This Morland sign is on Bridge Street in Reading, close to St Mary’s church and the old centre of Reading.

There is a web page showing Morland pubs at http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Morland_&_Co_Ltd_Pubs. It shows that Morland was once the size of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom with pubs from Leicester to Southampton and from Somerset to Surrey. The Be at One cocktail Bar was then called the Cross Keys.

Dusham took over, and then refurbished, the Nags Head in 2012, and ran it until August 2019. He often carried out winter upgrade work. As a result the large island beer garden has been transformed. The Nags Head has its best months in the Summer with the River Thames and Nags Head Island being big attractions.

The Nags Head has been taken over by Brakspear. The name Brakspear rhymes with Shakespeare and originated with the Brakspear Brewery in Henley-on-Thames. They have 130 pubs.

The Nags Head is closed for refurbishment during the winter months.

I noticed today that the sign at the White Horse Pub in Ock Street has changed from the head of a white horse to The White Horse – the ancient monument near the Ridgeway, after which the Vale of the White Horse is named.

The pub has been there since at least 1830, when mentioned in the Pigots Directory. It looks a typical Ock Street building and is one of only two pubs now along Ock Street. The Morris Dancers used to have far more to dance at.

I don’t know what sort of horse the original landlord of the White Horse intended. Wikipedia says ‘ White Horse: the sign of the House of Hanover, adopted by many eighteenth-century inns to demonstrate loyalty to the new Royal dynasty.’

But in these changed times the new pub sign looks very nice to me.

Last week I was at Wantage and passed the prominent sign of  the recently refurbished Abingdon Arms. The latest comment on facebook says ‘Brilliant honest to goodness PUB! Does exactly what it says on the tin. Wish there were more places like this and not the Slug and Cucumber brigade!’