PUB Sign Review THE Frigate Whitefield
by A North Manchester pub sign commemorating two famous warships.
PUB SIGN REVIEW – THE FRIGATE Whitefield
Pub location – Thatch Leach Lane Whitefield M45 6FW
The Frigate pub in Whitefield, North Manchester, close to Bury has two dramatic, though grossly inaccurately dated pub signs commemorating famous warships. H.M.S.Seahorse 1796 and H. M. S. Hedingham Castle 1943.
The histories of these two magnificent ships do not quite match the pub’s depiction of them.
H. M. S Seahorse was commissioned in 1748, and completed in 1749, launching at Sheerness. She sailed for Britain in the Mediterranean in her early years, patrolled the English Channel for a time and then sailed to North America in 1755, and later served in India too.
Her greatest claim to fame was the service of a young midshipman, called Horatio Nelson, in the future Admiral’s first naval service in 1773. Another young sailor, Troubridge served at this time and also became an admiral later in his career.
The ship fought in many battles, against Hyder Ali, in India in 1775, at Pondecherry in 1780, and twice at Sadras in 1782.
The Seahorse was decommissioned in 1784, becoming a merchant navy vessel, The Ravenscroft.
Of H. M. S. Hedingham Castle, two corvettes (not frigates) were built for service in World War Two – both in 1944, a year later the date given on the pub sign. The name was taken from a castle in Essex. One of the corvettes was renamed Orangeville and sold to the Royal Canadian navy. The other, originally to have been named Gorey Castle, after a castle of that name in Jersey, served to protect Atlantic convoys for the Allies from late 1944 onwards. The ship was broken up for scrap in 1958.
It’s wonderful that a pub commemorates our proud maritime history in its signage, but the level of inaccuracy here twice over is inexcusable.
Arthur Chappell
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