The Bladebone Inn is a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

Chapel Row Chapel Row is a hamlet in West Berkshire, England, and part of the civil parish of Bucklebury. In 2019 it had an estimated population of 627. History The hamlet was first documented in 1617 as ''Chapel Rewe'' and subsequently featured on Ro ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Bucklebury Bucklebury is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Berkshire, England, about north-east of Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury and north of the A4 road (England), A4 road. The parish has a population of 2,116, but the village ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

History

Records show that there has been an inn on the site since the mid-17th century. The current red-brick building, however, is undated. The pub was the location for

Courts leet The court leet was a historical court baron (a type of manorial court) of England and Wales and Ireland that exercised the "view of frankpledge" and its attendant police jurisdiction, which was normally restricted to the hundred courts. Etymol ...

and

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

on behalf of Bucklebury manor, and was often part of the Chapel Row Fair. In 1790, the sons of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

attended a prize fight there between "Hooper", one of

Lord Barrymore Earl of Barrymore was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created for David Barry, 6th Viscount Buttevant, in 1627/28. Lord Barrymore held the subsidiary titles of Baron Barry (created c. 1261) and Viscount Buttevant (created 1541) in the ...

's men, and "Big Ben Brain". The bout lasted almost three-and-a-half hours and 180 rounds, and was eventually called a draw.

Name

The name comes from the blade bone of a

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

that was killed by prehistoric hunters. The skeletal remains of the animal were found preserved in the silt of the

Kennet Valley The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which � ...

; the name "Bladebone" was used to refer to the pub by 1666. The bone is encased in

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and hangs from the front of the pub as the

pub sign A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

. The copper casing is regularly repaired, and the bone within has been found to be preserved in an excellent state.

Ownership

In 1922, the pub was bought by Strange's Brewery of

Aldermaston Aldermaston ( ) is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. In the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 1,015. The village is in the Kennet Valley and bounds Hampshire to the south. It is approximately from Newbury, Basin ...

for £3,500(equivalent to approximately £150,000 in 2008). The brewery already rented the pub – along with a portion of the

estate – for £86 (£3,500 in 2008) per annum. The pub was later owned by

Whitbread Whitbread is a British multinational hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742 by Samuel Whitbread in partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell, with premises in L ...

. It is currently a free house, and regularly stocks ales from the West Berkshire Brewery.

In the arts

In the 1950s,

Robert Still Robert Still (10 June 1910 – 13 January 1971) was a wide-ranging English composer of tonal music, who made strong use of dissonance.Still, Elizabeth. Biographical note toIsmeron CD JMSCD 8(2006) He produced four symphonies and four string qua ...

composed ''The Ballad of the Bladebone Inn'', inspired by the pub. Describing a tale explaining the name and sign of the pub, the composition's debut performance was at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

on 23 October 1957. Stanley Bayliss of

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

described the performance as "duly bucolic" with "pleasant tunes", but saw that it failed to send a "shiver down the spine."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bladebone, The Pubs in Berkshire Bucklebury