OTLEY Pub Club has a tradition of renaming all the pubs in town on special occasions – and they don’t come much more special than the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee!

So as their part of the celebrations to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s reign, they asked the people of Otley to suggest an appropriate name that each and every pub could adopt over the holiday weekend.

They received almost 200 suggestions, many of which were duplicated, some of which were humorous, like ‘The Merry House of Windsor, and ‘Lovely Jubilee’. Some also had a distinctly local flavour – like ‘Betty’s Tap Rooms’ and ‘Our Lizzie’! But the majority contained a reference to the Queen, the Monarch or the Sovereign, as well as Platinum or 70 or Jubilee. There were also a couple of dozen variations on the name Lilibet. In the end, the Otley Pub Club Committee created a shortlist of 23 names that included all their individual favourites, and asked the brand new mayor of Otley, Councillor Linda Hoare to pick the final name on behalf of the town.

All the names had been anonymised before the shortlist was created, to avoid any possible favouritism, and the final name chosen was The Jubilee Arms. Otley Pub Club will be contacting the person who suggested that name, to give them a small reward. All the banners have now been printed with the new name, and are being installed by Otley Pub Club this week. So at the weekend, why not go into town and raise a glass to Her Majesty at The Jubilee Arms?