This pub, near the Five Ways roundabout, has an unusual name. In the 20th century the owner, Mercedes Griffith, had a small cottage with a licence to sell beers and ales. She made many applications to be able to sell wines and spirits as well, but was always refused on the grounds that her premises were too small. Eventually she was able to buy the cottage next door, and so the ‘case was altered’, and she got her full licence. The road it stands in has also been renamed ‘Case Lane’ after the pub.
Other ‘The Case is Altered’ pubs
A search on the internet reveals that this name is not unique to this pub in Warwickshire, with various explanations for the name elsewhere (though usually involving a court case).
The pub sign
I am told that this used to show lawyers in their wigs, but has now been changed to the beer barrel shown in the photos.
Does anyone have a photo of the previous sign? If so please send it in and we’ll add it to this post.
This series of articles is inspired by the publication ‘Little Known Warwickshire’ based on talks given by A.W. Winterburn of Leamington Spa.
Comments
Certainly in 1976 the sign showed a bewigged lawyer presenting a legal document.That was when I had a pint there; the beer was in barrels on a shelf and delivered by Gravity. Inside was a wooden aircraft propellor that I wondered if it could be from the nearby Honiley airfield. One explanation for the name is that it refers to a new finish put on the outside of the building (the case being what encases something).
Close to where I grew up on the outskirts of north-west London we had a very smart Case is Altered PH perched on a hillside, that was allegedly an adaptation of Spanish Casa Alta (‘high house’).
My friends and I used to walk over the fields at Wroxall Abbey (when it was a school) in 1970s and there were twin ladies running the pub then. Yes we remember the wig on the sign! They knew we were from school but let us drink and smoke – the good old days!!!
Mercedes Griffith was my husband’s great aunt. The pub was owned by her in the 20th Century, not 19th as stated in article. Her DoB was 1893.
Mercedes Griffith (there is no S on the end of Griffith) was my grand father’s first wife. His name was Tom Leslie Griffith and they divorced in the 1920s but she continued to keep her married name of Griffith.
Many thanks Glenys for putting us right. I don’t suppose you have a photo of her that you could add to the article?
Mercedes is sat outside in the same position as the round table on the other photo. If you zoom in you can see the ‘ding’ in the brickwork by the window!
Many thanks Janet for the photo of Mercedes Griffith – it really brings history to life to see one of the characters involved.
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