In Berrow's Worcester Journal of May 1754, there was an appeal for a lost person, which mentions a tavern under the 'Sign of the Dog' outside the Turnpike Gates, which then stood at the bottom of Wheatsheaf Hill, at the junction of the London and Tewkesbury roads. It reads:
'Whereas Jean Andre, a short , thick, French woman, with a small pale face, a cast in one eye, supposed to be disordered in her mind, was miss'd by her Husband in the City, last Sunday morning about Ten o'clock, and has not since been heard of. Whoever will bring her back to her husband, Maxmillian Andre at the Sign of the Dog, without Sidbury Turnpike, Worcester, shall have 1/2 Guinea Reward, and all reasonable Expenses'.