ASPECTS OF HARVINGTON'S HISTORY
A personal rendering

Coach & Horses
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PUBLIC HOUSES

AND INNS

OF HARVINGTON


This page deals with the various public houses and inns that have existed in the village. Information is still being gathered but The Coach and Horses is considered the oldest as the village's coaching inn. The Golden Cross was apparently once a farmhouse, The Shakespeare began at the commencement of the Railway, The Hop Pole perhaps started as a hedge tavern and ceased in the 1840's. Apparently, even Firbank in Stratford Road was for a time a tavern.

All villages on main routes would have had a coaching inn where travellers could stay the night and the hostlers would take care of or change horses. These inns would be spaced along main routes either in villages and sometimes as an isolated building on a main road or river crossing. Other small pubs or taverns set in back streets of towns, villages. There were cider or ale houses or off the beaten track in the countryside, sometimes called hedge taverns. They would usually just sell cider or ale and perhaps bread, ham or cheese. There are various terms for landlords of all these places such as: innkeeper, victualler, brewer, taverner, pub keeper, publican, distiller etc. Traditional public houses etc. are getting rarer as many thousands are forced to close. There has been a revolution in our drinking habits and many of the survivers are being converted into gastro pubs or restaurants. Harvington is fortunate in still possessing two traditional pubs, the Coach and Horses and the Golden Cross.


  The Coach & Horses      The Golden Cross      The Hop Pole      The Shakespeare      The White Horse