IT is generally agreed that our inns and taverns originated in the tabernae or rest houses built by the Romans along the line of their military roads.

As such, they survived until the Middle Ages, with a holly or ivy bush suspended over the door to indicate their purpose.

These were ultimately replaced by painted wooden signs, usually with some local association.

in 1824, Blackburn, with a population of some 24,000 had 77 such signs, suspended over its cobbled streets to attract the eye of the thirsty passer-by – there were 15 along Northgate alone.

There were some with quaint names, too, inns known as The Gaping Goose, Mother Red Cap – an old ale wife – Dr Syntax – a Victorian cartoon character – Yuticks Nest – mill reachers-in were thus nicknamed – and The Flowing Jug. The Turk’s Head and The Blackamoor harked back to the times of the Crusades.

Blackburn even had a Paganini inn, which stood on the corner of Higher Cockcroft. Originally the Joiners’ Arms, it was renamed after the famous violinist stayed there in 1833, after performing a concert in Blackburn.

It was later taken over by Websters tea merchants, who had operated in King William Street for 139 years.

Then there was The Roast Beef in Grimshaw Park and Milton’s Head Inn In Nab Lane.

Over the years illiterate innkeepers and sign painters often unwittingly changed the names of local hostelries, as they couldn’t read.

Thus, the Baccanals became the Bag of Nails, the Enfante de Castille became the Elephant and Castle, the God Encompasses became the Goat and Compasses and the Boleyn Butchered became known as the Bull and Butcher.

There were some unusual pub names in Burnley, too, where it is recorded there were more than 100 licensed beer houses in the late 1860s.

The Fox and Pheasant, in Cow Lane, one of the nearest pubs to the stage door of the Empire Theatre, was owned by William Astley, a Nelson brewery in the 1880s.

The Baltic Fleet was a beer house in the 1870s and originally one of four cottages. Curiously, the Battle of the Baltic did not take place until 1801.

Then there was the Bee’s Wing, in Rodney Street, the Bird in the Hand in Lowerhouse Gate, the Canal Tavern, which catered for the bargees as they took coal down the Leeds Liverpool, and one of the last inns in town to brew its own ale and the Cheshire Cheese.

The Royal Butterfly in Hufling Lane was named after a prize bull which belonged to the Towneley family and was often frequented by miners from the colliery, then there was Poet’s Corner, in Curzon Street, the Pedestrian Inn, in Parker Lane, which was said to be haunted, The Owl in the Wood, the Jolly sailor, on the site of the old market hall and what must be one of the strangest names in the pub world, Help Me Through The World, in Milton Street.

Many of towns had Yates Wine Lodges, created by Peter Yates in the 1880s, who combined profit with philanthropy and sold only wine in preference to stronger beverages.The lodge at Blackburn was also known as the Dressmaker’s Arms and the Window Clinic.

The Old Bull in Church Street, described as being the centre of political and social life in Blackburn, was offered for sale by auction in 1932, following major improvements.

This included passenger and luggage lifts, as well as a food lift from the basement to the kitchen, up on the fourth floor, and was made by English Electric at Clayton-le-Moors.

One of the grandest buildings in Burnley until it was demolished in 1960 was the Yorkshire Hotel. Richard Boys the famed Burnley horse-drawn coach driver was known to be the landlord in the 1860s before the building was rebuilt in a more distinguished style.