Introduction to the exhibition
Our village inn before 1950
To review the changes village inns have undergone in the past 100 years is to look at the history of rural life as a whole. As with all areas of country life, the character of village inns
has gone through various phases of change. Technological progress as well as both world wars have played a role in this, as did the start of tourism in the 1930s and the economic boom of the 1960s. The changes which took place during this time are most striking when the earliest pictures of village inns dating from the late 19th century are compared with today's country inns.
It is not obvious from a first glance at the oldest pictures from the 19th century, still showing farmhouses with manure heaps,
that the parlours have been turned into taprooms. Nowadays there is hardly any noticeable difference between a village inn and a town pub. Whereas the rare old photos of the interiors of village inns often show drinks such as cider, wine or home-made schnapps on the tables, today the products of the few remaining major breweries are found all over. Nowadays modern refrigerated counters are to be found, where drinks used to be cooled with blocks of ice, which were obtained from frozen lakes in the winter and stored in the cool of the cellar. Each photo will reveal minute details which are not obvious at first glance but are just waiting to be discovered.
The story of the development of village inns presents us with a condensed version of the
cultural transformation which effected villages as a whole. The changes to inns over the past hundred years are a parallel to changes to village life in general... progressing from the village inns of the late 19th century to today's country pubs.
The virtual exhibition can be started by clicking the signpost "to the exhibition". Minimum screen resolution is 600x800 pixels.
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