READERS are being asked to decide on the name of a new £2.6 million pub and hotel.

The JD Wetherspoon pub is set to open in Dovercourt next year.

Consulting with local historians, the company has drawn up a shortlist of three possible names.

The shortlist includes The London Tavern, The Wheatsheaf and The Bottle Kiln.

The Co-op’s wheatsheaf logo featured prominently on its national newspapers and monthly magazine.

In Harwich, the Wheatsheaf was a well-known public house.

Formerly the new London Tavern, the pub was bought by the Harwich and Dovercourt Industrial Co-operative Society and, in 1922, renamed The Wheatsheaf.

In 1976, it was renamed The Stingray.

The pub could also be named The Bottle Kiln due to its location.

The unde veloped area adjacent to the former Co-op store is the uneven remains of a brickfield.

Bricks made from locally extracted septaria stone were used by the Romans to build Colchester Castle.

During the 19th century, brick and cement manufacture was a major local employer.

By 1881, a mill owned by John Patrick, one-time Mayor of Harwich, consisted of 12 cement kilns and drying flue.

The site also included 14 distinctive bottle kilns.

To vote, e-mail your favourite choice to hms.news@nqe.com by October 26.