Oldham Pub Sign Review The Friendship Inn Werneth

Oldham pub sign review – The Friendship Inn, Oldham Road, Oldham Werneth.

One of my favourite inn signs, as it is very mysterious and enigmatic. There are several friendship inns, as the name suggests a cheery welcome to all customers. A common sign design on Friendship inns is to depict a group of friends chatting and smiling in a lively pub, or a close up detail of hands shaking in greeting and friendship loyalty or binding contract. .

Not so with this sign – we have a man very much alone, with a dog close by, a mile-marker pointing out that he is far from home, pub and friends, and a lion in the distance watching him, representing danger and again, distance.

Here is the solitary adventurer feeling homesick, realizing what his old friends meant to him now that he is no longer near them, wondering if he will ever see them again.  There is hope, represented in the dog, and despair, as in the lion. The big cat seems to pose no direct immediate threat. It watches bemused, unsure itself who the man is or why he is so far from his own kind.

The sign has been allowed to fade somewhat – close up detail of the milestone sets the man’s distance from Oldham at a mere 31 miles,  at which he certainly wouldn’t be in the Serengheti or any part of Africa.

Arthur Chappell