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The original
house was at the corner of Gordon Road and Pym Street and was
cleared away in February 1974 as part of the St Ann's redevelopment.
Unlike now, old pub names were considered a benefit and a new
pub on Beacon Hill Rise named the Peveril was opened in December
1975 to carry on the tradition. But where does the name come
from?
The pub
is named after William Peveril who, some say, was the son of
King William I.
William Peveril was given the task of building the first Nottingham
Castle in 1068. This castle was a wooden affair sited on the
Castle Rock (what a strange coincidence!).
It was strategically useful as it controlled an important crossing
point of the Trent at the present Trent Bridge. Don’t forget
the area between the Castle and the Trent was then only meadow
land forming the floodplain (this is even before Jimmy Sirrell
took over the Magpies).
The Peveril
connection does not end there. William’s (probable) grandson,
also named William, held the castle a little later.
As an important landowner and castle custodian the younger William
got himself involved in one of England’s many civil wars.
This one was between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda.
William came out on Stephen’s side, which was a little
unfortunate as Matilda’s forces at Lincoln captured him
in 1141.
Matilda gave Nottingham Castle to one of her coterie, William
Paganel (there seems to be a lot of Williams knocking around
in our history).
The following year, William Peveril won back his castle whilst
the hapless William Paganel was away and promptly threw all
of Matilda’s supporters out of Nottingham. This was a good
move, as Stephen won the war.
Things then
became quiet for William Peveril but in 1153 he was implicated
in the death of Ranulf, Earl of Chester. Some say he was the
one who administered the poison.
In 1155 it appears King Henry II (Stephen was dead by now, please
keep up) was having a spot of trouble and marched north.
This worried William who ran back from Yorkshire (I don’t
know what he was doing there) and hid in Lenton Abbey pretending
to be a monk.
Henry heard of William’s suspicious behaviour around the
death of Ranulf and arrived in Nottinghamshire to discuss this
with William. William felt it more prudent to move again and
he did; to where, no one knows.
So as you
see, a simple pub name in the St Ann's District of Nottingham
remembers an illustrious family of Nottingham’s early history.
Many pub names have such stories behind them, so present pub
owners who change the names of their houses on a whim do so
with a disgraceful disregard to Nottingham’s history and
traditions.
There is
a suitable pub name in Folkingham, Lincolnshire for such philistines,
the Whipping Post.
Mark
Andrew Pardoe
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