The Three Swans, Market Harborough, part 2

Sunday 13th January

Firstly, I must apologise for our tardiness in posting this part of our blog. It's now over a month since our visit but, what with Christmas and my wifes operation, I've been a bit busy ( I also came down with bloody norovirus the day before New Years Eve, had to cancel my party, gutted). We promise to be a bit more up to date in future.

Well, we think the "ghost" is Mr Fothergill. According to people we've spoken to all the strange happenings that have occurred started after his death and involve his portrait. This picture hangs close to the bar (sorry about the reflected light) and shows him (I think) looking quite stern.

 Mr Fothergill was landlord and owner between 1934 and 1953 and was considered an eccentric. He could,apparently, also be very rude, sometimes refusing to serve customers just because he took a dislike to them.

He wrote three books about his experiences in the licensing trade, An Innkeepers Diary in 1931 telling his reminiscences of being landlord of an inn in Thame, Oxfordshire (he was the first person to be published by the newly formed Penguin Books), Confessions of an Innkeeper in 1938 and My Three Inns in 1949.

When Mr Fothergill and his wife first arrived at the Three Swans she described it as "the foulest little pub possible, with dirty sheets" and he wrote "Inside the inn, however much dirt, not always apparent, the awful furniture, the beds, the rat holes, the wall papers coming away from the walls, the tiny unventilated lavatory on the first floor, used by the whole house, the bars and people of the town, and the strange stillness throughout, for no one seems to come in, you could see at once the building had a lovable character.

Well, that's enough copy/paste for now dad...(Didn't. It wouldn't work. Had to type the whole bloody lot out. Twice! And still wouldn't work. So I shortened it.) SO! The ghost stories are rife in the Three Swans. Room 33 is apparently haunted, not sure why, but the bar staff told us of a time when a guest bought a dog, and the dog refused to go into the room. Some cleaning staff refuse to go in, claiming that they feel like they're being watched (some folks will do owt to get out of work!). While we were there, one of the young barmen told one of the other patrons of an "eerie" corridor  where one would walk down it feeling perfectly fine, and then a person would feel a disturbing chill at a certain point along the corridor. She promptly made her way upstairs, then 2 minutes later, appeared back at the bar, stating "I could feel it! I could feel it!", so I thought, "I'm havin' some o' that!" then made my way upstairs to said corridor... load of bol... (Rubbish)... couldn't feel anything.

The ghost stories are numerous, to the point where a ghost hunting team have turned up with all their ecto1's and proton packs and spent the night. Apparently, they didn't find anything...

The best "story" (some would argue "coincidence") is the Ghost of John Fothergills painting. The painting was displayed in the pub shortly after his death and, as the tale goes, the next landlord's wife didn't like it up in the bar (it is a bit grim) (a bit?) and took it down and hung it up in the cellar, out of sight. The next day, a torrential rainstorm struck and flooded the basement, and the water level rose up and stopped..... at the bottom of John Fothergills portrait! (The water was probably too scared to go any further. Have you seen him? He could get a part time job as a child frightener!) Spooky eh? Another story tells of a woman who took down the picture while cleaning, and the day after she suffered an unfortunate incident with a horse and cart (made up the horse and cart bit, but she did die). Stories of Mr Fothergill tell of a mean and spiteful landlord while he was alive, and it seems that he hasn't chilled out any in death...

Personally, I love these old ghost stories, although I have never witnessed anything spooky, and don't really have any reason to believe in any form of afterlife, but these tales keep strangers talking in a pub on a cold Monday night in December, which is no bad thing.

We were also told that one of patrons in room 33 saw her bath water "parting" (like the Red Sea??), that one landlord moved the picture and promptly went bankrupt (what, overnight?) and that the last time the portrait was moved all the computers in the hotel went down. Spooky? (or bonkers) (note no question mark. Statement).

Anyway, back to reality, Mr Fothergill was considered such an interesting character that in 1981 he was the subject of a BBC play starring Robert Hardy. I haven't seen it so can't pass comment but if Robert Hardy was in it you'd expect it to be a decent piece of work.

The Three Swans is reputed to have a most famous patron some 350 years ago. On June 13th 1645 the Royalist army of Charles 1st were at Market Harborough when there was an attack by parliamentarians which led to the battle of Naseby a couple of days later. Before the battle took place the King himself is reported to have taken refreshment at the inn.

As with most Olde Inns, there is a rich and varied history, but the Three Swans has a published author, a ghost and a popular local figure all in one. Mr Fothergill has really given this cosy pub even more character than it had already, with even the young local barmen having a tale or two.
Enough history for now, next time we'll wrap up with some drunken tales and our thoughts on the evening.

The Three Swans, Market Harborough., part 1

15th December 2012

Well, that's me outside The Three Swans in Market Harborough last Monday night. We made it at last! However, lack of preparation on our part meant that we had no-one turn up to meet us again, but we'll go into that later. But we still had a good night (even though my son couldn't have a drink as he was driving. More on that later too). Now back to the pub.

The Three Swans was one of five coaching inns in Market Harborough (the other four being The Hind Hotel, The Peacock, The Angel and The Talbot) and was first mentioned in a will in 1517. Originally known as The Swanne, it changed it's name in 1790 to The Three Swans, presumably because the original sign, with one Swan (described as "the finest in all England"), had two more added in 1780.

The story goes that, at some point in the 18th century, a gentlemen in red hunting dress climbed out of a window upstairs during a wild party and sat on one of the swans on the sign which promptly snapped and fell to the ground taking the poor unfortunate hunter with it where the beak, "reportedly" , pierced his heart and he died!

So, yeah, No drinking. On the mother of all pub crawls, I wasn't drinking... It was my dads birthday, and mum was due in hospital on the Wednesday for her second hip replacement. Things have been pretty hectic just lately. I've been working all hours for a promotion, and dad has been taking care of mum, so YOIS pub crawl had been pushed to the back of our minds/lives, so as a likkle birthday treat for dad, I offered to drive just so we could get in another pub before mums op, and it was his birthday, and I had to be up at sparrow fart the next day as I was on earlies, so driving did seem the obvious choice. I really wanted to visit the next pub, so if that meant being on the wagon, so be it, but, with Gambrinus, the patron saint of beer, as my witness, I vow, from this moment on, never to be sober on this pub crawl again. I have let you down, and I have let myself down, and for that, I am truly sorry....

(sniff)

ANYWAY!!! Moving on... we were on a limited time-scale  as we didn't get there til 8, so I got straight on with some photos and sightseeing, and the place is HUGE! we parked at the back of the pub, and had to walk past a restaurant, hotel, dining area, and down a drive way to get to the front door. It's a very well kept, attractive place. We arrived at night, and all the Christmas decs lit up the courtyard, all very picturesque. So far, so good...

Back to the history. Nah, screw that for a bit. As Clint said, the place looks pretty good, even if it was dark. To draw a comparison with the Bears Head, Brereton, these were both coaching inns (admittedly, one in the middle of nowhere and one in a busy town centre) which had now had hotels built on to them, but, where the owners had made a complete pigs ear of the Bears Head, this pub has been done skilfully and tastefully. 

The Restaurant, patio and general appearance of the building are very pleasing to the eye and fit in with the surrounding buildings very well. The upstairs has been modelled in keeping with the rest of the place, even showing a cut-out in the wall of the original wattle and daub plaster at the top of the stairs. (we both had a good look, and we had a good chat about it, however, we both neglected to get a picture) (what a pair of numpties! We've gone there to record stuff, seen something interesting, chatted about it and then NOT took a picture!)

Any road up! (local South Derbyshire saying). We went in, ordered a beer (a Coffee) and had a look round. What I liked about the place was that it was like a proper pub, not too many customers (it was Monday night) but it was warm, friendly and welcoming.There were about 5 or 6 people in, one being a chap stood at the bar on his own. After a few minutes I took the bull by the horns and introduced myself. Turned out to be a good move...........

 We got settled in for the night, propping up the bar, with a coffee, (a beer) and started to introduce ourselves to the locals. We had some good and bad luck, as the local history expert had stood us up, (which may be a recurring theme) but we were stood next to a local, lived there all his life, and knew a little bit of the life and times of the Three Swans. What did surprise me, was the knowledge of the two young bar staff, both twenty some-things, and both of them had picked up some tales from somewhere, and both proved to be interesting and knowledgeable. They told us of the ghost, Mr Jonathan Fothergill.

Spooky!!! Well, we've been doing this for four hours now, believe it or not, and we've consumed too much Stella to carry on tonight (it's four minutes past midnight) so we'll leave it at that and carry on in a day or two with more details of Mr Fothergill, more history and a couple of laughs. In the meantime we'll have yet another Stella. Cheers!!!!!

About time too........

Tuesday 4th December

Hello everyone. Sorry you've not heard from us for a while but we've had a few problems, some with family health and some with places we wanted to go but couldn't yet (although we will get there). Still, I won't bore you with these minor details. Suffice to say that we have finally decided on our second visit and we are going to...........................The Three Swans at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. 

We are going next Monday, 10th December, (my birthday as it happens) and expect to be there around 8:00 pm. Anyone who lives in that area and reads this is most welcome to come along and have a chat, a couple of beers and, hopefully, a few laughs. 

After the visit we will post our thoughts pretty quickly as I'm going to be spending some time at home for the next few weeks.

It's nice to see we've had over 1000 views of our blog now but a little disappointing that we've only had THREE comments (all good) so we'd like to see a few more, even if you think we're a pair of numpties.

Anyway, if you can make it on Monday, come along. If you can't, unlucky. Maybe we'll be in your neck of the woods next time. Cheers!

Delays

DELAYS

Monday 29th October

Hi everyone, I thought I’d better let you know what’s happening and why there’s been no info from us for a couple of weeks.

We decided on a pub for our next visit and contacted them with a view to going on the 28^th October but the pub was in a bit of a transition. The manager had left and the place was being run by agency staff with a new manager starting on 27^th October, the day before our planned visit. In view of this we decided to postpone this pub for a while to let the new  guvnor settle in etc..

So we picked another pub to visit. I called but could not speak to the manager, so left a message. I also e-mailed but, up to now, have received no reply. Tonight I spoke to the secretary of the local Historical society and now we seem to be getting somewhere. Nothing has been firmly decided as to when we go, as yet, but as soon as we have plans in place you can be sure we will let you all know.

Thanks for your patience and speak to you soon,

Cheers

P.S.

Wednesday 17th October

Hello again. Just a quick word. It has been brought to our attention that, in order to post a comment on our blog, people have to register with the Blogger website and I can understand how many folk can't be arsed with that (which may explain why we are not getting many comments) (or folks just think we're crap) so we are thinking of maybe also posting on Facebook where readers can comment as often as they like.

The only trouble with this is that Facebook doesn't offer us the same facilities. We won't get a count of how many people are viewing the blog nor any idea where they are from. On Blogger we can see how many people are looking and from which countries. For instance, as I write there are a couple of people in the UK and one in Argentina reading our last post and we've had our first views from Spain and Italy this week. I'd hate to lose this aspect of it.

So while we discuss how we are going to proceed I've set up an e-mail address that you can write your comments on stephengardnerlcfc@hotmail.com If  I get a few mails I'll try to answer them, time permitting. Anyway, thanks for listening,

                            Cheers,

                                        Steve

The Bears Head Brereton, Summary...

Friday 12th October

Well it's been a few days (sorry about the delay but it's sometimes hard for us to get together due to work commitments) and no sign of the ghost so we'll have to just wrap up this episode of our mission.

While in Brereton we went a walk around the village to get a feel of the place. We'd been told about the totem pole in the village and headed in that direction but, we'd only gone about 50 metres (bloody metres..... I wanted to put YARDS but, being an old fart, my son reckons nobody will know what I'm talking about) when we came to an old gatehouse that had been converted into a pretty cool looking house. There was a sign saying CHURCH pointing through the gateway so I told Clint I was just going to have a quick look up the lane. So, off I went, thinking Clint was following....

But I wasn't! I could see the park was 50 feet away, and through e-mail correspondence I had heard that there was a totem pole (?) carved with all the local highlights, so I took a walk over and got some good pictures. (I would like to add, that as a tourist, I felt obliged to take pictures for this blog, but I got loads of funny looks from the locals) (I don't think that was anything to do with taking pictures, you get funny looks everywhere........ha ha!!). Check out the pics of the totem pole, and if you can see it, the bears head is on there.

I then took the path to the church, bumped into a local who told me that the old Brereton hall, which was up until recently a school, has just had a wealthy banker move in who spent a fortune on the hall and it is now a magnificent stately home, unfortunately, it's closed to the public, so no pics from us, so I have stolen one from another site.

Above: Stolen Brereton Hall Pic








Left: Guess what? Totem Pole!





Below: Totem Close up showing The Bears Head

 I soon realised Clint wasn't following but carried on regardless. I mean, The Church couldn't be far, could it? (I should point out that I live quite a sedentary life, I sit down all day at work and my idea of exercise is fetching a beer from the fridge). After about 10 minutes, (it seemed like half an hour) I came to a fork in the road with a sign saying CHURCH pointing right. I thought "how much bloody further?" But it wasn't far. I came upon a lovely church, very quiet, very picturesque and nowhere near any roads. I walked round the churchyard looking at the gravestones and some were dated early 16th century and some were that old they had weathered to just plain stones. I walked all the way around the church and as I came back to the front I met Clint who had eventually caught me up......

Yeah... So he was milling about the church, I thought, "sod this", tried the door, it opened, stuck my head in, then went all trigger happy...

"HELLO!!!!"

Then a polite little "hello?" replied, it was a very nice lady named Alison who helped out in the church, I explained what we were doing in Brereton and she very enthusiastically gave us a tour of the church, which dated back to 1297!

So my son barged into the church and accosted the lovely Alison. Actually she was very helpful and told us all about the history of the church and the village, and a bit about the Breretons. She showed us around the church and we had a chat, at one point bemoaning the fact that the village no longer had a Post Office or shop, and that all they had now was the pub, the Church and a school. I pointed out that that was all a community needed, somewhere to sin, somewhere to repent and somewhere to learn the difference!

CONCLUSIONS

I want to mention a couple of things, very briefly, I am saddened how the the Bears Head is now just "generic eatery of Brereton", but also, I am very excited that we have actually done it! Back when we had this idea, drunk, in the back of my dads garden, we were wondering about the state of pubs today. My dad thinks that the one of the reasons that's hastened the  decline of the British pub is because of the smoking ban, Me, I have a different view...

While we were walking back from the church to the pub, we bumped into a couple of people, walking the dog, some girls on horses, etc, and as they passed, they kept themselves to themselves, one elderly couple passed us walking their dog, and they remained silent like all others we passed. I politely and cheerfully said "Hello!", and they, almost surprisingly, replied politely and we had a nice chat about the local area. What struck me, and what my original argument was about the decline of the British pub, is that people don't socialise any more.  With the advent of Facebook and Twitter, and the world in our pockets on apples, blackberries, or any other fruit, we don't need the meeting place of the pub any more. We are completely connected, 24 hours a day, so catching up with yer mates on Friday after work is not how its done any more. a persons social calender can be organised on-line for the foreseeable future without ever actually talking to anyone. Maybe the very thing that I am connecting with you now is the very reason I'm not enjoying a pint of mild with you at the bar....

So that's the first of forty. I have mixed feelings about it really. It's nice to get under way but it was disappointing in some respects. And then again I really enjoyed the experience. We met some new people, most of whom were nice (I have one niggle about one of the people we met but I'll keep that to myself, we're not doing this to slag people off), learned some interesting stuff and had too much to drink, which all adds up to a good night out.

The biggest disappointment was The Bears Head itself, not because the place was rubbish, but because it's not the place I wanted it to be. I, foolishly as it turned out, expected it be full of interesting old guys with stories to tell, but it seems the pub has moved more with the times than I have! I've not been disheartened by this and I shall be full of the same expectations on our next visit which we shall announce within the next few days. In the meantime keep your glasses filled and give a toast to our ancestors who invested the time and energy to develop the nectar that we all enjoy today (and wouldn't the world be a poorer place without it)!!!!!!!!!! 

Cheers!!

Please leave your thoughts as either comments, friend requests, or whichever way you can....

The Bears Head Brereton part 2

Thursday 4th September

So we had had a pretty poor show at the Bears Head, and started to think forward to the next visit. I was browsing the web on my laptop, in the pub (how times have changed eh? When I started visiting my local, you were given earache for watching the telly!), I was glued to the screen, and hadn’t noticed my dad had gone outside for a fag. 

When I finally tore myself away from the screen, I glanced around, and happened to look toward the adjacent table. I gave a polite nod, and in turn received a polite reply in the form of a chat. As all at the table were elderly (ish), I thought they might find the old cards interesting and, as it turned out, the elderly couple were local to the area for 60 years! We had struck local-knowledge-and-pub-going-history gold!

I’d gone outside for a smoke and when I came back Clint was pestering some nice people at the next. I went to rescue them and drag my son away but we had a bit of a chat and that’s how me met Dick Heyhoe, his wife Wendy, his nephew Jonathan and Jonathans wife, Florence. Dick and Wendy have lived in the village for 60 years or so and his nephew and niece-in-law live in Ireland but were over for a visit.  They told us the previous landlord had been a man called Roberto Tarquini, of Italian descent, (who married Margaret, one of two daughters of Arthur Whiteley, the landlord before that), and who had been an excellent host with many a convivial evening being had there, including one New Years Eve when Mr Tarquini (who, sadly, had had a leg amputated) danced a little too vigorously with the end result being he went one way and his false leg went the other which caused much hilarity but all taken in good spirit!

I’d like to butt in here, Wendy told us she remembered when present owners first took over and took down the old Muzzled Bear pub sign hanging outside and replaced it with a picture of  a more “friendly bear”, Yogi Bear! The locals campaigned against the sign, and after 6 months, they took the friendly sign down, and just put up the words, “The Bears Head.” Very politically correct…

Which brings me on to a good tale. We spoke about how the pub came to be called The Bears Head as it had originally been The Boars Head.

We had heard a story which goes as follows:-

An un-named Brereton had been eating his evening meal in Brereton Hall when he was interrupted by one of his servants. The Master was so enraged by this that he ran after the servant who fled upstairs. The fact that the servant ran from him enraged the Master even more, so much so that, when he eventually caught the poor fellow, he beat him to death!!

The rest of the household staff and the villagers were so incensed by this it appeared to the Master of the hall he was in danger of being strung up! So the fearful man fled to London to confess to the King and ask his pardon. The King, however, was not in a forgiving mood and ordered the Master to be confined to the Tower for three days where he was to design and manufacture a muzzle for a bear.

After the said three days the man was brought before the King with his muzzle and was then thrown into a pit with a bear on the understanding that if he could attach the muzzle to the bear before he was killed the King would let him go which, fortunately for the Brereton, he managed to do and was released. Since that time the pub became the Bears Head and a muzzled bear features on the Brereton coat of arms.

We asked the Heyhoes if this was the correct story and they said it was pretty much what they had heard too.

However………

There are other theories. One is that a member of the Brereton family was too outspoken and the King ordered him muzzled, another is that Henry VIII ordered the bear muzzled after a William Brereton, Kt., Chamberlain of Chester and Groom of the Chamber to the King, was executed on 17^th May 1536 (along with 4 other men including George Boleyn, Annes’ brother) for “adulterous association” with Anne Boleyn. Two days later Anne herself was executed.

The third is that it was just a play on words. Any name that remotely looked or sounded like “bear” (Barnard, Baring, Barnes, Beardsley e.g.) became associated with the bear and Brereton was close enough to Bear for the association to be formed. According to The Art of Heraldry by A. C. Fox-Davies, heraldic bears were normally muzzled. As there are no pictures or descriptions of the Brereton bear without a muzzle it may have always had one, but I prefer to believe the murder story!

I went outside for yet another fag and met a guy called Tom.

Dad came back from a fag break and said he’d been talking to a guy outside called Tom. Dad had asked him if he knew any tales about the place and he’d mentioned a ghost. I immediately asked Dick and Wendy if they had heard about it and Wendy said yes. It was the ghost of a little girl who had appeared in the pub numerous times in the past but the local vicar, Charlie Shepherd had carried out an exorcism in c. 1961 and the phantom had not been seen since.

Tom also said that he had a photograph allegedly depicting the ghost in the pub and he would mail me a copy. Unfortunately this has not arrived but if it does in the future I will share it with you.

So hopefully, we’ll be able to bust this ghost, and we’ll have some more on the village of Brereton, some of the sights, and wrap up our visit, all next time….

By the way, we're really chuffed that so many people have looked at this, and from all over the world (Western Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada and the USA) but it would be even better if we had a few comments. Tell us what you think, good or bad, where you're from etc., and share with your friends. Cheers!!