Pubs remain a familiar feature on our high streets. Although the oldest date back centuries, most of them are no more than 150 years old.
A pub is a pub is a pub, right? This may be the case today. But historically there were various types of licensed premises depending on the types of alcohol they were permitted to sell.
Most pubs were only allowed to sell beer or cider. They became known as ale or beer houses, or cider houses in cider-drinking areas. They had very basic facilities. The authorities often regarded these places with suspicion as being dens of trouble.
But like the men depicted in novelist Flora Thompson's 19th-century Candleford, most customers came to forget the day's woes and to gossip over a glass of beer.
Rather posher were inns and taverns. Any difference between the two has long been forgotten. Here you could obtain wines and spirits, and perhaps a
