Dick Turpin connection for new-look pub (From York Press)

Dick Turpin connection for new-look pub

9:44am Thursday 19th April 2012 in Pints of View By Elena Cresci

A PUB in York city centre that closed last year is to embrace local history when it reopens with a new name and a new look later this year.

The Little John pub in Castlegate is set to reopen as the Blue Boar, the name of a long-lost Castlegate pub, where Dick Turpin’s body was taken after he was hanged at Tyburn on Knavesmire in 1739.

Enterprise Inns, the pub’s owners, said they hoped the new name would acknowledge and celebrate the history of the Blue Boar. A spokeswoman confirmed Enterprise Inns was reapplying for a licence and said there would be refurbishment work, but no start date had yet been confirmed.

The original Blue Boar is understood to have closed in 1775 but York historian Hugh Murray’s Directory of York Pubs lists it and the Little John as different venues.

His book says the Little John was previously known as the Robin Hood as far back as the 1700s, but changed its name to Little John in 1893.

At the time of the change, a sign was placed in the pub, reading: “Robin Hood is dead and gone, now come and drink with Little John.”

Matthew Grant, chairman of the York branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) welcomed the pub’s return.

He said: “We are pleased that the pub is reopening and are hopeful that it can rebuild its customer base to the level it had when it was a popular city-centre pub.”

If you know the exact whereabouts of the original Blue Boar, email newsdesk@thepress.co.uk