The Bladebone Inn is a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

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 Roq ...

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Bucklebury Bucklebury is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England, about north-east of Newbury and north of the A4 road. The parish has a population of 2,116, but the village is much smaller. Bucklebury Common, with an area of over , is one ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

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. Etym ...

and

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

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 of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

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'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

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 with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) 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 pinkis ...

and hangs from the front of the pub as the

pub sign A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

. 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 1015. The village is in the Kennet Valley and bounds Hampshire to the south. It is approximately from Newbury, Basingstoke ...

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 plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest division ...

. 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. 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 Grade I l ...

on 23 October 1957. Stanley Bayliss of

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...

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