I'm puzzled that the Spanker Inn is in Derbyshire, since a spanker is something nautical (a kind of sail, I think) and few counties could be further from the sea (OK, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire - but it's still true that Derbyshire is not very nautical). Could it be that the term "spanker" here is related to corporal punishment?
If it were in, say, Essex, it would make much more sense. This county has a folk song with the words "Now I am a smacksman", this reportedly referring to a fishing smack. |