Pub Odyssey 6

Tuesday 8 February 2011: WHITE HORSE, WELWYN VILLAGE (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Bob Polydorou, Steve Stott, Andrew Swift, Roger Toms)

COMMENT: This is a nice pub with five different good beers (the Rose and the Plume might take note that it is possible to get beyond two good beer options) and in food terms we got lucky.  The food is good but restaurant-type prices; luckily for us they had a "2 for 1" main course deal so everyone was happy.

The White Horse is a 17th century coaching inn in a village famous for pubs; indeed Welwyn village used to be in the Guinness Book of Records as having more pubs proportionate to population than anywhere in England. It isn't now, but it still has a lot of pubs.  In fact they have been drinking in Welwyn for 2,000 years.  Roman wine jars from the Mediterranean were discovered in Prospect Place, so the pubs, old as they are, represent what might be called the modern movement.

The White Horse is a very common pub name (in fact there are more pubs of this name within 5 miles of Tewin than any other name).  The white horse was the emblem of the Saxon Kings of Wessex and is the traditional emblem of Kent.  A galloping white horse was also a heraldic sign of the Royal house of Hanover, Kings of Britain and Ireland from 1714.  Since pubs go strongly for royalty (both the Rose and Crown and the Plume of Feathers are names connected with royalty) this meant the White Horse was a winner all round in the pub names stakes.  Also, with a lot of Guilds favouring the white horse in their coats of arms, it was particularly popular as a pub name in London, where even now there are more than 40 pubs called the White Horse.