Two pints and a jar of honey, please!

Our local is The Ship, probably the oldest pub in our little village of Uphill and our neighbour, Weston-super-Mare. There’s certainly been a drinking establishment here for about three hundred years, if not longer. The first known name was The Crown which was here in 1713, but fifty years later it had changed to being The Lamb. Although we are now on the edge of a large town (Weston’s population is getting on for 87,000) the area round here was very rural, Weston itself was a very small fishing village, around the north end of Weston Bay. Uphill would have been very small, cottages, a few small farms, and The Lamb as the pub was now called, before being renamed again to The Ship.. Holiday makers were already coming to the area, so no doubt the pub, or inn as it was, would have accommodated them. The visitors would have been delighted, no doubt that the landlord of the pub had a bathing machine for hire!

Pubs and inns near the coast, especially a place which had access for ships to load and unload cargo and passengers, would have accommodation – available to visitors as well as mariners! Such establishments were perfect for smugglers, and The Ship, and the nearby inn The Dolphin (our old haunt) was well-known for having “Gentlemen” visiting – i.e. renowned for smugglers. Villagers would go up on the hill with lanterns, on the south side of the village at night, to guide ships in bringing goods such as brandy, tobacco and French lace, up the pill (the river). On one famous occasion the captain missed the tide and the ship was stranded on the mud!

The Ship is a large pub, and serves wonderful and delicious food, and keeps its beer very well. Our favourite beer, Otter, is on the pump, so we’re very happy Ship-mates! The landlady grows produce in the vegetable garden beyond the beer garden, and she also keeps bees. When you keep bees, you also have honey, which she has in jars, lined up on the shelf by the whiskies. I bought a jar of delicious Ship honey last night, as well as a couple of Otters! The honey is very pale and fine, and has a light, delicate, but lovely flavour. Delicious!!

Here is Kipling’s famous Smugglers Song, I checked ‘brishwood‘ in case it was a misprint, but no, it’s a Sussex dialect word for ‘brushwood’ ,a bundle of kindling used for the fire, and ‘woodlump‘ is the wood stack. I also learned when looking these up that the word smuggle/smuggler, has a long history – Danish ‘smugle’, Swedish ‘smug’, Anglo-Saxon ‘smugan’ and Icelandic ‘smug’.

A Smugglers Song

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet,
Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark –
Brandy for the Parson,
‘Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don’t you shout to come and look, nor use ’em for your play.
Put the brishwood back again – and they’ll be gone next day!

If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining’s wet and warm – don’t you ask no more!
If you meet King George’s men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you ‘pretty maid,’ and chuck you ‘neath the chin,
Don’t you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one’s been!

Knocks and footsteps round the house – whistles after dark –
You’ve no call for running out till the house-dogs bark.
Trusty’s here, and Pincher’s here, and see how dumb they lie –
They don’t fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!

If You do as you’ve been told, ‘likely there’s a chance,
You’ll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood –
A present from the Gentlemen, along o’ being good!
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark –
Brandy for the Parson,
Baccy for the Clerk.
Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie –
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!