It was a long, long time ago. Long before ID cards.

It was a rite of passage.

I’m referring to getting served in a pub under the age of 18.

I tried it a few times shortly after my 16th birthday but I was too baby-faced to pass myself off as an 18-year-old. The bar staff sussed me out straight away and I was sent back from the bar with my notes in hand to try elsewhere. And elsewhere and elsewhere as every attempt to get served ended in failure.

But I did manage it along with some schoolfriends when I was 17 in a pub called The Queen’s Head. I was an A-level student and we were allowed to wear our own clothes in the Sixth Form which helped to disguise our age. Either the bar staff took us for 18-year-olds or knew we were underage but didn’t care.

Then after I became 18 and the pursuit of being served lost its appeal once it was legal, I spent a couple of university Christmas/New Year holidays serving as a barman in a pub called The Golden Eagle. The pub later underwent a transformation and became “Goldies” with brightly-coloured lights and drinks to match but it’s still the traditional pub serving beers and spirits that I remember.

What’s prompted me to recall my underage drinking days (well, it was only a few occasions before I was 18) is the list of the most popular pub names in the UK compiled by CAMRA for its Good Beer Guide.

Neither ‘The Queen’s Head’ nor ‘The Golden Eagle’ are in the top three. Instead, the three most popular pub names are:

• Red Lion

• Royal Oak

• Crown Inn

They all have links to royalty with the Red Lion supposedly following an order from James I of England (James VI of Scotland) that the red lion be displayed on all important buildings – and that included pubs.

There’s regular publicity about the number of pubs closing each year and the changes in drinking habits in today’s society. But what’s less frequently reported is the loss of our historical links in pub names.

Pub names tell the story of our isles, the whims of royalty, divided loyalties, battles and wars, the coming of the railways, sports and pastimes, industry and endeavour.

Ringing a bell (I can recall drinking in pubs called the Five Bells, Six Bells and Eight Bells) and calling “Time Gentlemen Please” may be a quaint (and sexist) tradition in the era of late licences and a broader bar clientele but it always reminds me of the last-minute rush to get a round in before closing time.

If the rate of decline in pubs continues, then the link to the past will be lost. Something I might mention in the pub tonight.