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| Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn and Pub |
One of the most common observations Americans make when they first visit Europe is just how old things can be in Europe. They don’t call it the old country without good reason, and one of the ways Europeans love to take advantage of being the old country is to stake a claim to being the oldest _ in _. For example, the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn (pub, really) is the oldest Inn in England.
Wait, I thought the pub we visited in Manchester was the oldest? Or maybe just its building was the oldest? Or was it that they served the oldest aged beef? Perhaps Ye Olde etc. etc. is the oldest “pub” that calls itself an “inn”? Well, the nuances of what make either the “oldest” escapes me now.
According to wikipedia, at least 19 other pubs in England claim to be the oldest in England. I think the claims get lost somewhere in those details. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem might be the oldest continually operating, while the pub in Manchester might be in the oldest building. Yet another might be the oldest using the same name. Whatever. Do they serve beer? If yes, then all’s good.
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem has a few really interesting qualities, in addition to it’s great name. I had assumed, being built in 1189 as they claim, it referred to English knights trooping off to the crusades. But according to their website it means more of a stopover on the way to Jerusalem, which seems to me a typical English tongue-in-cheek allegory to beer detouring the common man’s quest for holiness. It’s also built on a spot so as to cover the caves that worm through the hill next door, upon which Nottingham Castle sits. Those caves have been put to excellent use at both ends, as a dungeon and escape route from the castle above, to a brewery and now the coolest pub drinking room in the Northern Hemisphere down below.
But wait, there’s more! Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem is also the home of the famous “pregnancy chair”, an antique chair that is said to increase the chances of pregnancy for any woman who sits on it. Somewhere between “eww” and the thousands of women who’ve plunked down on it, the chair has gotten too rickety and it’s now on display in an upper room, so unless you’ve got some Ye Olde connections, don’t plan a trip to Nottingham to get pregnant. At least not via the pregnancy chair.
