The Saracens Head, Symonds Yat (General)

by fredb , Friday, January 27, 2012, 11:16 (4687 days ago)

Here's something for any old foresters left with a good memory, this is me remembering some stories my dad told 25 years ago, ramblings but somebody might be able to add something. We are talking here about events that probably happened in the late 30's and into the 40's when my dad was working on the railway between Lydbrook Junction and Mayhill Monmouth.

While in the pub one summer evening my dad told me that his brothers and mates would walk via Hadnock to the Saracens on Sundays because Monmouth like the rest of Wales was "Dry" on the sabbath. He also told me you could only buy a drink at one end of the bar on Sundays because the county line cuts through the building. With the river being outside the door it's almost in 3 counties. My dad also told me that when he started drinking you could get as drunk as a lord for one shilling, cheap cider probably.

We walked out side and sat looking at the river and he told me two more tales. He pointed at the steps and said *name forgotten* whoever it was he died right there. He came along the road on his motorbike, came off and smashed his head on the wall and steps. He even told me the kind of motorbike he was riding, BSA?

The final story was about the landlord of the pub who also owned and operated the ferry outside. Late one night some local man had decided to take the ferry across the river himself, and being a bit drunk he'd fallen into the river. The landlord heard the cries for help and jumped from his bedroom window, down the steps where the motorbike rider died, across the road to the river bank where he had to drag the ferry back on the rope. And then as he pulled the boat out onto the river again he saw the drowning man go under for the last time, and when he reached the point where he sank the landlord reached over the side of the boat as deeply as he could and felt something but it wasn't a body. He gripped and pulled and found that what he had hold of was the long hair of the young man. Apparantly the man was known for his hair, and it saved his life. My dad named all of these people, the barman, the motorbike rider, the drowning man. cheers FB