Tuesday 15 November; THE BULL, WATTON AT STONE (Malcolm Allen, Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, David Room, Rupert Stanley, Andrew Swift, Jeff Tipper, John Westwood)
COMMENT: A big turnout for a recently renovated pub; in fact a much bigger turnout than I had expected and booked for but the pub coped well and the food and beer were good (Woodforde Wherry available, first time I had seen it on the Odyssey I think).
"The Bull" sounds the most English and agricultural of pub names but it isn't necessarily so. In fact it very likely relates to that very un-English institution, the papacy. The first "Bull" pubs, in the Middle Ages, were apparently referring to a papal bull, the lead seal attached to papal edicts (Latin bulla). Nor was this the only pub name which referred to the Pope. Any pub called the "Cross Keys" is showing a papal symbol. St Peter, the first Pope, is often shown holding the keys to the Kingdom of God. For some reason "Bulls" and "Cross Keys" survived the Protestant Reformation in England whereas a lot of pubs called "The Pope's Head" or "The Cardinal's Head" hastily changed their names to "The Kings Head" or "The Bishop's Head" to avoid unpleasant questions from the authorities.
I don't know if the "Bull" at Watton refers to religion or agriculture but my bet would be religion. The pub is another Grade II listed building which goes back to the mid-16th century and has a "priests hole" hidden behind the large fireplace (a priest's hole was a hiding place for Catholic priests in the period in the sixteenth and seventeenth century when they had to move and preach in secret in England because persecuted and indeed often tortured and executed by the Protestant government.)
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