We’ve all heard stories about little lads being left outside a pub with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps while their dad was inside downing a pint or three.
Well, that’s exactly what would happen to my younger brother Tony and I, many years ago, on a Sunday lunchtime in a corner of Shrewsbury that occupies a special place in my heart.
And that’s partly why it was such a very great pleasure to revisit the Dog & Pheasant the other night.
Happy memories of growing up in Castlefields intermingled with knock-about, good-time, "everyone-join-in!" acoustic folk and pop being provided by the musicians in the corner.
So there I was - accompanied by our youngest son, Alex - listening to singer-guitarist Chris Greve plus his mate Tim on fiddle and other friends on percussion and ukulele. And whilst thoroughly enjoying the music, I couldn’t help but remember myself as a 10-year-old, sitting out the back yard of this pub with Tony, drinking Vimto or Coca-Cola, munching crisps, and (because this is what my brother and I did back then) coming up with ideas for our latest comic-books.
From as far back as I can remember, Tone and I made our own comics, magazines and newspapers out of drawing books, crayons, felt-tip pens, cuttings and Sellotape, glue, sometimes poster paints or watercolours, stickers we’d bought from WHSmith, and of course our John Bull Printing Outfit (something only those of a certain age will remember as an initially exciting but ultimately disappointing Christmas gift).
My very first comic was called Forward. Tone’s first comic was called Budgerigar.
Later there was Pogi (whose central character was a little dog) and later still (and rather more ambitiously) the International Railway Gazette.
The village at the centre of my model railway layout (Minbury) had its own newspaper, the Minbury Mail, and Tony’s village, built around his Matchbox Motorway, was called Wrekinville, and that too had its own newspaper. Well, of course it did! We had to make our own entertainment in those days!
Thoughts of watercolour paints, felt-tip pens and sticky tape scuttled away as Chris Greve and his mates urged everyone to sing along to the classic folk song, The Wild Rover. His deep Canadian lead vocal is compelling.
Chris and his chums serve up a real mix of songs. At one point they broke into The Monkees I’m A Believer, at another point Chris started to sing a Green Day song and our Alex (who knew all the words) started singing along too. As we soaked up the music, I thought to myself: This is a great pub.
Tucked away in Severn Street, the Dog & Phasant's first recorded landlady (in 1868) was a Mrs Mary Besant, and I cannot help wondering if she might have been an ancestor of the Mr Besant who ran a barber's shop in Victoria Street just round the corner and used to cut our hair when we were little boys.
A couple that local folk might remember are Gordon and Pat Bannister who ran the pub from 1968 until 1971. Gordon had been a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber in World War Two. I wish I'd known this when I was a lad; I could have interviewed him for the Minbury Mail.
Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.
No comments:
Post a Comment