The Blue Monkey

Although the public house has now been knocked down, the area near to the Higher St Budeaux Church will probably always be known as the Blue Monkey. It had previously been called Church Inn, St Bude Inn, St Budeaux Inn and Ye Old St Budeaux Inn before becoming the Blue Monkey. The owner of the Church Inn was a Lord Graves who owned the Barton of Ernesettle in 1798. He was also Lord of the Manor of Agaton. Frances Martin is recorded as being the landlord of the pub in 1823. He was responsible for changing the pub's name to the St Bude Inn, in 1828. In 1862,the War Department bought the then named St Budeaux Inn. In 1914, the Secretary of State for the Department sold the premises, which included a stables, to James Alger for £1,050. Alger changed the name of the pub to Ye Old St Budeaux Inn on 4 May 1937. He later changed the name again to The Blue Monkey early in 1939 and later sold the Inn to the Octagon Brewery in December 1939 for £12,750. A newspaper cutting that used to hang in the bar said that a Mr Dunsford, the then landlord, changed the name to the Blue Monkey when the Stafford Regiment was stationed at Devonport. However, the deeds say that the name was changed in 1939 by James Algar. The reason, according to locals, was that Algar had seen a monkey which had escaped from a shed at Agaton on the roof of the Inn. Apparently, the change of name and the swinging monkey sign wasn't popular, even though it's the one best remembered, so it was replaced by a square sign , featuring a Naval Blue Monkey Boy, in honour of the boys who packed the guns with powder during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. They were known as powder monkeys and the job left them with blue residue on their hands and this has also been taken as the origin of the pub's name, The Blue Monkey. Perhaps both stories are true and it would be interesting to think that a monkey once ran around on the roof of the Inn. Incidently, before the sign change, in the early 1980s, I was walking by the Inn and there was the swinging monkey sign, slightly battered and put out for the dustbin men to collect. I wish I'd picked it up and kept it as a souvenir now! I wonder if it still exists somewhere? In its final years, the Inn developed a bad reputation and finally closed and was eventually bricked up. It was for sale for many years before an arson attack destroyed the inside and the roof. From then on, its days were numbered and early in March 2007, it was unfortunately demolished.