King Charles III, formerly Chequers and Squirrels Drey, in Sporle near Swaffham; Queen Victoria; and West Norfolk's royal pub name connections
Bar Man by Jeff Hoyle
I first went in the pub in Sporle near Swaffham to play a domino match in the Massingham League in the early 80s when it was called the Chequers, a name it had sported since opening around 1794.
By 1997 it had moved a bit up market and was trading as the Squirrel’s Drey, before becoming the Peddars in 2012 and hitting the sweet spot as both a village local and an attractive place to eat. A serial runner up in the West Norfolk Pub of the Year, it was a blow when it changed hands and reverted to the Squirrels Drey.
More recently it was the Sporle Village Pub and now it has taken on a new lease of life and a new name, becoming the first pub in the country to be called The King Charles III. I suppose it is both topical and appropriate, being close to Sandringham and it continues a long tradition of pubs in the area taking names with a royal connection.
In Sedgeford, the King William IV was one of many to take the name of the king at the time when the licencing rules were relaxed and for a payment of two guineas per annum, anyone could open a beer house. His successor, Queen Victoria may have more streets, buildings, towns and pubs named after her than any other monarch and we still have the Queen Victoria up in Snettisham.
George is a name with royal connections as well as being a dragon slayer and intriguingly, the George at Methwold added IV to its name, sometime after he came to the throne in 1820. By 1845 it had become the George and Dragon before reverting back to the George.
The large hotel in Swaffham also flip-flopped between the George and Dragon and its current name, the George Hotel. Many will remember the Princess Royal on Blackfriars Street in Lynn. This opened just after the birth of Queen Victoria’s eldest child daughter, also called Victoria. Before the birth of her brother, she was heir presumptive to the throne.
If she had been male, she would probably have been awarded the title Prince of Wales, and it seems that the pub was rather too quick off the mark, assuming Vicky would become Princess of Wales and taking that name, but she became the Princess Royal on the birth of Edward, who did take the title.
Interestingly, the eldest son of Edward also had a pub named after him, the Albert Victor in Castle Acre. He would also have become the Prince of Wales and then King if he had lived long enough, but succumbed to the great flu pandemic of 1890.
Perhaps we were lucky, as he has been linked both to the Cleveland Street Scandal, which involved a homosexual brothel and also accused of being Jack the Ripper, though both these claims have been widely discredited.
Another child of Queen Victoria was also taken as the name of a pub in Lynn. Prince Arthur was her 7th child who went on to have a fine career, becoming amongst other things, the Governor General of Canada.
The pub named after him stood more or less opposite what was the Tudor Rose.
A bit more digging will lead you to the Queen of Bohemia, the Queen of Prussia, Queen Caroline, Princess of Wales and no end of former Lynn pubs with names inspired by royalty. However, in the interests of fairness and balance, I should draw your attention to the Tumbledown Dick, once in Pott Row and named after Oliver Cromwell’s successor as Lord Protector of England.