Quarterbridge / Brown Bobby - name origins

[Rushen Spy 1,141]

According to Wikipedia:

The Quarterbridge forms the boundary between the quarterlands of Ballabrooie and Ballaquayle. A quarterland is an old land division in the Isle of Man, which includes a farmstead or Kerroo within the quarterland. In this system four of these divisions became a treen and land rights were entrusted to a landholder, who in turn cultivated one of the quarterlands. The three other quarterlands were rented to freemen paying dues in the form of rents, produce, parish services including the maintenance of a small church or keeil within the treen.

Cool. You learn something new every day. Now, my question is, does anybody know the origins of the name for the old Brown Bobby public house?

Thanks

[Rog 1,658]

2 hours ago, Rushen Spy said:

According to Wikipedia:

The Quarterbridge forms the boundary between the quarterlands of Ballabrooie and Ballaquayle. A quarterland is an old land division in the Isle of Man, which includes a farmstead or Kerroo within the quarterland. In this system four of these divisions became a treen and land rights were entrusted to a landholder, who in turn cultivated one of the quarterlands. The three other quarterlands were rented to freemen paying dues in the form of rents, produce, parish services including the maintenance of a small church or keeil within the treen.

Cool. You learn something new every day. Now, my question is, does anybody know the origins of the name for the old Brown Bobby public house?

Thanks

First run by a retired Rastafarian copper?

[John Wright 7,966]

The wiki explanation of treens and quarterlands is off. But it is correct that quarterbridge is at the quarterland boundary.

Brown Bobby was a horse, brown, called Bobby, who was kept there, possibly before it was a pub.

It was the traditional stopping point for pall bearers bringing a coffin from Douglas to Old Kirk Braddan, they would have a pint after the exertions of Peel Road, and the coffin was transferred onto a cart. 

[The Phantom 178]

2 hours ago, Rushen Spy said:

According to Wikipedia:

The Quarterbridge forms the boundary between the quarterlands of Ballabrooie and Ballaquayle. A quarterland is an old land division in the Isle of Man, which includes a farmstead or Kerroo within the quarterland. In this system four of these divisions became a treen and land rights were entrusted to a landholder, who in turn cultivated one of the quarterlands. The three other quarterlands were rented to freemen paying dues in the form of rents, produce, parish services including the maintenance of a small church or keeil within the treen.

Cool. You learn something new every day. Now, my question is, does anybody know the origins of the name for the old Brown Bobby public house?

Thanks

I'd always just assumed it was 'Quarterbridge' because there's 4 main roads meeting on a bridge .... 

[Rushen Spy 1,141]

28 minutes ago, John Wright said:

It was the traditional stopping point for pall bearers bringing a coffin from Douglas to Old Kirk Braddan

Is this because they couldn't afford a horse and cart or was that not allowed for religious reasons?

[studmuffin 33]

Should have a nostalgia subsection on the forums.  I love all of the tidbits you come across on here, Facey and others and it'd be good to store them in one place.

[John Wright 7,966]

2 hours ago, Rushen Spy said:

Is this because they couldn't afford a horse and cart or was that not allowed for religious reasons?

Tradition, coffins were carried by pall bearers, free. Douglas was a tiny village, it was a long way to the nearest burial ground, Onchan or Old Kirk Braddan. A cortège with a hearse, or just a cart, cost. 

Its a long way up hill, either end, out of Douglas. You’d be knackered having walked from the Fairy Ground to Brown Bobby. You’d need refreshment. You might not be too steady on your pins for carrying after a couple of pints. ( Beer was between 6-8%)

[Barrie Stevens 1,193]

6 hours ago, Rushen Spy said:

According to Wikipedia:

The Quarterbridge forms the boundary between the quarterlands of Ballabrooie and Ballaquayle. A quarterland is an old land division in the Isle of Man, which includes a farmstead or Kerroo within the quarterland. In this system four of these divisions became a treen and land rights were entrusted to a landholder, who in turn cultivated one of the quarterlands. The three other quarterlands were rented to freemen paying dues in the form of rents, produce, parish services including the maintenance of a small church or keeil within the treen.

Cool. You learn something new every day. Now, my question is, does anybody know the origins of the name for the old Brown Bobby public house?

Thanks

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bobby+calf&view=detail&mid=19B9F35835DBFF4F702519B9F35835DBFF4F7025&FORM=VIRE

A Bobby is a male calf usually slaughtered a week old. The old pub had a sign depicting  a brown Bobby calf hence The Brown Bobby....Quarters were an old land measure and it can be found to this day in parts of the USA. As I recall in the movie Junior Bonner the Steve McQueen character refers to his father's land being sold saying that there must be two quarters up there....The movie was set in Arizona..Click the link for Bobby calves...

[Albert Tatlock 11,319]

7 hours ago, Rushen Spy said:

Now, my question is, does anybody know the origins of the name for the old Brown Bobby public house?

From the manxnotebook...thanks Frances!

"The earliest mention of the BROWN BOBBY which I have found is in 1837, but it was probably in existence long before that date. Photographs, taken many years ago, show it to have been a low, whitewashed cottage with a steeply sloping roof of tiny slates. It is said — with what truth I know not — to have obtained its name from the fact that a well-known brown hunter of the name of Bobby was once stabled there, and it stood a petrol station which has taken its name now marks the spot — at the junction of Peel Road and Circular Road."

[John Wright 7,966]

1 hour ago, Barrie Stevens said:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bobby+calf&view=detail&mid=19B9F35835DBFF4F702519B9F35835DBFF4F7025&FORM=VIRE

A Bobby is a male calf usually slaughtered a week old. The old pub had a sign depicting  a brown Bobby calf hence The Brown Bobby....Quarters were an old land measure and it can be found to this day in parts of the USA. As I recall in the movie Junior Bonner the Steve McQueen character refers to his father's land being sold saying that there must be two quarters up there....The movie was set in Arizona..Click the link for Bobby calves...

What were you doing, and when, on IoM to see the Brown Bobby pub sign?

[quilp 10,522]

Interesting history. A couple of images from the time...

[John Wright 7,966]

4 hours ago, studmuffin said:

Should have a nostalgia subsection on the forums.  I love all of the tidbits you come across on here, Facey and others and it'd be good to store them in one place.

They are, in Frances Coakleys Manx Notebook. An invaluable resource.

[Barrie Stevens 1,193]

1 hour ago, John Wright said:

What were you doing, and when, on IoM to see the Brown Bobby pub sign?

I made no claim to have seen the Brown Bobby inn sign....

[John Wright 7,966]

Just now, Barrie Stevens said:

I made no claim to have seen the Brown Bobby inn sign....

You describe it. How?

[Barrie Stevens 1,193]

4 hours ago, John Wright said:

You describe it. How?

I have not described it.