Pub signs inspire new stamp series

The great British tradition of painted pub signs is the inspiration for a new series of Royal Mail stamps launched this week. It is the first time the art form has featured on stamps, which Royal Mail chose for "giving a fascinating and colourful insight into the British way of life". The five stamps feature the Station, the Black Swan, the Cross Keys, the Mayflower and the Barley Sheaf, and are based on designs from real pub signs. They are meant to represent how pubs have touched people's lives over the centuries ­ the Barley Sheaf, for example, was a place for farmers to gather and the Station reflects pubs as a refuge for thirsty travellers. The series also celebrates the painters who created the signs, including George MacKenney, who painted more than 6,000 Cross Keys signs, many of them for Bedford brewer Charles Wells. Royal Mail spokesman Patrick Breen said: "Pub signs are similar to special stamps in that they are not only beautiful to look at, but possess an interesting history." Pub sign facts

Queen Victoria banned the use of portraits of living members of the royal family in advertising, a ban that still embraces inn signs.

Many great coaching inns were immortalised by Dickens in The Pickwick Papers ­ among them the Bull in Rochester, Kent and the Great White Horse in Ipswich.

The Romans identified wine shops by hanging bunches of ivy outside. Medieval alehouses were identified by a bush, or ale-stake ­ a pole decorated with foliage.