A lovely little
village pub in the sleepy backwaters of Somerset,
with nothing but locals, and not much happening at
all. They seemed a little taken aback when I ordered
a beer, since we are deep into cider country here.
It would be true to say that there was more choice
of cider than of beer and it is not often we can say
that!
One question did
prey on my mind though: What exactly is a Knatchbull?
Research time! A search of dictionaries found 'Knatch'
under Old Norwegian, meaning 'A youthful bull', so
that is a strong contender. In another Scandinavian
language it is slang for 'hash'. But generally speaking,
I could find no confident claim on the correct meaning.
Well, courtesy
of a transatlantic telephone call, we solved it: It
is a family name. The Knatchbulls are of course a
well-known English blue-blood family on the Mountbatten
side, and have a substantial manor nearby. Norton
Knatchbull, Baron Romsey is actually 523rd in line
for the throne, though I doubt if he has contingency
plans just in case he is called upon. The Knatchbulls
are in politics and education and have eight other
family members on the long royal list.
Fourteen-year
old Nicholas Knatchbull and his Grandmother Doreen
Browne, were killed in the assassination of Lord Mountbatten
in 1979 along with a young local boy. Nicholas' twin
brother and his parents survived the bomb blast on
board Lord Mountbatten's boat.
The pub is 'at
least 500 years old' according to the landlord, and
one of its more proud moments was playing host to
the largest single gathering of American Generals
away from American soil. Shrouded in some secrecy,
Joseph Stillwell, Omar Bradley, Henry 'Hap' Arnold,
George Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur
and George C. Marshall all met and tipped a few in
the Knatchbull during World War II.
Another mystery
is the village name itself. I have found it referred
to Stoke Lane as well as Stoke St.Michael, and in
the map shown here, from the late 1890s, the village
is definitely labeled Stoke Lane. Equally clear from
the map though is the fact that the village is in
the parish of Stoke St.Michael, so at some point a
commonly-accepted transition to the longer name occurred.
