A Penny-farthing above the shop sign to Edward Moon, a long established 'award winning' English brasserie, on Chapel Street, Stratford-upon-Avon.
"Edward Moon was a travelling chef working in the British Colonial service in the early nineteen hundreds. Employed by governors and ambassadors around the globe he was famous as an eccentric capable of creating a culinary ‘Little England’ wherever he was posted. The banquets he cooked for, serving his traditional recipes and dishes became legendary amongst diplomatic circles.
Edward was also a creative cook, enthusiastic and excited by the local ingredients, cooking styles and methods he encountered on his exotic travels. He retired to England in 1940 and recorded his experiences, philosophy and recipes in a book ‘The Travelling Cook’s Companion’. It is the spirit described in this book that has helped inspire our restaurants.
Edward Moon is a long established award winning English brasserie with plenty of its own history, characteristic of Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare's country. Situated in Chapel Street, we are just a few metres from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Moons (as it is affectionately called by regulars) serve the best high quality food using local English ingredients, giving our diners a traditional experience to remember. The atmosphere at ‘Moons’ is relaxed and friendly, making it the ideal destination for leisurely lunches, intimate dinners and special occasions.
We strive to create the best possible experience for our customers by offering exceptional quality, service and value in our own authentic way. We look forward to exceeding your expectations sometime soon."
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"The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler and ordinary, was the first machine to be called a "bicycle". It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds (owing to it travelling a large distance for every rotation of the legs) and comfort (the large wheel provides greater shock absorption). It became obsolete from the late 1880s with the development of modern bicycles, which provided similar speed amplification via chain-driven gear trains and comfort through pneumatic tyres, and were marketed in comparison to penny-farthings as "safety bicycles" due to the reduced danger of falling and the reduced height to fall from.
The name came from the British penny and farthing coins, one much larger than the other, so that the side view resembles a penny leading a farthing. Although the name "penny-farthing" is now the most common, it was probably not used until the machines were nearly outdated; the first recorded print reference is from 1891 in Bicycling News. For most of their reign, they were simply known as "bicycles". In the late 1890s, the name "ordinary" began to be used, to distinguish them from the emerging safety bicycles; this term and "hi-wheel" (and variants) are preferred by many modern enthusiasts.
Following the popularity of the boneshaker, Eugène Meyer, a Frenchman, invented the high-wheeler bicycle design in 1869 and fashioned the wire-spoke tension wheel. Around 1870 English inventor James Starley, described as the father of the bicycle industry, and others, began producing bicycles based on the French boneshaker but with front wheels of increasing size, because larger front wheels, up to 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, enabled higher speeds on bicycles limited to direct drive. In 1878, Albert Pope began manufacturing the Columbia bicycle outside Boston, starting their two-decade heyday in America.
Although the trend was short-lived, the penny-farthing became a symbol of the late Victorian era. Its popularity also coincided with the birth of cycling as a sport."
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