Pub Sign Photo Study The Waltzing Weasel Hayfield Derbyshire

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Birch Hall originally, home to the wealthy Needhams of Birch, Hayfield, before becoming a village inn but after at least a hundred years, the pub changed its name to the Waltzing Weasel in 1964. The pub was transformed into a bed and breakfast hotel in 2013. The sign looks like an illustration from Kenneth Graham’s The Wind In The Willows, with the smartly dressed Weasel playing a country fiddle, inspiring a hopefully merry dance. The Weasel is notorious in nature for beguiling its prey with strange erratic dancing that causes the prey to get curious enough to get closer for a better look, at which point the weasel pounces without warning to make its kill. The pub’s weasel promises similar merriment without the brutal ending to its promised entertainment. A colourful mischievous character for a colourful sign. Arthur Chappell