Following Kenilworth Nub News' story on the sale of the Tipperary Inn, we have taken a look back at the pub's most infamous piece of history - the song 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary'.

Then called 'The Plough Inn', the Meer End pub is said to have been the writing place of Jack Judge and Harry Williams, after the two met at the start of the twentieth century.

The pub was owned by Williams' family, and the pair were to said to have written a song called 'It's a Long Way to Connemara' there in 1909.

In fact, Williams and Judge reportedly wrote 32 songs together over 15 years.

Judge is said to have changed the name of the Connemara song in 1912. Whilst performing in Stalybridge, Cheshire he took a five shilling bet that he couldn't write a song in 24 hours. 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' was the new song title.

The song, which was originally a slow ballad, was released by producer Bert Feldman alongside a number of Williams-Judge tracks in 1912. However, Feldman released the track as a marching song, with the name changed again to 'It's a Long, Long way to Tipperary'.

The song quickly became a hit amongst soldiers fighting during the First World War.

The Daily Mail reported that the Connaught Rangers Irish Regiment had started singing Its a Long Way to Tipperary in the trenches as early as August 1914. The newspaper's report is said to have increased the circulation of the lyrics dramatically.

The song was then recorded by John McCormack later that year.

When Judge died in 1938 his obituary in the London Times read: "Its qualities soon made it into a marching song of the troops, and the combination of nonchalance and sentiment in the words reflected the emotions of the moment.

"Every one, even the tone-deaf, knew its refrain. But few could have named the composer."

Williams died at the age of 50 in 1928 and is now buried locally at Temple Balsall.

Other origin stories

Various accounts have been given for the history of the song.

A relative of Williams later claimed that Judge could not write music at all, and instead took advantage of her uncle's talents to steal the song for his own.

There is also much dispute around the 1912 changing of the name, with accounts in Stalybridge claiming that Judge took the bet honestly and did indeed write an original song overnight.

The Boston Daily Globe reported a story in 1917 that Alice Smyth Burton Jay was suing over the rites of the song, claiming to have first written a ballad 'I'm on my way to Yakima'. However the case was dismissed.

What is clear however is that music sheets of the time credited both writers with the song.