Following widespread protest, the Scottish government will now determine whether to rename a 350-year-old tavern named The Black Bitch.
Brewers Greene King are planning to rename the pub in Linlithgow, West Lothian, The Willow Tree because to concerns that the current name would be seen as racist.
A petition to oppose the migration has garnered 11,000 signatures and more than 500 objections, with many people and historians claiming that the “Black Bitch,” a black female greyhound that appears in local folklore, has been connected to the town for hundreds of years.
Now that West Lothian Council has postponed the planning decision, it is known that Greene King has appealed to the government to have their intended name change approved.
Greene King claims that in order to prevent the name change, council members seek to persuade heritage managers to put the pub’s name on a protected listing.
It is not the council’s responsibility to manage the name of the establishment, the pub chain said. Historic Environment Scotland had been contacted and had not objected, according to the statement.
“This is a business choice to change the name and there are no significant planning grounds to withhold approval for the new signs,” a previous council report supporting the proposals said.
The removal of the name The Black Bitch, which alludes to a local folktale about a black, female greyhound who brought food to her famished master who was imprisoned on an island in Linlithgow Loch, has drawn dozens of complaints to the council.
The old Scottish town’s coat of arms depicts the black dog tethered to an oak tree, and there is still a monument honouring the local tradition there.
The West Lothian History and Amenity Society stated: “Linlithgow residents are happy to be known as ‘Black Bitches’; it is a word of endearment with no negative overtones. The name ‘Black Bitch’ has been linked with the town for over 700 years.
The word refers to a female dog that is correctly referred to as a bitch and is black in colour; there is no sexism or inappropriate language included. Greene King erroneously assumed things and interpreted the name to mean something that it does not.
According to its managing director, Greene King is working to become a really anti-racist organisation and has already altered the names of a number of their public houses in England since the titles have racial overtones, according to Linlithgow Civic Trust.
However, the moniker “The Black Bitch” is not racist. It depicts a female dog with a black coat correctly.
We see that Greene don’t appear to have any intentions to rename The Black Bull or The Black Horse as public establishments.
The Bhurtpore Inn in the vicinity of Nantwich, Cheshire, is another bar that has recently encountered objection to its name.
The name alludes to a little-known 200-year-old British military triumph in India by Lord Combermere.
The family-run bar has been named South Cheshire’s Pub of the Year a record nine times and has been included in CAMRA’s “Good Beer Guide” every year since 1992.
However, a piece in CAMRA’s Autumn 2022 magazine sparked considerable debate, leading one member, Tom Uprichard, to post on the organization’s Discourse website that the inn shouldn’t be proud of its name given the current evaluation of Britain’s behaviour at the height of its global Empire.
The 1825 conflict over Bhurtpore serves as a good illustration of how Britain believed it had the right to do whatever it pleased, wherever it pleased.
Why do bars exist here that essentially celebrate British atrocities?
You probably won’t find any beer halls in Germany that commemorate the Holocaust, I believe.
Ash Corbett-Collins, the national executive director, commented: “A pub’s name is not something that is established for all time. Numerous bars alter their names.
Charles Murray retaliated, saying, “Oh my, not again—another effort to obliterate history. Even if what occurred in the past would not be acceptable now, it was usual at that period.
“Sorry, guys, It’s only a moniker for what is a rare treasure of a bar,” Angela Lawron said. People from far afield come in droves to it.
The Stonegate Group, the biggest pub firm in the UK, was criticised by the community this year for changing The Black Boy Inn in Bewdley, Worcestershire, to The Bewdley Inn and for “giving into woke.”
The business, however, denied claims that the renaming was motivated by race and instead stated it was part of a corporate branding.
According to historians, King Charles II was known as the “black boy” because of his mother’s nicknaming him so because of his dark hair and skin.
Since the early 19th century, the structure, which has a history of approximately 600 years, has been known as The Black Boy Inn. The Blackamoors Head was its previous name.
The decision to rename the bar drew criticism from the community, who claimed that the title “Black Boy” is not discriminatory.
Locals are outraged, and one of them said on the pub’s Facebook page that “Perhaps we could refer to it as The Snowflake from now on if the name can be altered so simply.”
There are a few pubs with this name since the Midlands was a Royalist stronghold during the Civil War, according to Julia Tracey.
It’s a shame that the Charles II picture on the ancient pub sign of The Black Boy was removed since it makes an obvious allusion to the name of the establishment.
“I’ve gone in with my black friends and family a lot of times, and nobody has ever given a s*** about the name.”
The Black Boy has been there for as long as I can remember, and I used to work there, said Ruth Roberts. Political insanity
Rather of submitting to them, we should collectively take a stance against them.