Frome Times Past: The Sign of the Crooked Fish

THE names of British pubs are many and varied, ranging from the fairly common and sensible like The George or The Red Lion to the outlandish and seemingly inexplicable like The Swan with 2 Necks, (London), the Rattlebone Arms, (Sherston) The Kicking Donkey, (Rudge) or The World Turned Upside Down (London). 

Today we have pretty reasonable names here in Frome, The Crown, The Blue Boar, The Sun etc but this was not always the case; in years past we have had, The Boot, The Bird in Hand, Lamb & Lark, and the Wyredrawer’s Arms, but perhaps the most outlandish was an establishment known as the Crooked Fish.  

The only mention in print discovered so far comes from The Derby Mercury of 5 January 1753 when a John Adams of Yeovil was found hanging in the stable, not unreasonably this was judged to be a suicide and it was ordered that his body be buried in the common highway with ‘a stake drove through his body’. There are no further details and although Frome did not have a paper of its own until about a century later, the town is mentioned quite a few times in the Derby Mercury. 

So what else can we discover about it? 

Some years ago, the Churchwarden’s account books were photographed, put on CD and presented to Frome Museum. Dating back to 1627 and containing thousands of pages, these fascinating entries give a picture of the town and who owed what money to the church administrators. Unfortunately, the entries are arranged by surname rather than geographically and so it is pretty much pot luck finding an actual address.  

In this case we were able to discover that an Edward Deacon occupied a house, ‘by ye Crooked Fish’ in 1757 but there is no entry for the pub itself. Entries describing Deacon as living ‘by’ the pub continue until 1767 and by 1770 his dwelling house is described as, ‘near Long Street’ which is now part of Castle Street. That could be helpful placing the pub somewhere between Badcox and Whittox Lane, unless of course Deacon moved after 1767, in which case it would be of no use at all. The name does not appear on the map of 1774; perhaps it had closed by then – or had a different name. 

If we are unable to find the location what about the strange name? Surprisingly it was not unique. The lease of a pub called, the Crooked Fish in Minehead near the market place was granted in 1746, there was mention of one in Dover from 1829, still going in 1907 and this is interesting because the real name of the pub was the Dolphin Inn. According to the Bath Chronicle of 1931 there was a Crooked Fish at Gay’s Hill, Walcot, which opened in the 1840s and was later the Gay’s Hill Tavern. An article in the Bath Chronicle of January 1889 mentions the name and says, ‘presumably another Dolphin’ (there was more than one in Bath). Another mention of a Dolphin being known as the Crooked Fish comes from the report of a murder in Taunton in 1833 and there are almost certainly others. 

It was by no means unusual for a pub to become known by its nickname sometimes arising from a badly drawn sign board or an event which stuck in the minds of the regulars. 

Of the Dolphins, we have at least two to choose from. According to the churchwardens accounts there was one in the Market Place from around 1693-1723 after which it became known as the Old Dolphin with a new one opening up in Naishes Street before changing its name to the King of Prussia sometime before 1771. Could one or both of these be our long-lost Crooked Fish? Maybe something will turn up one day to let us know. (Before you all write in, the Dolphin (Farmer’s Arms) at Spring Gardens is not known before around 1841). 

The full story of all Frome’s pubs past and present can he found in The Historic Inns of Frome, £10 from the museum or Hunting Raven bookshop in Cheap Street. Very few copies left.

Mick Davis