Whatever happened to The Blue Boar, The Monument and The Marquis of Granby? Does anyone still remember Hampshire House, The Beehive, or The Dog and Duck? And what about The Blue Posts, The Talbot and The Good Intent?

The names are the giveaway, of course, for they were all watering holes - just a few of the dozens once dotted around Winchester. And if you think the city still has quite enough to get by, bear in mind that, a century ago, the thirsty traveller had 132 to pick from, plus a few hotels, taps and beer-houses.

Their story is told in Time Gentlemen, Please!, by Phil Yates, published to mark the 50th anniversary of The Winchester Preservation Trust, now The City of Winchester Trust.

A lifelong Wintonian - he will soon turn 80 - Mr Yates is well qualified for the task, though his interest has always been historical, rather than social. Few know the city better and though he may not have ventured into any or many of the above, he will be able to tell you in an instant where they were and what's there now.

In a way, his book is a requiem for a lost England. And sadly, the insidious process goes on, with an estimated six pubs closing across the nation every week. But it is also a celebration of what we still have and why our inn culture marks us out from every other country in the world.

Mr Yates thoughtfully divides his patch into sections and then takes us on a hypothetical "pub crawl" through its streets. The High Street, unsurprisingly, is especially rich.

Thus we find that, while we can no longer have a half in The White Horse - it closed way back in 1936 and is now Clarks shoe shop - we can still pop up an alley for a swift one in the Baker's Arms, or nip up another passage for a noggin in The Royal Oak, in what is claimed to be the oldest licensed bar in England.

Almost opposite stood The Dolphin, on the corner of St Thomas Street. Third pub of that name on the same site, the Mark III version was a custom-built, Tudor-style pub in the ownership of the Winchester Brewery. Opened in 1882, it closed for the last time in 1981 and is now Elvi, the ladies' dress shop. On a bit, at the corner of Staple Gardens, stood the Star Inn, which was knocked down in 1885 and rebuilt for the Chesil Brewery at the not inconsiderable cost of £2,448. It was rebadged as The Talbot in 1929 and acquired by Strong and Co, of Romsey. But it, too, fell by the wayside and is now an estate agent's.

A short walk further up was The Plume of Feathers, a famous Winchester pub, joined at the hip to the Westgate and known in a previous life as The Fighting Cocks. But its celebrity and popularity were not enough to save it in 1938, when it was demolished to make way for new county council offices.

Hard by stood the Westgate Hotel and Tavern, which existed from 1861 to 1893, when the name and licence was transferred to a private house on the corner of Upper High Street and Romsey Road. Its owners were Messrs Eldridge and Pope and it remained with them for the next century These are from a single section, but there are 15 others, each equally informative and fascinating. And they tell not just the potted history of the city's pubs, but a thick slice of its social, economic and architectural history.

With such a big sample and only 128 pages to fill, Mr Yates is necessarily limited in his scope, but he has a felicitous knack for giving us just enough information, lingering where he should and passing swiftly by elsewhere, for not every pub was worth a mention in dispatches, still less deserving of a visit.

Time Gentlemen, Please! is on sale at P&G Wells bookshop, College Street, the Heritage Centre, and certain pubs, price £9.95.

Kit Neilson