Pub Odyssey 51

Wednesday 28 December:  THE PLUME OF FEATHERS, TEWIN (Chris Haden, Mike Horsman, Gerry Murphy, Elvis Pile, Bob Polydorou, David Room, Steve Stott, John Westwood)

COMMENT:  Last pub of the year, in our local, and only one week missed all year on the Odyssey which is pretty good in my opinion. In the summer months we may have been down to three attenders, or even only two on one occasion, but our grit and resolution saw us through. Apart from being the last meeting of 2011, Pub Odyssey 51 had another distinction, for the first time a female person turned up- Anne picking up Mike to take him to Bury St Edmunds, actually to another pub.  Its a hard life when you're retired.

The Plume of Feathers is an ancient pub which celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1996.  It isn't quite certain that this was accurate; the Plume probably, but not certainly, was the one alehouse "allowed" to Tewin by the county justices in 1596.  The building appears to have seventeenth century elements.  In 1712 it was the Crown and Feathers, with two cottages attached, but by 40 years later it had adopted its present sign.   After some troubled times and changes of ownership it has settled down in the last few years to be as pleasant and apparently as successful as any of the 51 pubs we have visited this year.  Stability of management has in my opinion a lot to do with this- Nigel and Gary have been there a long time now.

The Plume of Feathers is yet another royal emblem (like the Rose and Crown, the White Hart, the Red Lion, the Blue Lion, the Golden Lion, the White Boar, etc etc.).  The Plume of Feathers is a reference to the Prince of Wales, originally to the plume of three ostrich feathers worn by Edward, the Black Prince (1330-1376) an exceptional military leader who had many victories over the French in the Hundred Years War but who became the first Prince of Wales not to succeed to the throne when he died a year before his father, King Edward III.