Whitchuch Town Trail: High Street

Whitchurch High Street runs uphill from its Bull Ring junction with Green End and Watergate, following the line of the old Watling Street. This Roman road was built via Mediolanum (Whitchurch) to link Viroconium near Shrewsbury to Deva (modern Chester). At the summit stands St Alkmund’s Church where Church Road, Bargates and Yardington meet, with the Black Bear and the High Street Garage on either side.

The High Street, especially in a market town, has usually been the heart of a town’s commercial activity, developed over centuries since medieval times. A Market House, Market Cross or Market Hall often originally contained the buying and selling, but when a larger weekly, and even daily, market was officially authorised, High Street areas were designated for temporary stalls. In Whitchurch, the first Market House was built in 1638 at the Bull Ring, and additional stalls were permitted up the west side of the High Street as far as the church.

In time, temporary stalls became permanent shops. Ground-floor premises were rented from the craftsmen or tradesmen owners of frequently gable-ended thatched houses at the street end of the burgage plots. In Whitchurch, these plots had certainly been laid out by the mid-12th century. Some of their boundaries are still visible behind The Red Lyon Hotel and Bradbury’s on the west side of the street. Many existing buildings were extended forward from their original building line, making the previously wide High Street narrower as the shop fronts encroached.

Detailed regulations controlled issues such as where particular commodities should be sold, how the public thoroughfare would be kept open and clean, and how public safety, especially in the case of fire risks, would be protected. Whitchurch Manor Court published relevant laws in 1636 in a ‘Payne Book’, requiring, for example, every householder to ‘set at the door of his dwelling a pale of water for danger of fier upon payne of every default 12d.’

Expanding trade and increasing prosperity eventually rendered the Market House inadequate. A new Market Hall was built in 1718 on the corner of High Street and St Mary’s Street, a gift to the town from the Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Bridgwater. The ground floor, originally with open archways, held the market while the first floor housed the Manor Court, becoming in effect the Town Hall.

What else went on here?

The Poor Rate Valuation Book (1827) lists 127 High Street properties. Many are described simply as ‘House’, but there are noticeably fewer ‘House and Garden’ properties here than in most of the town’s other central streets. As expected of any High Street, there is plentiful evidence of a variety of commercial activities. In addition to 7 ‘Public House’, we find these property descriptions:

Workshop
Stable and Yard
Maltkiln
Printing Office
Shop
Slaughterhouse
Bakehouse
Mud-hole
Brewhouse
Bank
Warehouses
Gig-house
Coal Wharf
Weighing Machine
Smithy
Tanners Yard
Cowhouse
Counting House

Over 20 per cent more properties than in other streets were owner-occupied. Even so, in 1827 only 8 men between them owned half the High Street properties (63). Among them, John Welch owned 19, John Bradbury 11 and John Hassall 10.

The highest rateable values over £20 per annum were:

William Churton (owner-occupier) House, Garden, Stable & Workshop £30

Mrs Goodall (owner WH Watson, Esq) Red Lion Inn, Stables, Yard, Etc £28

Joseph Hassall (owner-occupier) House, tan yd. skn. pits, maltkiln, Etc £60

Thomas Joyce (owner-occupier) House, Garden, Stable, Maltkiln £22

John Morris (owner-occupier)House, Garden, Gig-house and Stable £23

Walmsley & Pearson (owner George Corser) House, Yard and Garden £23

Pubs Past and Present

Licenced premises appear under several different names, often related to particular historical periods and to their different functions. Whether called ale house, tavern, inn or hotel, there have been up to fourteen of what we mostly call pubs up and down Whitchurch High Street. There were seven listed in 1827. In 2006 there are three.

Historical documents have been rather imprecise about exactly where Bargates becomes the High Street. However, it appears that three inns, The King’s Head, The White Hart and The Lamb, have been located around this junction, none of them existing today.

The King’s Head: Appearing first in records of 1682, held by Joanne Symcocks. Last heard of when taken over in 1716 by W Mathers, a butcher.

The White Hart: Precise site not clear. Available evidence suggests it was near The Lamb at No 2, Bargates, and could easily have been its predecessor. Under the White Hart name, the inn’s first listed occupant is Hannah Owen in 1772. Eventually it passed to Will Butler in 1835, the year when The Lamb is first listed.

The Lamb: The Licensed Victualler’s Book of 1696 mentions that the building is ‘about 100 years old’, adding to the reasonable likelihood that it had formerly been the White Hart. Following Will Butler, Thomas Roberts occupied it until 1851, and the house appears to have been in more or less continuous occupancy until the early 1970s. It was demolished then for the Yardington road-widening scheme. 1896 accommodation listed 7 bedrooms and stabling for 40 horses (day) and 16 (night). Three Carrier services are listed in 1840, to Chester every Friday and Saturday and to Manchester every Friday.

The Black Bear (also known as the Bear’s Head Inn): Still in operation today, and much photographed, it occupies a superb corner position at the summit of the High Street, opposite St Alkmund’s Church. Examination of the timbers suggests a building date in the late 1660s.

- First owned by John Eddowes c.1670
- Up to 1720, it changed hands several times among members of the Payne family, one of the major Whitchurch innkeeper families. At one period, the keeping of pigs in the inn’s yard became something of a public nuisance in Church Lane.
- During the 18th century up to 1750 it had at least five occupiers, with mention of a Timber-yard and a Smithy at the rear of the building.
- No records for the second half of the 18th century until a 1797 Directory mentions J Florris as occupier.
- 19th century records show 8 successive occupiers, the last G Windsor in 1895. The Inn was refurbished during the late 19th century.
- 1896 accommodation: 6 bedrooms, stabling for 50 horses (day) and 32 (night). There were Carrier services for Manchester, Shrewsbury and Nantwich.

The Ring-O-Bells/Eight Bells: Earliest listing comes in the 1797 Directory with occupier Thomas Allison at Nos 34-35 High Street, then Samuel Brown 1822-51. There was considerable space at the rear, with cottages, workshops and stables apparently remaining in use for some years after the inn had ceased to function by 1861. The likely extent of this plot suggests that this may be the property owned by Joseph Hassall, valued at £60 per annum in the Poor Law Rate Valuation of 1827.

The Red Lyon/Victoria Hotel: In its day a renowned coaching and posting inn.

- Owned first c.1667 by landowner Mr Will Ffiges, licensee Thom Newton.
- Black circle behind the inn on the 1761 Town Map marks the location of the Cockpit.
- Wealthy 18th century innkeeper John Benson owned both The Angel and The Red Lyon at different times, owning also considerable acreage of local land and living c.1760 at Bark Hill House.
- During the final 30 years of the 18th century it changed hands frequently.
- John Willett, licensee during early 19th century, became bankrupt, and the inn passed into the hands of several mortgagees to keep it going.
- Fortunes improved during the 19th century. Name changed to The Victoria on accession of the young queen in 1837.
- 1896 accommodation: 14 bedrooms, stabling 100 horses (day), 40 (night).
- It still operates today, having reverted to The Red Lyon name. On the pavement outside is a red sandstone milestone inscribed “FROM Chester” but the distance [20 miles] is illegible.


Sign of the Old Crown/Crown and Mitre: Stood on the present site of Bradbury’s butchers shop: an extremely old inn, first recorded 1543, Thomas Wyn innkeeper. This family kept it until 1639. English traveller Celia Fiennes stayed here in 1698. Mentions in the documents continue intermittently during the 17th century. By 1725 licensee was G Jackson who petitioned the Steward of the Manor in 1726 over ‘the offensive stench and nauseous scents’ produced by the adjacent tallow-chandler Richard Roe. No stabling details are given until 1896 and very little other detail is available for most of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Coach and Horses: First record 1797, Peter Wright the occupier. In 1816 described as having four shops on the front, used by a barber, a flax-dresser, a cheese dealer and a butcher. Its final sale was probably in 1869 and it was demolished in 1872, the site becoming the new Market and Town Hall.

The Sign of the Swan: Another very old inn, its earliest traceable occupier is John Burghall in 1539, though the unravelling of later precise uses and ownerships is a complex business. The building referred to in numerous documents as The Swan Inn is the one now called The Old Shop, largely occupied by Walkers at 21-23 High Street. No 23 has been dated to c.1450, and the building to the south, Number 19, has also been considered part of the same overall property.

It appears that the property became four separate shops (one presumably the Inn) by the mid-17th century, two on either side of the narrow passage called Bluegates, one chamber of the building there forming the arch of Bluegates where it meets the High Street. During the later 18th century several financial arrangements came and went, the Inn held by two mortgagees in 1771. By 1774 all four parts of the property came under the single ownership of Peter Gregory.

The New Crown: Described as a long narrow inn, on the south section of today’s Woolworth’s site. First documentary mention: 1588, innkeeper William Paynter. Few 17th or 18th century details available; Mary Beard held it in 1680. The 1797 Directory shows it named The Crown, occupier Jane Evans. There were six occupiers through the 19th century.

The long rear yard with access to St Mary’s Street contained three cottages, used for trades such as ‘beer-retailer’ and ‘marine-stock dealer’ during the 19th century. 1896 accommodation: 8 bedrooms, stabling for 9 horses day and night. Shortly after the turn of the century the licence lapsed and the inn partly demolished in 1905.

Sign of the Half-Angel: Named after the early gold coin, a surrender document of 1633 exists but little else is known, including the site where the inn may have stood.

Sign of the Angel: Said to date from 1601, occupied part of the National Westminster Bank site. The first surrender is dated 1680. It certainly did not exist beyond 1800, disappearing from the records very suddenly, quite possibly on account of a fire. Owned by John Benson c.1763 but not listed in the 1797 Directory.

Sign of the George: Though demolished in 1878, it had been ‘one of the largest and oldest coaching and commercial inns in the town . . . may well have dated to c.1650 or earlier’. Located right at the southernmost end of the High Street, shown clearly on the 1761 Town Map.

- The Payne family involved for about 70 years through the 17th century.
- George Payne surrenders to David Spencer in 1732. The inn remains with that family until probably the 1780s.
- Ann Cross the occupier in 1796, then at least five different innkeepers during the 19th century, Charles Allen (1871) the last before demolition.
- Size and quality of the Inn indicated by this Auction report extract:

November 14th, 1798 – To Be Let – All that old established Inn in the High Street, Whitchurch, known as ‘The Sign of the George’ – consisting of 3
parlours, bar, kitchen, a dining room, with a number of excellent bedrooms on two floors and garrets over the same for servants. The outbuildings consist of an excellent newly-erected malt-kiln, a coach house and stabling for upwards
of 70 horses. The tenant may be accommodated with 20-30 acres of land.

Sign of the White Bear: Probably not much older than 200 years, despite the impression given by its black-and-white frontage. 18th century references mention both a bake-house and a butcher’s shop on the same site, butchery being the most frequent secondary occupation for innkeepers. First sale of the property recorded 1783. It changed hands nine times between 1802 and 1941. Accommodation in 1896: 6 bedrooms, stabling 22 horses (day), 11 (night). This pub gives signs of being one of the most flourishing in the town today.

Find out more about the High Street pubs
and the Whitchurch licenced trade in general from
RB James: Old Inns of Whitchurch (WHAG, 1997)

Shops and Trades

Recognisable shop premises probably first established here during the early 14th century. In addition to the street frontages of existing houses, small traders also operated from the yards beside or behind inns, or in their stables. There is very little evidence in Whitchurch of any street being devoted to a single trade, a frequent feature of the English medieval town. An obvious (later) exception is 15 shoemakers in Yardington during the late 19th century.

Apothecaries: originally trading in a variety of non-perishable goods including drugs, from late 17th century they prepared and sold medications exclusively. The Wicksteed family had their shop on Pepper Street’s (then Pepper Alley) northern corner with High Street around 1700.

Bakers and confectioners: Despite the central place of bread in our traditional diet, bakery was never a particularly popular occupation. The profit margin was low and, in any case, many people made their own bread. Early local bakers include Edward Poole in Pepper Alley (1673) and Thomas Weaver (c.1795).

- More recent High Street bakers:
WE Bright at No 9 (1822-88), Henry and Anne Phillips at No 3 (1836-91), William and Sarah Venables at No 58 (c.1840-1900), EJ Bailey at No 60 (1900-82) and J Walker at No 21 (from 1885).
- The Bright, Phillips and Venables families all followed their trade through several generations and many decades. At times they diversified into other trades in addition to bakery, with premises both in the High Street and elsewhere in Whitchurch.
- In 1903 the Venables business was bought by Ernest Bailey of No 60. When it closed down in 1982 ‘the same premises had been used for grocery and confectionery for 160 years’.

Butchers: Among the wealthiest tradesmen in any community, many owned land and a slaughterhouse, and a number were also active as innkeepers. There were 8 significant butchers in the town during the 17th century, 14 during the 18th and 17 during the 19th century.

- The Barrowe family had one of the earliest High Street butchers shops in 1659, their name still connected to the trade with a shop next door to The George 1722-50.
- The Bradbury family appears to be the longest established butchers in Whitchurch, referred to in a local document of late 18th century. John Bradbury’s name appears at No 51 in 1828. Later, Charles set up at No 7 during the 1880s. By the early 20th century, a branch of the family had set up Bradbury Bros, Butchers, moving into No 42 around 1928, where the firm still trades successfully today.
- No 31 has been a butchers shop for about 100 years, beginning with the Sharpes family who were engaged in the trade by 1885. WB Manley bought the business in 1928 and his family successors ran it until 1997.

Chandlers or Tallow-Chandlers: Candle-makers and retailers who often also sold many of the small domestic items traditionally found in a general hardware shop. Notable High Street chandlers include:

- The Roe (Rowe) family, more than once the subject of formal complaint during the 18th century over the appalling stink of their candle-producing process ‘by which the inhabitants are much annoyed’.
- William Woolrich with his ‘Chandle-house’ in High Street c.1800
- R and J Hassall 1826-56
- Ed and Richard Robinson (also grocers and ironmongers) at No 47-49 (1861-75)

Chemists or Druggists: Another commodity line often combined with the sale of groceries or ironmongery.

- Earliest mentioned G Caink of High Street, 1794
- 1st half 19th century: Aston Beckett, JH Evanson, R&J Hassall, Thomas Thelwall
- 2nd half 19th century: J Huxley, J Shone, W Brown, EH Gough
- L Rowland and Co (a Wrexham-based business) opened at No 52 in 1896. The owner’s son took over c.1916, moving to a larger shop at No 44 where they remained until c.1960.

Coopers: Makers of casks and barrels for both liquids (e.g beer) and dry goods (e.g cheese and other dairy products).

- R Gerrard, M Whittingham the earliest recorded 1810
- George Cook at No 23; Thomas Dawson at No 26
- Members of the Cooke family at The Old Shop (Nos 21-23) ran their business from c.1828 through to 1891
- John Robinson at No 26 c.1900

Drapers and Clothiers: (formerly Mercers, later also Hosiers or Tailors)

- No 5 High Street, ‘Liverpool House’: Anne Brookes (formerly Anne Corser, widow of Whitchurch grocer Ambrose Brookes) had this premises built in 1775, where George Corser traded during early 19th century, though declared bankrupt in 1823.

The Walmsley and Pearson partnership (‘Linen and Woollen Drapers’) thrived for over 60 years until William Pearson’s death in 1892. Followed by Belfield and Wisdon, then by J Dudleston and Son, opening 1901, with the slogan ‘Household Drapers – Unsurpassed for Quality and Cheapness’. The latter family business ran through the generations until closing during the1970s.
- Between 1822 and early 20th century, certainly 10 other linen drapers businesses in the High Street
- From the last years of the 19th century, drapery businesses were active in the High Street at Numbers 20-22, 24, 34 and 45, some until the mid-1960s
- Edward J Howell’s main business started around 1856 at No 22, known then as ‘The Cloth Hall’, later moved to No 45, with 8 men and two boys employed by 1881. Two sons took over in 1908 as Howell Bros, becoming a limited company after World War II. Ladies hairdressing was added in 1962. When the drapery business closed in 1987, the Howell family had been in that trade for some 130 years.

Shoe makers and retailers: There were 17 boot and/or shoe makers in Whitchurch in 1851, 10 in 1861 and 9 in 1888. Six shoe shops listed by 1900, up to 12 in 1937 (retailers only). Much of this business was concentrated in Green End but significant High Street names c.1860-1879 include Benjamin Penk; Edward Lewis Jnr at No 53; Richard Hewlett at No 64 and Thomas Greene at No 11.

- Thomas Greene died aged 80 in 1877, having been in the same trade for 55 years. In all, the Greene family made and sold footwear for about 83 years at No 11, and the shop at No 12 was a shoe shop for at least 100 years.
- Between 1875 and 1916 there were always two and frequently three shoe shops in the High Street
- In 1934 Underwoods at No 12 became The Public Benefit Boot Co., a short-lived venture replaced by Owens in 1936/7.

Grocers: Considered ‘the most successful of all trades, illustrated by the number listed [in Whitchurch] over the years, as follows:

1794/7 – 6-8
1840 – 13
1888 – 30
1895 – 14
1937 – 23 (RB James)

In the High Street alone, there were 3 in 1842-9; 7 in 1849-68; 7 in 1879-88; 7 in 1895. Notable names include the Overton family (located at No 40 in 1841) and William Ledsham at No 19 in 1872, later moved to other premises in the town.

Two Family Grocers

Edward Jones, High Street family grocers for four generations

- Edward Jones, born 1831, established grocery business at No 32 in 1858.
- Edward’s brother John David was father of composer Edward German, born 1862, at the pub now called The Old Town Hall Vaults, St Mary’s Street
- 1881 Census shows Edward and Mary’s family consisting of one daughter and two sons
- Son Edward takes over business in 1884, later having two sons Edward and Ernest
- Ernest, the third generation in the business, buys No 32a, former premises of the Whitchurch and Ellesmere Bank. The entire building is re-roofed and re-fronted in 1958-59.
- Ernest’s only son Norman becomes partner in 1960. As supermarkets take over their trade, the last private and independent grocery shop in Whitchurch eventually closes after 125 years of business by the same family at the same High Street address.

RD Edwards Ltd, ’The House of Quality’

- Robert D Edwards establishes the business in High Street in 1900
- Moves from original premises to No 9 in 1906/7
- Son Percy takes over 1923/4 until his death in 1940
- Percy’s sons Robert Henry and Cholmondley (‘Chummy’) continue until 1970
- Both brothers active in local Fire Service: Percy as Sub-Captain c.1926, Chummy as Fire Chief for many years following World War II.

Find out more about many of these trades, and several not included here, from RB James: Shops and Shopkeepers of Whitchurch (WHAG, 1998)

Listed Buildings

Southwest side: 4, 12, 14, 34, 36 and 38, 40 and 42, 42a and 44, 46 (Red Lyon), 56, 58 and 60, Milestone outside Red Lyon

Northeast side: 5 (Liverpool House), 9, Barclays Bank, 21 and 23 (The Old Shop), 25 (formerly also known as Lloyds Bank), 35 (including 35a, 35b), 37 and 39, 41-45, 49 (Black Bear)


Number 5 (Liverpool House)
Originally built as a house for Anne Brookes in 1775. Some of its commercial history is given in the Tradesmen and Shopkeepers section. Illustration No 27 in Whitchurch Remembered (Shropshire Libraries, 1980) shows Mr JK Dudleston standing outside his drapery shop, occupying the ground floor of this building in 1910.


Barclays Bank Chambers
Built of red brick on the corner of High Street and St Mary’s Street as the new Market House (ground floor) and Town Hall (upper storey) in 1718. Originally ‘the 3-bay round-arched arcade with stumpy Tuscan columns’ (English Heritage listing description) would have been open to the street, typical of most market halls of the period. The Midland Banking Company Limited took a lease of part of the ground floor in 1877, changing its name several times in subsequent years, becoming Barclays Bank Limited, following an amalgamation, in 1917.

Number 9
Early 19th century, red brick, built as house and shop, where Robert D Edwards first opened his family grocery business (‘The House of Quality’) in 1900.


Numbers 21 and 23 (The Old Shop or ‘Walker’s’)
Listed Grade II*, built as a house in late 15th century, with additions during late 16th/early 17th centuries. The second oldest High Street building after the High Street Garage, and the most complete late medieval building in Whitchurch. A relatively rare example of authentic timber-framed construction in the High Street.

Known earlier as ‘The Old Cooperage’ (See Whitchurch Remembered, illustration No 19, photograph c.1870). The photograph shows the two porterages, external shelves for porters to rest their loads when loading or unloading, on the pavement outside. No other examples were known in Shropshire, but they were removed c.1970. TC Duggan (1935) notes that No 21 is ‘occupied by Mr Wood as an Antique shop’. At the south edge of the building the alley called Bluegates meets the High Street.

The English Heritage (EH) report mentions ‘a series of coops’ in the attic, ‘probably formerly for the rearing and keeping of birds for cock-fighting’. Seeking to explain the L-shaped plan of the building, EH suggest ‘that the present hall range replaced a former open hall at the same time the cross wing was extended to the rear’. (See Madge Moran: Vernacular Buildings of Whitchurch and Area, Logaston Press, 1999 for more detailed treatment of the hall and cross wing). The EH report closes with the comment: ‘The present shop front to No 21 is a particularly fine and complete example of its type’.


Some of the social history of Walker’s from material researched by Joan Barton

- 1562 Inventory confirms the chamber over the Bluegates entry was then part of the property (now separate) and names the rooms: ‘Hawle, parler, chamber over the hawle, chamber over the gate, shop, chamber over the shop, chamber over the parler’. Value of contents £8.5s.10d

- Property recorded as ‘The Swan’ (Inn) during 17th to early 18th century, and this name is retained in all tenancy transfer documents between 1648 and 1774. Property probably divided into several tenements, with only part of it used as the inn.

- 1799 property insured with Salop Fire Office, whose firemarks are visible. By 1819 definitely two clearly separate premises, No 21 the huckster’s shop, No 23 the cooper’s shop (James Barlow, then John Cook 1825). Successive members of the Cook family continued the business right through the 19th century.

- No 21 had more variety of tenants. The bakery was established 1879 by Thomas Ankers, taken over by John Walker 1885. This family maintained the business, or control of it, until 1960 when bought by JW Absolon, master baker, whose family retired 1978. ‘The present owners, the Tiptons, have the distinction of being the last of the old established bakers and confectioners in the town’ (Joan Barton)


Number 25
Formerly Lloyds Bank, built as a red brick house in 1753. The date is shown on the rainwater drain head to the left of the frontage below the parapet. By 2001 the ground floor was occupied by a branch of Barlows Estate Agents.

TC Duggan notes:
Lloyds Banking Company Limited opened a Branch in High Street in September 1881. The premises occupied had been the Wine Vaults of Messrs. Jones and Boden. Mr John Roberts was the first Manager.

The Bank changed its name in 1884 to Lloyds Barnetts and Bosanquets Bank Ltd.,
and again in 1889 to its present name of Lloyds Bank Limited.

The clock at present in use in the office of Lloyds Bank is interesting as it came from the old Whitchurch and Ellesmere Bank and has some interesting information and drawings inside the case by Randolph Caldecott.

History of Whitchurch, Shropshire (1935)


Numbers 33 and 35 (including 35A and 35B)
Largely of the 19th century, it is thought that this pair of brick houses, now shop, has a 17th century core. Madge Moran (Vernacular Buildings . . .) comments on No 35: ‘At one time this building was the Ring-O-Bells Inn. The street frontage incorporates a fine set of cast-iron pillars made c.1900 by WH Smith of Whitchurch.’


Numbers 37 and 39
Pair of mid-17th century houses, now shops, with late 17th century addition. A rear wing at right angles to the main building ‘appears to incorporate former agricultural units and there is a hoist to what was perhaps a granary’, writes Mrs Moran, who also draws attention to the upper portion of a Jacobean staircase (not mentioned in EH’s listing report) with features similar to those of No 38 High Street, possibly made by the same carpenter. (See Whitchurch Remembered illustration No 21 for a drawing of the dog-leg staircase at No 38)


Numbers 41-45
Three mid- to late-17th century houses, now shops and flats. The EH description says: ‘This range might formerly have been one house, or it might be an early example of a planned terraced range incorporating living accommodation above ground-floor shops.’

Madge Moran observes that ‘The decorated timber-work is pseudo-framing applied to the genuine timber framing.’ No 41 has more early 17th century timber framing to front and rear walls internally than the other two. None of them possesses any of its original windows, but the position of their entrances appears to be unaltered. The four rectangular panels above the entrance to No 45 are genuine timber-framing.

The whole block of three properties has encroached onto the High Street since its original construction by at least ten feet from the earlier building line.


Number 49 (The Black Bear)
Timber-framed house, now pub, built late 16th/early 17th century. To its south stands No 47, a flat-roofed building that extends forward from the recessed portion of Black Bear. Mrs Moran comments: ‘it is the front of this recessed area which demarcates an earlier building line [over which Nos 41-47 have encroached].’


Number 4
Early 18th century red brick house, now shop, with a pair of large boxed dormer windows. To the left of the frontage at first floor level is fixed the cast-iron street-name plate (HIGH STREET).


Number 12
Early to mid-18th century red brick house, now shop, with slate mansard roof, pair of small dormers with segmental pediments. The interior was altered c.1840.

Number 34 (formerly well-known as ‘Bradley’s’)
Early to mid-18th century red brick house. Inside an 18th century post-1720 dog-leg staircase, though the ground floor to first floor section has been removed. The house has also been known as The Steward’s House, believed to have been the home of the Steward to the Lord of the Manor of Whitchurch, the Duke of Bridgwater.

Numbers 36 and 38
Once the Express Café, built as a house in brick with probably some timber framing, dated 1677 (datestone at rear). Details of the fine oak dog-leg staircase (flight from ground floor removed c.1900) and of the two fireplaces on the first floor ‘suggest a date of c.1670-80’ (Madge Moran). EH comment: ‘Although the façade of the range has been altered, probably in the late 18th century, the heavy moulded string course and cornice probably date from the 17th century, suggesting that the building has always been of brick construction, perhaps with timber-framed internal walls only.’ Mrs Moran detects evidence at the rear of incorporation of a former agricultural building.

Numbers 40 and 42
Originally a shop and hotel, now two shops. The site had been used as a factory for JB Joyce’s clock-making business between the 1780s and 1904. When Joyce removed to new premises in Station Road in 1904, the site was acquired by ironmonger WC Birchall. He redeveloped it, commissioning local architect William Webb to design the present building.

Birchalls first occupied No 42, then moved into No 40, while No 42 became the Alexandra Temperance Hotel, now Bradbury Bros. At the rear, through the archway, were the Alexandra Stables, owned by Tom Edwards, with accommodation for 100 horses. The most notable feature, unique in Shropshire, is the cast-iron façade across both frontages, cast by McFarlane’s of Glasgow. (See Whitchurch Remembered, illustrations 13 and 14)

Numbers 42A and 44
Built as a 5-bay brick house in early 18th century, now shops and flats.

Number 46 (Red Lyon Hotel, for some time Victoria Hotel)
First inn on this site mentioned in 1662, its first owner Mr Will Ffiges in 1667. Most of the present building constructed in early 19th century. Name changed to ‘Victoria’ in 1837. Capable of accommodating 100 horses by day in late 19th century, one of the premier coaching inns in the town, with daily coach services to Chester, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Liverpool. (Go to High Street Pubs, past and present, for more details). The 1761 Town Map clearly shows the Cock-pit behind the inn. A late 18th century milestone (inscribed ”FROM Chester”) stands on the pavement outside.

Number 56
Early- to mid-18th century red brick house, now shop, with a Sun fire insurance plate at first floor level. Inside, according to the EH listing report, an 18th century post-1720 dog-leg staircase with ground floor section removed.

Numbers 58 and 60
Pair of houses, now shops, early 19th century probably on a 17th century core. Madge Moran’s study reveals:

- No 60 occupies slightly less than half the plot of land between Jones’s Yard and Barlow’s Yard. The larger portion is occupied by No 58 which extends over Jones’s Yard.
- No 60 contains timbers of medieval appearance
- Stencilled wall decorations in the attic room dated probably 1740-50
- In late 19th century Nos 58 and 60 were a single property. Strong similarities are noted between Nos 60, 21 and 23 High Street and High Street Garage. Dating techniques suggest original building somewhere between 1563 and 1597. ‘With the other two High Street properties taken into consideration, it seems that in Whitchurch the medieval house-plan, with variations, persisted into the latter half of the 16th century.’
- In 1903 EJ Bailey bought the property, and had divided it into two units by 1909. No 60 became his bakery and he leased No 58 to Alfred Hendrick, watchmaker and jeweller. Both units sold 1983, resold 1985, and are now in separate ownerships.