Abbey Foregate has always been the main road leading eastwards out of town and during its history over eighteen inns have lined the road to cater for the weary traveller. Some of these old hostelries still survive but others like the Star and Garter and the Angel have long since disappeared. Travelling out of town the Bull was the first inn, just beyond the railway bridge on the site now occupied by the kitchen shop belonging to David Hartills. It was first recorded in about 1780 and was owned for many years by Richard Taylor a wealthy maltster and a strong Tory. In 1841 Benjamin Disraeli, who later became Prime Minister, made a speech there when he successfully stood as the Conservative Candidate for the town. By 1900 Trouncer’s Brewery owned the inn, which at that time consisted of four private and three public rooms. There was accommodation for three people in two rooms and stabling for six horses. The inn was closed in 1937 when the licence was transferred to the Harlescott Hotel on the Whitchurch Road and the building demolished in 1967.
The Bull
The Bull is the square topped white building on the right. During the nineteenth century it was the meeting place of a convivial club, which was supposed to be non-political but all its members were Tories. The club’s motto was “Peace and Plenty” and the area around the inn at this time was known as the “Land of Goshen”.
The next inn is the Crown, which was first recorded as the Crow from 1780 until around 1861. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was a free house and belonged to the Everall family who were also the landlords. Up until the 1960s the inn was much smaller but was extended into the building on the left, which had been known as the Coleham Brush Factory.
The Crown
At this period the Crown only occupied the small white building, while the section to the left, which is now incorporated into the inn was still the Coleham Brush Factory.
On the bend of the road to the north of the Abbey stood the Park Hotel. It occupied a house dating back to 1510 and was once the town house of the Hills of Attingham. It took its name from the park set up in the grounds to the south and east of the Abbey Church after the monastery had been dissolved. It is thought for a short time it was called the Phoenix. The inn closed about 1960 and was transformed into the Labour Club until it was converted back to a private house in 2000.
The Park
The Park Hotel was first recorded in 1828 and was an inn for just over 150 years. It became the Labour Club around 1960.
Across the road on the site now occupied by Netto stood the Barley Mow. The inn dated from the early nineteenth century and was first known as the Lord Hill before changing its name in 1851. In 1868 the landlord was John Appleton who gave his name to a passageway that ran to the side of the building. In 1900 Mrs Appleton-Smith of Mountfields owned the inn, which was run by William Wood. It was delicensed in1925 and became a private house before being demolished with several other properties for the building of Safeway supermarket.
The most attractive public house in Abbey Foregate is the Dun Cow with its marvellous inn sign over the front door. It was first recorded in 1780 but its history as an inn dates further back than that as in 1689 a number of Dutch troopers were staying at the inn when one of them murdered the steward of Richard Prince in the kitchen of the Dun Cow. He was sentenced to hang but thought the penalty too harsh for killing just one Englishman! In 1900 the inn was owned by Richard Gwyn but run by Aaron Madeley. It had nine private and four public rooms and stabling at the rear for twenty-four horses.
The Dun Cow
The Dun Cow is seen here before its timber-frame was uncovered. The mild looking beast over the door is supposed to represent the rampaging animal killed by the Earl of Warwick at Dunsmore Heath.
On the left hand corner of Monkmoor Road stood the Angel. The inn was owned by the Abbey Church and was first recorded about 1780. In the second half of the nineteenth century when temperance and total abstinence societies were springing up all over the country many parishioners thought it wrong for the church to own a public house, even if they took no part in running it. At a very heated meeting a majority of the church authorities also thought it inappropriate that an inn should be housed in one of their properties and they closed it in 1883.
The Angel
The building on the corner of Monkmoor Road was the Angel. After it was de-licensed it was the home of Joseph Lewis Della Porta before being used by the Holy Cross Church Institute. It was later known as Monkmoor Lodge, a private hotel.
Towards the top of the Foregate there are four inns, two on either side of the road. The first is the Bricklayers Arms, which appears to have been listed over two different periods, first between 1780 until 1861 and again from 1879 to the present day. The old inn was replaced by the present building in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1900 the owner and landlord was Thomas Breeze and the old house contained five private and three public rooms. Across the road is the Bush, which was first recorded in 1780 but is much older as a record from the Abbey states that John Williams of the Bush was buried in the church in April 1742. The inn has also been known as the Old Bush and the Hawthorn Bush. In 1900 the owner was Thomas Cooper & Co. of Burton on Trent.
The rear of the Bush
This photograph was taken at the rear of the “Olde Bush”; note the writing on the wall top left. The soldier served in the Shropshire Yeomanry. In 1900 the inn had five private and four public rooms and stabling for eight horses.
On the corner of Abbey Foregate and Bell Lane is the Bell Inn, which has been regularly recorded from 1780 to the present day but is believed to be much older. In 1851 it was recorded as the Old Bell Inn and for over a century the Hughes family occupied it. In 1900 the inn was owned by Allsop & Co of Burton on Trent but the Landlord was Charles Hughes. At that time the inn had ten private and three public rooms with accommodation to sleep ten people in four bedrooms and stable ten horses. The Bell also had a quoits club, which was played in the garden. Almost opposite Bell Lane is the Lord Hill Hotel, the newest hostelry in the road. It was opened in November 1964 and named after Shropshire’s greatest soldier whose memorial stands at the top of the road. The building it occupies was once a private house, occupied by Thomas Southam.
Many of the inns that disappeared had only short lives and their sites are not easily located but among their number were the Black Lion, the Half Moon, the Hand and Pen and the Three Tuns.