Public houses named the Green Man

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
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Pubs named the Green Man (or similar) in Beds, Berks. and Bucks.

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By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2015-07-17. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-10-29.

'The Green Man' is a quite common pub or inn name in England, while the name of 'The Green Man and Still' is now much less common than it used to be. Public houses with these names usually have (or had) a sign showing a green-clad figure – now often hard to distinguish from a typical depiction of Robin Hood – or a "green man"[1] head. These pub names and signs were not originally connected with the Robin Hood figure, though in some cases they have later come to be. Since their connection with the outlaw is only tangential, they are not given separate entries on this site. However, I include below a county-by-county list of map and literature references for such pub names found during my search for Robin Hood-related place-names, the sources being the 6" O.S. map online at NLS, UK Pub History, and London Pubology and many others. Unfortunately I only began to collect "Green Man" pub names after I had checked the maps of several – mainly northern – counties. The list therefore is not representative of all of England. It includes a few farms etc. whose names include the phrase 'Green Man' or 'Greenman'.


The pubs are added to the map as time permits. So far only Bedfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire have been added. A list of sources discussing "Green Man" pub names and the possibly related "green man" depictions follows the list of pub names.

Gazetteer

Map views linked to below are centred on the pub in question (or at least include it if it is too near an edge of the map to allow centring on it). Unless otherwise stated, the green men are indicated as "(P.H.)" (public house) on the maps. Where the pub is named "Green Man" eo nomine, I do not cite this. Where the map indicates the pub as "B.H.", i.e. a beer house, this is noted.

Bedfordshire

Berkshire

Buckinghamshire

Cambridgeshire

Derbyshire

Dorset

Essex

Hampshire

Hertfordshire

Huntingdonshire

Kent

Lincolnshire

London

No doubt some items listed here belong under one of the home counties. Also see 'Kent' above and 'Middlesex', 'Surrey' and 'Sussex' below.

Middlesex

Norfolk

Oxfordshire

Staffordshire

Suffolk

Surrey

Sussex

Warwickshire

Allusions

Discussion

Public houses

The Green Man in folklore and architecture

The concept of the "Green Man" in folklore is problematical. There is, for instance, no evidence that gargoyles and similar architectural ornaments and figures are anything more than decorative. There is no compelling reason to regard them as representations of a quasi-mythological entity or other mental construct, let alone interpret green men of 19th century May Day processions as representations of this same speculative entity or construct. Still more unfortunate is the fact that the Green Man concept has been appropriated by New Age fringe writers.

Also see

Notes

  1. Wikipedia: Green Man.
  2. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), p. 137.
  3. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), p. 138.
  4. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), pp. 7, 137.
  5. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), p. 137.
  6. Kennedy, John. A History of the Parish of Leyton, Essex (Leyton, 1894), pp. 127, 280 (bis). Gilbert, William. 'The Token Coinage of Essex in the Seventeenth Century, [Part II]', Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society, New Series, vol. XIV (1915), pp. 1-15; see p. 6. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), p. 137.
  7. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), pp. 7, 137.
  8. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), pp. 7, 137.
  9. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), pp. 7, 137.
  10. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), p. 61.
  11. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), pp. 7, 137.
  12. Christy, Miller. The Trade Signs of Essex: A Popular Account of the Origins and Meanings of the Public House & Other Signs Now or Formerly Found in the County of Essex (Chelmsford; London, 1887), pp. 7, 137.
  13. Also see Anonymous. Police Report of May, 1817. Relative to Public House Licences. Report of the Committee on the State of the Police of the Metropolis, with the Minutes of Evidence and an Appendix (London, 1817), p. 446.
  14. Also see Anonymous. Police Report of May, 1817. Relative to Public House Licences. Report of the Committee on the State of the Police of the Metropolis, with the Minutes of Evidence and an Appendix (London, 1817), p. 444.