Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on October 19, 2004 at 19:05:16 from 195.93.32.7 user ACB.
Earlier threads on the subject have indicated that there is but one pub in the British Isles named the Roaring Donkey, and it is in Holland-on-Sea, Essex - the suburb of Clacton-on-Sea nearest Frinton-on-Sea.
Finding myself in the vicinity, this afternoon, I called in (Greene King, IPA L2.00 per pint, interesting originals of "Punch" covers from the 1930's, but on the whole I prefer the Cherry Tree in Woodbridge) and asked about the name. Clearly, I was not the first, as I was directed to a board at the end of the bar, which states that the pub was originally called "The Princess Helena", but was re-named because a Mr Gould would pull up in his donkey cart for a pint each evening. As he settled down to his second pint, the donkey, seeing him through the window, would bray loudly until he gave up and went home. Locals started calling the pub "The Roaring Donkey" and the name was eventually changed by the brewers.
The inn sign was runner up in a national competition for "best inn sign", it seems. (For myself, I preferred the inn sign at the Lion's Den, Great Holland, two miles inland - a bespectacled lion, paws neatly folded, at a chessboard - but the Lion's Den is no longer a pub.)
Ransome connection - zilch.
Unless, of course, whilst living not terribly far away, and visiting Walton-on-Naze (nearby) to check a detail for SW, he drove past the pub, and later, writing BS, he remembered the name?