Now and Then, Skirrid Inn, Llanvihangel Crucorney

The Skirrid Inn claims to be the "Oldest pub in Wales" but only became licensed in the 1830s and the building dates back to the 1640s according to Pevsner. There are plenty of other pubs older than the Skirrid. The above photo shows the pub as it was when owned by Rhymney Brewery, in the 1920s it was a Hancocks pub. More recently it was owned by Ushers of Trowbridge but today it is a Punch Taverns pub.

So much rubbish has been published about this pub over the years it's difficult to know where to start debunking the rumours and myths so let's start chronologically.

Western Mail, Country Supplement 01.10.96. Reporter: Kate Smout.

“A building is believed to have been on this site since Roman times”.
FACT – no Roman artifacts have been recorded here. If they have been found then they found there way to Ebay before the local museum recorded them.

“Records show that courts were held in the main room of the pub, known as the Millbrook alehouse as early as 1110”.
FACT – no records exist from such a date. Every reference to these supposed records does not mention them by name, if they did then these supposed records could be read by everyone. Also the Skirrid pub is on a hill, if somewhere known as The Millbrook existed it is more likely to be on the river Honddu than higher up the hill.

“Local brothers James and John Crowther were tried and sentenced at the inn. James got nine months for robbery with violence. John's sheep stealing activities cost him his life”.
FACT Both have modern names for 1110 and in the days of branding and amputation for criminal activities, along with trial by ordeal, it seems a bit strange that James gets sentenced to nine months in an era where prisons did not exist for punishment but merely as holding places before trial, sentence and execution. Again there is not any documented evidence to support this pub myth, but in different accounts of this myth, sometimes it is James who was hung.

“The existing stone structure is Elizabethan”
FACT So having argued the point that the pub dates back to Norman times in 1110, the Western Mail now asserts that it only goes back as far as Elizabethan times. Let's reach for Pevsner, or in our case John Newman, the Buildings of Wales, who states, “It is a remarkably complete mid- to late 17^th Century building”. That dates it 1640-1700. The myths are starting to break down.

“Owain Glyndwr rallied his troops from the mounting block in the courtyard”
FACT The stonework of the mounting block is contemporary with that of the inn, mid- to late 17^th Century. Owain Glyndwr was long since dead and buried over the border in Herefordshire before the Skirrid was built.

The reporter, Kate Smout, continues to spout more rubbish about the pub such as “time-stained granite walls”.
FACT the walls are the local Devonian Old Red Sandstone, there is no granite in Monmouthshire and certainly none used in the building of this pub.

It's not just the National Newspaper of Wales that has published such rubbish that pertain to be facts about this pub. The pub itself has published a leaflet full of these myths.
This goes even further by saying that the mounting stone has been used by Princes of Wales and Kings of England!
FACT No evidence exists of Kings arriving or leaving from the pub on horseback, or even visiting the pub.

The leaflet claims the wood paneling and beams in the dinning room came from an Elizabethan ship.
FACT Why import wood 40 miles inland when there is a perfectly good forest nearby. Carpenters from either Abergavenny, Hereford or Monmouth would have been able to work this into the finished paneling we see today.

I'm indebted to an annoying, badly written and with even worse photographs, little book, Strangest Pubs in Britain, for claiming that 1800 people were hanged in the Skirrid over the years. Not even the booklet published by the pub claims this figure, they go for a modest 180, although they add the rider “no exact or positive records exist”.
FACT No proof is even offered for this myth but it is accepted as fact, one website even claims that the 180 were executed in the aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion.
FACT The Monmouth Rebellion involved the Duke of Monmouth and the battle of Sedgemoor was in Somerset, as was the aftermath when Judge Jeffreys tried the conspirators.

Claims are made that the Skirrid was used as a courthouse.
FACT No records exist for any criminal courts being held here. Local Manorial courts which dealt with the day-to-day administration of the lands, boundary disputes and the election of the Ale-Taster may well have been held here as the pub was owned by the local landowners, the Neville family.

The booklet says that the marks on the stairwell are from the rope that was used to hang people.
FACT Since the pub dates from 1640 and there has not been one documented execution in the pub, the marks on the stairwell could easily be put down to scratches made whilst moving furniture.
One previous landlord went as far as to have a mannequin hanging from the stairwell. Popular with Ghost Tourists and the exceedingly camp ghost hunting TV programmes.

The booklet mentions that behind the Elizabethan plasterwork is the inscription JHT 1306.
FACT If the date is behind the Elizabethan plasterwork how does anyone know it's there and if it dates from that time it should be in Roman not Arabic numerals? If you are going to make a pub myth at least get the typeface right – clue it's MCCCVI

Quote from the pub pamphlet, “The Skirrid Inn is the oldest public house within the borders of the Principality of Wales and ranks among the foremost claimants to the title of the oldest public house in Great Britain”.
FACT The first mention of the Skirrid as a licensed house was in 1859, when it was described as a beer house. This meant it was not even a fully licensed pub and according to John Eisel and Frank Bennett in their book, the Pubs of Hay-on-Wye and the Golden Valley, it was unlikely to predate the 1830 Beer Act.
According to local historian Fred Hando, writing in 1958, “No relic survives which would date the present building to before 1640.”

So there we have it, the Skirrid Inn dates from the earliest 1640 and probably became a pub in 1830. Hardly the “oldest pub in Wales”.

Another book that reports these myths is "Ye Olde Good Inn Guide" 2013 by James Moore & Paul Nero who state, quite incorrectly that "nigh on 200 ne'r-do-wells have been strung from the oak beam over the stairwell on the first floor of the inn". Still it's easier to fill a book with lazy journalism than it is to do the research to debunk the myth.

A 1920's pamphlet from Hancock's brewery makes no mention of the supposed executions but does go on about the Norman staircase! The execution story appears to date only from the late 1960s!

Mythbusting - West of England Pub

An occasional series devoted to exploring the myths, half truths and outright lies that pubs use to promote themselves.

www.westofenglandtavern.co.uk

A bit of Googling the other day and I came across this website for the West of England pub in the part of Newport known as Pill. Now I used to live in the area and this pub was a keg only boozer inhabited by local drug dealing pondlife who had been banned from the rest of the town. In fact the only decent pub in the area at the time was the nearby Ship & Pilot, which featured a regularly changing guest beer, something no pub in the area now does.
So let's examine the claims made on the website of this pub (in bold): 

“One of the oldest taverns in Newport”

Apart from the Royal Mail (Old White Lion), Murenger, Carpenters Arms, Potter's Arms, Six Bells, Greyhound, King's Head, Cross Keys, Red Lion, Griffin (Blucher's Arms), Delilah's (Tredegar Arms), Ship & Pilot, Prince of Wales. Not even in the oldest dozen.

First mention of the West of England Tavern is not until 1838

“dating back to in and around the 1800s”

In Kelly's 1838 Directory the West of England is listed as a beerhouse, the Beerhouse Act of 1830 was a boost for the pub industry and it is very unlikely the pub dated to before that time.

“a Grade 1 listed building”

Now this really takes the biscuit. The West of England was rebuilt in the 1880s and a lean-to extension was built in the 1980s using bricks of a different colour to the original. If it was a Grade I (NB to their webmaster: Roman numerals are used in listing descriptions not Arabic numerals) listed building it would rank alongside the Abbey Hotel in Llanthony as one of the most important buildings in Wales. The nearby Waterloo Hotel is Grade II listed and quite rightly so. In fact the West of England is not listed by Cadw at all.

“serving a selection of lagers and real ales in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere”

Carlsberg, San Miguel and Tetley's Extra Cold keg beers is not a selection of real ales but then again if you believe this building is Grade 1 (I) listed then the author of the website is clearly deluded. Relaxed and friendly is a good description of the natives in the pub with their drug habit.

Well there you have it, a bit of mythbusting on one of the pubs of Newport. 

Mythical Pub Award

Brew Wales, Mythical Pub Award

This award is for the biggest amount of non-facts, out and out lies and mistruths ever written about a pub.

The winner is, The Skirrid Mountain Inn, Llanfihangel Crucorny, Monmouthshire.

So much rubbish has been published about this pub over the years it's difficult to know where to start debunking the rumours and myths so let's start chronologically.

Western Mail, Country Supplement 01.10.96. Reporter: Kate Smout.

“A building is believed to have been on this site since Roman times”.
FACT – no Roman artifacts have been recorded here. If they have been found then they found there way to Ebay before the local museum recorded them.

“Records show that courts were held in the main room of the pub, known as the Millbrook alehouse as early as 1110”.
FACT – no records exist from such a date. Every reference to these supposed records does not mention them by name, if they did then these supposed records could be read by everyone. Also the Skirrid pub is on a hill, if somewhere known as The Millbrook existed it is more likely to be on the river Honddu than higher up the hill.

“Local brothers James and John Crowther were tried and sentenced at the inn. James got nine months for robbery with violence. John's sheep stealing activities cost him his life”.
FACT Both have modern names for 1110 and in the days of branding and amputation for criminal activities, along with trial by ordeal, it seems a bit strange that James gets sentenced to nine months in an era where prisons did not exist for punishment but merely as holding places before trial, sentence and execution. Again there is not any documented evidence to support this pub myth, but in different accounts of this myth, sometimes it is James who was hung.

“The existing stone structure is Elizabethan”
FACT So having argued the point that the pub dates back to Norman times in 1110, the Western Mail now asserts that it only goes back as far as Elizabethan times. Let's reach for Pevsner, or in our case John Newman, the Buildings of Wales, who states, “It is a remarkably complete mid- to late 17^th Century building”. That dates it 1640-1700. The myths are starting to break down.

“Owain Glyndwr rallied his troops from the mounting block in the courtyard”
FACT The stonework of the mounting block is contemporary with that of the inn, mid- to late 17^th Century. Owain Glyndwr was long since dead and buried over the border in Herefordshire before the Skirrid was built.

The reporter, Kate Smout, continues to spout more rubbish about the pub such as “time-stained granite walls”.
FACT the walls are the local Devonian Old Red Sandstone, there is no granite in Monmouthshire and certainly none used in the building of this pub.

It's not just the National Newspaper of Wales that has published such rubbish that pertain to be facts about this pub. The pub itself has published a leaflet full of these myths.
This goes even further by saying that the mounting stone has been used by Princes of Wales and Kings of England!
FACT No evidence exists of Kings arriving or leaving from the pub on horseback, or even visiting the pub.
The leaflet claims the wood paneling and beams in the dinning room came from an Elizabethan ship.
FACT Why import wood 40 miles inland when there is a perfectly good forest nearby. Carpenters from either Abergavenny, Hereford or Monmouth would have been able to work this into the finished paneling we see today.

I'm indebted to an annoying, badly written and with even worse photographs, little book, Strangest Pubs in Britain, for claiming that 1800 people were hanged in the Skirrid over the years. Not even the booklet published by the pub claims this figure, they go for a modest 180, although they add the rider “no exact or positive records exist”.
FACT No proof is even offered for this myth but it is accepted as fact, one website even claims that the 180 were executed in the aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion.
FACT The Monmouth Rebellion involved the Duke of Monmouth and the battle of Sedgemoor was in Somerset, as was the aftermath when Judge Jeffreys tried the conspirators.

Claims are made that the Skirrid was used as a courthouse.
FACT No records exist for any criminal courts being held here. Local Manorial courts which dealt with the day-to-day administration of the lands, boundary disputes and the election of the Ale-Taster may well have been held here as the pub was owned by the local landowners, the Neville family.

The booklet says that the marks on the stairwell are from the rope that was used to hang people.
FACT Since the pub dates from 1640 and there has not been one documented execution in the pub, the marks on the stairwell could easily be put down to scratches made whilst moving furniture.
One previous landlord went as far as to have a mannequin hanging from the stairwell. Popular with Ghost Tourists and the exceedingly camp ghost hunting TV programmes.

The booklet mentions that behind the Elizabethan plasterwork is the inscription JHT 1306.
FACT If the date is behind the Elizabethan plasterwork how does anyone know it's there and if it dates from that time it should be in Roman not Arabic numerals? If you are going to make a pub myth at least get the typeface right – clue it's MCCCVI

Quote from the pub pamphlet, “The Skirrid Inn is the oldest public house within the borders of the Principality of Wales and ranks among the foremost claimants to the title of the oldest public house in Great Britain”.
FACT The first mention of the Skirrid as a licensed house was in 1859, when it was described as a beer house. This meant it was not even a fully licensed pub and according to John Eisel and Frank Bennett in their book, the Pubs of Hay-on-Wye and the Golden Valley, it was unlikely to predate the 1830 Beer Act.
According to local historian Fred Hando, writing in 1958, “No relic survives which would date the present building to before 1640.”

So there we have it, the Skirrid Inn dates from the earliest 1640 and probably became a pub in 1830. Hardly the “oldest pub in Wales”.

Pubs with a better claim to the title in Wales:

Cross Keys Inn, Swansea, 1300s

Kings' Arms, Abergavenny, 1500s

Murenger House, Newport, 1520s

Old Swan, Llantwit Major 1500s

Plough & Harrow, Monknash 1383

Duke of Wellington, Cowbridge , was the Half Moon, 1500s

Old House, Llangynwydd, 1147

Hanbury Arms, Caerleon, 1560s, though the tower is Norman!

Red Lion, Llanafan Fawr, 1400s

Mythbusting Pubs

More rubbish has been written about pubs then of any other buildings. Often the stories are instigated by previous landlords, the rumour gets turned into a story within a generation and the locals now take it as true. Anyway here are some of my favourite myths which have been seen in print or mentioned to me:

1. The pub is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. Unfortunately the Normans did not do the Good Beer Guide 1086, despite Roger Protz being available as editor, so no pubs are recorded in the Doomsday Book. Mills, fisheries, manors and farms are recorded along with the amount of produce, whether honey, iron,cattle or pigs, so an estimate of the size and wealth of a manor may be assumed, but no pubs are either mentioned or named in this book.

2. Oliver Cromwell stayed at this pub. Funny that in every pub that claims Cromwell was a guest at, also claims an assassination attempt was made on his life there. Normally the attempt was made with a pistol, as the roof beam on the ceiling has the musket ball hole in it! This hole is more to do with age, woodworm and a wall partition being taken down, than with a member of the New Model Army deciding to change sides and become a Royalist. Also biographies of Cromwell fail to mention these attempts and the Myth Pubs are always vague about the exact date it happened.

3. The pub dates back to the 13^th Century. One enterprising landlord once pointed out a date of 1217 carved into the stonework of an archway in his Myth Pub, as evidence of the antiquity of the pub. Now this was carved using Arabic numerals, not Roman numerals, a full 200 years before the Arabic Numerals we use today came into use! The landlord was not too impressed when I pointed this out to him.

4. The pub has a secret passage to the church/manor house. Quite often pubs have been built on the site of a previous pub and this has been going on for centuries. Why destroy a perfectly good stone-built medieval cellar just because there is going to be a new building on top of it? Of course, the new building may be smaller than the old one, so not as much cellar space will be needed and part of the cellar gets bricked up. Jump forward a few hundred years and the blocked up part of the cellar becomes a tunnel to the church or manor house or even a smugglers route. Medieval tunnel building is not that well documented and very difficult – it was far easier to cross the road to the church opposite than excavate and prop up a tunnel to do the same job!

5. The pub is haunted. Want some free publicity for your pub? Then say it's haunted. There is a whole industry built up on haunted pubs. From cheap guide books sold on the bar to camp over-the-top TV programs, this is one aspect of the pub trade that is booming. Next time a member of staff falls on the stairs blame the ghost and phone up the local rag – should get half a page of free advertising for your pub there.

6. The pub is built from ship's timbers. Fair enough if the pub is on the coast but I heard this about a pub 40 miles inland! Why dismember a ship and cart the wood inland for 40 miles when there is a perfectly good forest nearby? Where this myth comes from is that Navy timber was a term for the quality and thickness of wood and the story spread from there.

7. The oldest pub. Always be wary of any pub claiming to be the oldest. There is normally a nearby pub which not only looks older, but is older. The age of the Myth Pub has often been decided by the local bore, sorry historian, after a few too many beers in the pub after hours. The landlord then decides to put this myth on the sign, often with a rider such as “Without a shadow of a doubt”, or “Without fear of contradiction”, which is just asking for some decent academic research to actually dispel this Myth.