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ON THE TRAIL OF THE FROTHBLOWERS 19TH October 2006 It’s nearly time to leave work, but I’m hot on the trail. I have downloaded the list of Vats from the site, and extracted 146 that were in what is now Greater London. My Mission – to visit all of them with a view to finding any AOFB memorabilia – or perhaps more! My first visit is to a pub called The Devereux in Devereux Court, once the Vat of Blower Salmon at “Devereux Restaurant”. Due to bomb damage this area has been remodelled a little, and I am assuming that Devereux Restaurant is the once separate 1st floor. No sign on AOFB, but I’ll be back – I drink here regularly anyway. Next I go to the Old Cheshire Cheese, just down the road. There is no sign or memory of the AOFB here, but then the pub is in the wrong street. It looks 1950s in style, and again I assume that the bomb that took out St Clements Dane in WWII was responsible, the Vat address is in Surrey Street, one street along from the new location. More luck at Rules, the address of Maiden Vat. One of the first Vats listed, it turns out that Rules is a restaurant dating back a century or more. Blaster Bell turns out to be Tom Bell, who was the owner during the period the AOFB was active. His name and ownership dates are on a plaque within the restaurant. Gow’s Vat gave an address of 357 Strand, which is now an office block which used to be a Barclay’s Bank. No trace is going to remain. The Garden Vat looks promising, but I arrived at a time on Friday evening when the Nag’s Head is packed and couldn’t talk to staff- looked around the Victorian pub itself and couldn’t see anything though. Finally, assuming that the Griffin Vat was at a pub called the Griffin, or even a restaurant, no trace remains in Villiers Street. So, six down, one hundred and forty to go, though I can also eliminate Maskelyne’s Magician’s Vat, since I know that no trace remains of the once famous “Egyptian Hall”, but I might tootle around there soon anyway, there are loads of other Vats that were in the area.

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I've just been checking the list of Vats, and it would appear that one Blower became very famous indeed - J Maskelyne of Magicians Vat must be Jasper Maskelyne, the head of the WWII "Magic Gang" responsible for such feats as "making Alexandria disappear" - when he arranged for Alexandria to be blacked out and a replica of its lights to be placed three miles to the East, fooling German bombers into wasting their bombs on a desert. Google and ye shall find. I'm now beginning what will be a long pub crawl to see if there is any AOFB material left in the (3 pages-worth of) pubs listed in London.# Steve Wilson

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I have been investigating the AOFB as part of general research for some years. In 2001 an old member contacted the Charity Commission looking for other old members and we started from there, though I had heard of them before. In 2004 in a general discussion on Ancient Orders I posited that the AOFB, rather than the Masons, secretly ran the worls and delighted an audience by reading out the conditions attached to the Frothblowers' Insurance Policy, including the one saying that they do not insure Bitsers: "Bitser Tin Bitser board Nailed together Make a Ford". More seriously, you may be interested to know that there is still land in West Wickham in the London Borough of Bromley that is owned by the AOFB and used by Scouts and Guides. A revival has been mooted in London, it may yet happen. Steve Wilson

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Awesome site! Anceint Hawaiians love it!

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Hey, nice site. Just dropped by to say hi. Hope things are going well for you. Long time no talk, buddy :) Take care and look here fancy project .

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Sterling silver cigarette box with AOFB enamelled in blue on raised silver H verticals. Any ideas - belonged to my grandfather?

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My dear grandfather Robert Raikes gave me his AOFB cufflinks when I was 16 (in the early 70's) and needed a pair of cufflinks for my uniform shirt. (I don't think the nuns ever realized what they were or they would have been summarily removed!) He did tell me about the Ancient Order of Froth Blowers, and I still have those treasured cufflinks. Granddad died (aged nearly 98) a bit over 10 years ago, so I don't think the beer harmed him at all!