The Gate Hangs Well pub sign, 1 High Park Avenue, Wollaston

Introduction

The photograph on this page of The Gate Hangs Well pub sign, 1 High Park Avenue, Wollaston 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 Gate Hangs Well pub sign, 1 High Park Avenue, Wollaston

Image: © P L Chadwick Taken: 27 Sep 2008

Wollaston formerly a village but now, more or less, part of the town of Stourbridge is very well off for public houses. This is the sign of The Gate Hangs Well which states it is an Enterprise Inns Free House. The name is common in the Midlands, and sometimes found as The Hanging Gate and The Gate Hangs High. It is thought to be connected to a pub's proximity to a church gate, toll gate or town gate, so perhaps there was a toll gate around here in the past. The sign in rural areas is sometimes a miniature five barred gate. In this case, it looks like the portcullis to a castle rather than a conventional gate. On some signs there is also a verse, usually "The gate hangs well, and hinders none. Refresh and pay, and travel on". Originally the none was non and presumably the old pronuciation meant it rhymed with on. Image

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