Gerry Brooke looks at a new book about Thornbury's many pubs

Over the centuries the South Gloucestershire town of Thornbury has seen many hostelries, inns and public houses, come and go.

The earliest records, dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries, name the Heronceau and the Crookhorne, but no one is quite certain where these public houses actually stood.

Other early inns, whose locations are known, were the Antelope (White Hart), the Crispin, the Tigers Head and the quaintly named Widows Mantle.

The coming of the turnpike roads helped to boost the fortunes of many of the town’s inns.

Another long lost pub, the George, serviced the flying coach to Bristol and the Swan, still very much in business today, became a mail coach stop.

As ,local historian George Ford points out in his “Thornbury Pubs” the market town once had as many as 17 places where you could buy an alcoholic drink, but this soon diminished to around a dozen.

There were at last two malt houses in the town, one in a building opposite the Plough and another in Castle Street, as well as a mill where the malt was crushed.

Many pubs (actually “brewhouses”) made their own ale but there was one commercial brewery in the town, in Rock Street.

George, who grew up in Thornbury, knows many of the town’s hostelries intimately - after all his father ran the pub called the Barrel, where the lad would sometimes help out, for some 35 years.

And before that his grandfather, James, had been mine host.

Another pub in the town, the Wheatsheaf, had been run by his uncle Albert.

But George, who later went into the navy and then engineering, was warned off the 7 day a week trade by his father.

Throughout Victorian and Edwardian times family dynasties like the Ford’s tended to hold the licenses.

The Cullimore family, for instance, had their name over the door at the Horseshoe, the Plough, the Black Horse, the Royal George and the Crispin between 1841 and 1906.

And between 1870 and 1925 the Hall family were mine hosts at the White Lion.

In a busy market town like Thornbury many of the larger hostelries would double up as post offices, auction houses, coroner’s inquest rooms, public meeting places and even mortuaries.

At the Swan, for instance, it was common for election results to be announced to the crowd from the portico.

And the local carriers, who continued in business with people and parcels even after the coming of the railways, continued to ply their trade from the White Hart, the Royal George and the Porter Stores, which had stabling for four horses.

Despite these recessionary times Thornbury is still blessed with a plethora of pubs.

There are still nine in the area with three in the High Street alone.

If you are going drinking in Thornbury - or just generally interested in the development of the town - then this informative little book could well come in useful to settle a few arguments over a pint.

Or even to use in pub quiz.

Thornbury Pubs by George Ford is published by Amberley Publishing at £12.99