Fox Inn

A popular pub name, particularly in rural areas and more common when fox hunting was a source of entertainment for the ‘haves and have nots’ and was recorded in art and folk song and other forms of cultural diversion … and when pubs were often the rallying point for a hunt. In their book on the Pub Names of Britain, Dunkling and Wright quote a verse from one pub: “I am a crafty fox, you see, But there is no harm in me, My master has placed me here, To let you know he sells good beer.”

Often paired up with other animals – typically the Fox and Hounds or Fox and Goose – the name is disappearing gradually from licensed premises: meanwhile the only Plymouth Fox was a pub that sat at the end of Summerland Street, next door to the Lord Clarendon. Located on a site that sits about halfway down Colin Campbell Court the pub closed at the dawn of the twentieth century, while street itself disappeared in the re-planning of Plymouth after the Second World War.

Licensees

1873 - George Prettyjohn
1885 - Mrs G Prettyjohn
1890 - Mrs Mary Prettyjohn
1898 - William Feldwhere