Weird Pubs: England Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Shoe

It's true you must deposit a shoe. It is placed in its own little basket and hoisted on a pulley system to the ceiling. The shoeless customer receives a thick thermal sock in return. Should the shoe seem of low value, a £5 note must be placed in the shoe before ale is dispensed.
This same pub also enjoys regular snail racing but that's another story!

Answer: One can hang a full pint of ale unaided on the wallpapered walls

It's true - one can place a full pint of ale in a standard glass on the walls of this pub. It can hang there for a day or two before it will fall. Radio, television and newspaper journalists have all attended to examine and witness this phenomenon. One theory is that it is a mixture of wallpaper type, wallpaper paste, tobacco smoke and good old grime that does the trick. Locals aware that this old pub was once a manufacturing site for coffins believe it is simply magic.

Answer: The mummified hand of an eighteenth century card cheat

The answer speaks for itself - if you don't believe then go see it for yourself!

Answer: Beneath the tar are layers of human skin

The oldest pub in Bristol was once the haunt of notorious highwaymen and a centre for cockfighting and bare knuckle fighting. I can find no reference as to why human flesh should be layered beneath the tarred surface but substantial offers have been made to purchase the door, and all refused.

Answer: A Hot Cross Bun

The poor woman's son failed to return home from sea duty on Good Friday. She had baked him some hot cross buns (a traditional bake on Good Friday in England). To this day on Good Friday each year, a Royal Naval man will attend to add one more fresh hot cross bun to the 150+ blackened and fossilised buns adorning the ceiling of this most unusual pub.

Answer: A Roasting Spit and Dog Wheel

Set in the gigantic fireplace is a very rare example of a roasting spit powered by a "Dog Wheel". This is effectively a treadmill such as you might provide for your hamster today. In Tudor days, a dog (known as a turnspit) would be set in the wheel to turn the roast - the heat being unbearable to humans, but dogs, being of such little value then, would be sacrificed in order that the local clientele could dine. Allegedly, this is the origin of the phrase "it's a dog's life".

Answer: It bears the signatures of British and American airmen from the 2nd World War

The truth is the pub was a favourite "watering hole" for both British and American airmen during the 2nd World War. The countless signatures were written using candle smoke or lipstick.
The same pub was also where in 1953, Francis Crick informally announced that he and James Watson had unraveled the structure of DNA.

Answer: Marylebone Railway Station

He blew everything believing that Marylebone Station would bring customers to his grand hotel by the thousands. But alas, the site for this major station serving London with routes to the Midlands was shifted half a mile from the original intended site, rendering his venture grossly unprofitable.

Answer: A Giant Sea Tractor

The famous author, Agatha Christie, often stayed at this inn on the small tidal island off the Devonshire coast. Indeed I recall a t.v. episode using the hotel as a location, but cannot for the life of me recall which story. In days of yore, it was a haunt of smugglers and pirates (they weren't all in the Caribbean you know!).

Answer: An ancient female skull called George

Jorrocks was built in 1693 and was for centuries called "The George". In the 1980s, workmen discovered the skull in a pit beneath the cellar floor along with animal bones and pieces of old leather. The latter two items are explained by the presence at the site of a Sadlers who would discard off cuts of leather and animal carcasses from which hides had been removed.

But the skull, which is female, shows clear evidence of a murderous blow to the side and is ancient. Where is the rest of her body? Who killed her and is it this women's soul, disturbed by the modern day workmen that is responsible for poltergeist-like activity in the pub since its discovery?