Some of you may recall that in the post on my recent trip back to Norfolk I said that I'd limit myself to just one bygone boozer a day and that the overflow would appear from time to time afterwards. Well, this is the first of those extras. You'll no doubt be pleased to hear that it's brief!
For those that haven't read that post, or quite understandably don't remember the nonsense it contains, let me remind you. Whilst I was attempting to snap Mrs. Bygone Boozer in front of the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Tuttington...
...I spotted this sign and determined that the name did come from the building having been a hostelry in its former life.
I've read somewhere since that it has been postulated that, as Tuttington is so far from the sea, the pub's name arose from a corruption of 'The Sheep' and the inn may have been a stopping-off place for drovers. Hmmmm? There's a pub in Wakefield called The Ship – well, there was before it closed around 2014 – and that's quite a way from the sea, just like The Ship in Leicester, that's also now closed, didn't actually have waves breaking against its doorstep either. I don't recall hearing that either of these two cities being on major ovine migration routes. Let me postulate a minute. Perhaps, with masses of sheep passing through the village's name was originally Tuppington and it became corrupted as a result of all of the top of the mouth tongue-touching from the locals expressing their displeasure at the pub's loss. That seems just as likely to me.
However it got its name, the earliest that I've managed to trace the pub back to is the census in 1841 when William Webster would've been landlord.
The Norfolk Pubs website has managed to go back further with this transcription of sale details dating back to 1796...
"For sale by Coltishall Brewery - Lot No. 4 in auction 21st May 1796.
With Stable and about an acre, by estimation, of exceedingly good land with several thriving young oak trees planted thereon - Also a double cottage near thereto with a garden and the use of a well. - Freehold."
...and even further back to 1774 when one Nicholas Hayne was in residence.
Whenever it started serving it has passed through a number of brewery's hands. From Coltishall to Letheringsett. From Morgan's to Bullard's and, in 1967, on to Watney's who closed it three years later.
Once upon a time it was a focal point where villagers would meet...
...and now it is a private residence without a single sheep or ship in sight.
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