The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Eagle and Child, Fleet Street

This name is a reference to the arms of the Earls of Derby, the Stanleys. The story goes that Sir Thomas Latham in the fourteenth century had an illegitimate son. He had the child placed under a tree in which an eagle had built its nest. He then took his wife for a walk round the estate and they 'discovered' the infant. Sir Thomas persuaded his wife that they should adopt it. In spite of this successful ruse he left most of his riches to his daughter, Isobel, who married Sir John Stanley. In this way the Stanleys inherited both the estates and the heraldic eagle and child. In 1756 ten soldiers were billeted here and in the 3rd July 1780 issue of Jopson's Coventry Mercury the pub is advertised for sale. Fleet Street from Spon Street c1910