A short series looking at the story behind the picture.
This is the Old Tigers Head at Lee and back in the 1830s it served not only as a place to buy a drink but also an unofficial post office.
It was because, “as the village of Lee Green had no official letter receiving office the publican took in the villager’s letters, which would be left at the pub till they were collected by James Eckford the local postman.
He would pick them up on his way from Eltham to Blackheath and put them in the post office there.
The villagers of Lee Green were probably quite happy to entrust their letters to James and the ‘Tiger’s Head’ on payment of a small fee for the trouble.
And some of this, of course went straight into James’s pocket.”*
I rather like the idea of a pub as a post office and in some rural areas with the closure of the sub post office along with village shop this may well be the moment that publicans diversify and offer their premises up for a variety of uses.
Looking at Jean's picture of the Old Tiger's Head the publican has already embraced that idea.
Now I don't have a date for it but we must be sometime around the 1880s.
It is a scene that could come straight out of Pickwick Papers with all the bustle, noise and confusion as the regular horse drawn bus arrives at the same time as the local carter with his motley group of passengers.
In rural areas the Carter was an important figure who transported everything from people to heavy goods around the countryside and into the nearby town and city taking orders and collecting all manner of items.
Many of these carters are listed in the local directories and some transformed themselves in to coach and bus companies later in the century.
And of course pubs and inns were focal points, so long after the golden age of the mail and stage coaches which finished a day's journey at an inn, many companies still used the pub as a popular staging point.
Nor is that quite all for I have a personal link with the Old Tigers Head at Lee because it was where I first discovered folk music, upstairs in the big room. Now the building that stands there today is not the one our passengers have arrived at which just leaves me to think there is a bit more detective work to do.
*From the lecture notes of Jean Gammons
Picture; the Old Tiger’s Head courtesy of Jean Gammons
It was because, “as the village of Lee Green had no official letter receiving office the publican took in the villager’s letters, which would be left at the pub till they were collected by James Eckford the local postman.
He would pick them up on his way from Eltham to Blackheath and put them in the post office there.
The villagers of Lee Green were probably quite happy to entrust their letters to James and the ‘Tiger’s Head’ on payment of a small fee for the trouble.
I rather like the idea of a pub as a post office and in some rural areas with the closure of the sub post office along with village shop this may well be the moment that publicans diversify and offer their premises up for a variety of uses.
Looking at Jean's picture of the Old Tiger's Head the publican has already embraced that idea.
Now I don't have a date for it but we must be sometime around the 1880s.
It is a scene that could come straight out of Pickwick Papers with all the bustle, noise and confusion as the regular horse drawn bus arrives at the same time as the local carter with his motley group of passengers.
Many of these carters are listed in the local directories and some transformed themselves in to coach and bus companies later in the century.
And of course pubs and inns were focal points, so long after the golden age of the mail and stage coaches which finished a day's journey at an inn, many companies still used the pub as a popular staging point.
Nor is that quite all for I have a personal link with the Old Tigers Head at Lee because it was where I first discovered folk music, upstairs in the big room. Now the building that stands there today is not the one our passengers have arrived at which just leaves me to think there is a bit more detective work to do.
*From the lecture notes of Jean Gammons
Picture; the Old Tiger’s Head courtesy of Jean Gammons
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