The Holly Bush (3) - sign, 2-4 Holly Street, Royal Leamington Spa
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Holly Bush (3) - sign, 2-4 Holly Street, Royal Leamington Spa by P L Chadwick as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The Holly Bush (3) - sign, 2-4 Holly Street, Royal Leamington Spa
Image: © P L Chadwick Taken: 12 Jun 2015
This public house, although appearing fairly modern, has one of the oldest and most traditional pub names. The Romans, who ruled the areas now known as England and Wales for almost 400 years, built long straight roads. Along these were built tavernae, from which our word tavern is derived. These tavernae supplied food, drink and overnight accommodation. Tavernae were required to display branches of evergreens outside, so as to identify themselves. This symbolised Bacchus, the Greek god of wine. From this was derived probably the earliest pub name the Bush, or more often the Old Bush or the Holly Bush, and similar names. It is believed that the old saying, "a good wine needs no bush", refers to these early names. Image Image
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Image Location
Latitude
52.292531
Longitude
-1.526083