquely changed way; the pendulum of social values having swung away from the liberal and tolerant views of 1965-1980, eventually the pendulum will swing back and social historians will shrug and note it down as the usual changing fads that society is prone to.
* for any snowflakes watching this is the kind of word that would have been applied by contemporaries, ** yeah that one too.
LP Hartley - The Go-Between (1953)
Interesting post. I'll read it again tomorrow, no time to respond tonight.
Last edited by sheffield hatter; 23-11-2018 at 21:47.
Come On You Hatters!
I might be more understanding if there was a little more imagination in the new name, since it's apparently a marketing exercise. I only had to Google the place to know it has more history than most, how about the King Charles? Hell, anything would be better. A lot of people seem to be taking on pubs like that with the attitude that they have to bring them into the 21st century, with that vision for them being bland and identikit.
I'll save the rest of this rant for the pub
I had to check the date first, no, not April
Village of Wool in Dorset, vegans want name change
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/ve...onal-1-8717185
I drink to make others more interesting
Yes, the headline is a little misleading. It's not "vegans" who have proposed changing the name of a village called Wool in Dorset. It's an animal rights activist group called PETA; though no doubt all its members are vegans, not all vegans would agree with the aims and tactics of PETA. As this Guardian article makes clear, PETA is an organisation that doesn't mind receiving embarrassing press coverage if it gets people talking about their issues.
Not sure how much of a discussion will ensue on this forum...
Come On You Hatters!